Three wins from three starts has increased Scott McLaughlin’s lead in the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship after Races 16,17 & 18 in Darwin.
“We’ve made an absolute jet out of this car; we’ve been working on it all week,” commented McLaughlin. “Having back-to-back rounds has been good. Being able to come back to the track and go on a track walk with Ludo (McLaughlin’s engineer) was a good opportunity for him to really understand what I wanted from the car. And today, that is exactly what he gave me.”
McLaughlin leads the championship from Jamie Whincup by 177 points with Shane van Gisbergen a further 168 points back.
Having won Saturday’s opening race, McLaughlin led Race 17 on Sunday from start to finish claiming his 50th Supercars race win. Second home was van Gisbergen followed by Scott Pye.
“Darwin treated us a little better today,” said van Gisbergen. “We had an engine change overnight and a big re-think of our race setup and the car overall was pretty good. I really have to thank the crew, they put in a big effort changing the motor last night and Shippy (Grant McPherson, #97 race engineer) for his efforts.
“We managed to get a pole this morning which was awesome, my first for a while. We just had to go back to basics and the car was awesome right from the start which helped, and I felt much more comfortable compared to yesterday.
“The two races were ok for me, managing a second and a fifth. We had a big battle in the last race with Frosty (Mark Winterbottom) which was cool, but I didn’t quite get on the right side of it. We’ll pack up, get out of this heat and look forward to Townsville.”
In race 18 McLaughlin again took control from the start line with Nick Percat coming home second ahead of Scott Pye.
“I have worked hard on my starts – I’ve got a really nice procedure and I feel for the bite point now,” said McLaughlin. “When I first started I was pretty average and stalled it a lot, but I’ve worked on it and it’s a confidence thing. That last start was the best start of the weekend for me.”
The championship continues next weekend with the first of two consecutive events in Townsville.
Drivers’ championship Points Table
Pos | Driver | Pts |
1 | Scott McLaughlin | 1324 |
2 | Jamie Whincup | 1147 |
3 | Shane van Gisbergen | 979 |
4 | Chaz Mostert | 972 |
5 | Nick Percat | 915 |
6 | Cameron Waters | 893 |
7 | Mark Winterbottom | 890 |
8 | David Reynolds | 872 |
9 | Fabian Coulthard | 862 |
10 | Lee Holdsworth | 845 |
11 | Anton De Pasquale | 759 |
12 | Andre Heimgartner | 750 |
13 | James Courtney | 714 |
14 | Scott Pye | 704 |
15 | Jack Le Brocq | 652 |
16 | Rick Kelly | 648 |
17 | Todd Hazelwood | 643 |
18 | Bryce Fullwood | 564 |
19 | Jack Smith | 476 |
20 | Macauley Jones | 466 |
21 | Garry Jacobson | 449 |
22 | Chris Pither | 408 |
23 | Alex Davison | 334 |
24 | Zane Goddard | 288 |
25 | Will Davison | 231 |
26 | Jake Kostecki | 142 |
Race 17 Results
Class. | Driver | Gap |
1 | Scott McLaughlin | |
2 | Shane van Gisbergen | 9.687 |
3 | Scott Pye | 9.932 |
4 | Fabian Coulthard | 15.279 |
5 | Cameron Waters | 21.390 |
6 | Jamie Whincup | 22.449 |
7 | James Courtney | 27.983 |
8 | Lee Holdsworth | 29.425 |
9 | Mark Winterbottom | 30.730 |
10 | Anton De Pasquale | 31.168 |
11 | Andre Heimgartner | 32.035 |
12 | Rick Kelly | 34.882 |
13 | Nick Percat | 37.312 |
14 | Jack Le Brocq | 37.736 |
15 | Todd Hazelwood | 39.918 |
16 | David Reynolds | 40.283 |
17 | Bryce Fullwood | 40.983 |
18 | Chaz Mostert | 41.697 |
19 | Jack Smith | 46.627 |
20 | Chris Pither | 48.819 |
21 | Zane Goddard | 49.717 |
22 | Alex Davison | 54.765 |
23 | Macauley Jones | 59.004 |
24 | Garry Jacobson | 1’13.494 |
Race 18 Results
Class. | Driver | Gap |
1 | Scott McLaughlin | |
2 | Nick Percat | 13.835 |
3 | Scott Pye | 14.817 |
4 | Mark Winterbottom | 16.423 |
5 | Shane van Gisbergen | 18.367 |
6 | Chaz Mostert | 19.622 |
7 | Jamie Whincup | 19.966 |
8 | Andre Heimgartner | 20.299 |
9 | Anton De Pasquale | 20.847 |
10 | David Reynolds | 24.888 |
11 | Fabian Coulthard | 27.703 |
12 | Lee Holdsworth | 28.070 |
13 | Jack Le Brocq | 28.459 |
14 | James Courtney | 30.013 |
15 | Todd Hazelwood | 33.845 |
16 | Garry Jacobson | 34.552 |
17 | Bryce Fullwood | 36.054 |
18 | Macauley Jones | 39.415 |
19 | Chris Pither | 43.344 |
20 | Alex Davison | 44.253 |
21 | Zane Goddard | 45.163 |
22 | Rick Kelly | 52.838 |
23 | Jack Smith | 54.164 |
Cameron Waters |
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