McLaughlin “hanging on for dear life” as Kiwi rival increases Supercars lead

Scott McLaughlin said he was “hanging on for dear life” in the Sandown 500, as his Shell Ford struggled to match the Triple Eight prepared Holdens in the first of the endure clashes in the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship.

McLaughlin and co-driver Alex Premat finished as the best-of-the-rest behind Triple Eight’s three entries, 25 seconds behind the winning Jamie Whincup/Paul Dumbrell Commodore.

Jamie Whincup and Paul Dumbrell led a sweep of the Sandown 500 podium for a dominant Triple Eight Holden squad, with Shane van Gisbergen and fellow Kiwi Earl Bamber third, with veteran Craig Lowndes with another New Zealander, Steven Richards third.

Having led by nearly 20 seconds twice during Dumbrell’s Safety Car-interupted run, Whincup ultimately finished 6.8312 clear of team-mates van Gisbergen and Bamber as the Pirtek Cup Enduro rounds got underway.

With the results, van Gisbergen’s championship lead over McLaughlin grows to 55 with four events remaining, while Whincup in third is 338 behind.

Van Gisbergen extended his championship lead over McLaughlin, while Bamber claimed silverware on his Supercars debut.

“What a privilege to drive these cars, the Red Bull Holden Racing Team have given us some rockets, it was awesome,” van Gisbergen said.

“Earl did a great job, from 11th up to the front and then some good strategy. It’s an amazing day.”

McLaughlin had been vocal about a lack of straightline speed, and remained frustrated throughout the contest.

The team experimented during the weekend with trimming out its rear wing to be faster on the straights, which McLaughlin said made it hard to drive.

“We got proper smoked by all three of those [Triple Eight] guys, so we need to go back to the drawing board,” he said.

“I feel like we excelled and did the most that we could, so I’m proud of everyone for that.

“We generally lose straight line [speed], we can take the downforce off, but I lose everywhere in the corners.

“I was hanging on for dear life around there and braking is hard.

“As soon as we put the wing on we lose the performance and this morning [in the warm-up] it didn’t work.”

The Virgin Australia Supercars Championship and PIRTEK Enduro Cup continues with the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 on October 4-7, followed by the Gold Coast 600 before the teams cross the Tasman for the penultimate stop for the Championship at the ITM Auckland SuperSprint on 2-4 November.

DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS

1. Shane Van Gisbergen 3054
2. Scott McLaughlin 2999 -55
3. Jamie Whincup 2716 -338
4. Craig Lowndes 2487 -567
5. David Reynolds 2435 -619
6. Fabian Coulthard 2114 -940
7. Rick Kelly 2098 -956
8. Chaz Mostert 2048 -1006
9. Scott Pye 1906 -1148
10. Tim Slade 1862 -1192

TEAMS’ CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS

1. Triple Eight Race Engineering (Whincup/SVG) 5770
2. Shell V-Power Racing Team 5113 -657
3. Erebus Motorsport 3688 -2082
4. Tickford Racing (Mostert/Winterbottom) 3688 -2082
5. Brad Jones Racing 3621 -2149
6. Walkinshaw Andretti United 3502 -2268
7. Nissan Motorsport (Kelly/Heimgartner) 3378 -2392
8. Garry Rogers Motorsport 2651 -3119
9. Triple Eight Race Engineering (Lowndes) 2487 -3283
10. NISMO (Caruso/De Silvestro) 2456 -3314