MOTORSPORT: Bathurst to be Supercars final

The Bathurst 1000 will be the grand final of the 2020 Supercars championship.

The race will take place on October 18, a week later than scheduled on a calendar that is now unrecognisable compared to the one Supercars commenced 2020 with pre-coronavirus.

The Bathurst finale and date change had been expected for some time as the championship teams and administration strived to bring the season to a close in sensible fashion.

Victorian teams will have been on the road for four months by the time the 2020 Bathurst 1000 runs.

The decision also means the now-defunct Holden brand will farewell Australian touring car racing as a factory presence at the track and race that was intrinsic to its image.

It is the first time since 2000 the great race at Mount Panorama will finish the championship.

Also confirmed yesterday was how the run-up to the Bathurst 1000 will look. The second leg of the Townsville double-header is next weekend, followed by a double-header at The Bend in South Australia on September 19-20 and 26-27.

Then comes the 1000, which means there are now a maximum 1200 points left to be won in the 2020 Supercars championship.

The two drivers for whom that has most relevance are Ford Mustang driver Scott McLaughlin and Jamie Whincup, the factory Holden Commodore driver.

They are now well clear of the field at the head of the driver’s championship.

Whincup narrowed the gap to the championship leader by top-scoring in the latest Supercars championship round in Townsville.

The seven-time champion converted two pole positions into wins in the first two 110km races before McLaughlin overcame his qualifying woes to claim pole and win the third race, following on from seventh and sixth places the first two outings.

Whincup emerged the top scorer from the weekend, narrowing McLaughlin’s championship lead from 177 to 123 points.

The two of them have broken away from the rest of the field, with third-placed Chaz Mostert now 384 points behind McLaughlin.

The result weekend continued Whincup’s love affair with the Reid Park hybrid circuit. He now has 12 wins and 18 podium from 26 starts at the far north Queensland track.

“We have to just keep chipping away,” Whincup said. “It’s our responsibility to make the championship a strong one and make sure it’s not one guy out in front just dominating.

“We’ll do the best we can, keep our head down and try and make a race for it.”

Whincup was untouchable in the first two races, while two-time and defending champion McLaughlin had to fight off Tickford Racing’s Cam Waters for the race three win.

McLaughlin and his engineering crew spent too long sorting out a race set-up during Saturday morning practice and paid the price with only 16th in the first qualifying session.

In the first race he was lucky to escape with only cosmetic damage to his Ford in a big second tangle that had cars spinning and nerfing the wall.

“We thought we were in the window with the car and it wasn’t until the first qualifying today that we realised we really weren’t,” said McLaughlin on Sunday. “We made a big change for the second qualifying session today, and the car was really hooked up.

“For the final race, it was all about getting a good start and controlling it from there. Again the stop was amazing, and that’s what really won us the race, the pit stop.”

Waters was the best of the supporting cast on the weekend, going 2-4-2 and having his most competitive outing of 2020. The other notable performer was Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Mostert, who claimed two podiums before a puncture ended his chances of a result in the final race.

Other drivers who popped their head out of pack were Brad Jones Racing’s Nick Percat, who fought back strongly on Sunday after an engine failure on Sunday; Whincup’s teammate Shane van Gisbergen, who scored a Sunday third after being caught up in the Saturday crash; and Erebus Motorsport’s David Reynolds, who showed some speed after a couple of weeks in the wilderness.

While there was tough racing throughout the pack, the two leading teams in the championship, Triple Eight Race Engineering and DJR Team Penske, were pace-setters up-front.

The end of the mixed hard and soft tyre allocations and reversion to all-soft Dunlops over the last couple of events has also ended the ‘lottery’ aspect of the racing that had thrown up some unpredictable action and first wins for Tickford’s Jack Le Brocq and Erebus’ Anton De Pasquale.

2020 Supercars pointscore:
Scott McLaughlin – 1556
Jamie Whincup – 1433
Chaz Mostert – 1172
Shane van Gisbergen – 1157
Cam Waters – 1157
Nick Percat – 1069
David Reynolds – 1046
Mark Winterbottom - 1024
Fabian Coulthard – 1018
Lee Holdsworth – 993