MOTORSPORT: Great Scott dominates Island V8SC

The best weekend of his V8 Supercar career has surged Scott McLaughlin into second place in the championship. The question is now can he maintain the momentum?

On one of his favourite tracks, the Phillip Island MotoGP circuit, the 22-year old New Zealander and his factory Volvo S60 V8 were unstoppable, breaking the qualifying lap record in practice, claiming pole position for both races and then taking both wins, only giving up the lead through the pit stop cycles.

It was the first time McLaughlin had ever won consecutive races and the first time Garry Rogers Motorsport had gone back-to-back since 1999.

It was also McLaughlin’s first win since Phillip Island in late 2014, going winless last year as the team endured a string of reliability issues with the S60.

To win at the island McLaughlin defeated the sternest of challenges from six-times V8 champion Jamie Whincup, who chased him all the way to the line in Saturday’s 120km outing in his Red Bull Racing Holden Commodore VF, then twice speared off-track in pursuit of the Volvo in Sunday’s longer 200km mini-marathon.

The first time was on the opening corner where he tried to go round the outside of McLaughlin and simply ran out of road. The second time was after a late-race safety car when he ran wide at the last turn and dropped from second to fourth, leaving Ford Falcon drivers Mark Winterbottom and Scott Pye to fill the podium.

On Saturday Pye’s DJR Team Penske teammate Fabian Coulthard had finished third after a great, aggressive drive from ninth on the grid, benefitting when fellow Ford driver Chaz Mostert’s front tyre exploded without warning when he was headed for the final podium spot.

Pye had suffered a similar tyre failure on Saturday, while yet another Falcon driver, Cam Waters, triggered the Sunday safety car when his right front failed spectacularly on the front straight at 250km/h leaving debris strewn across the course.

Three Fords, three front right tyres. Every one denied it was a set-up issue or trying to do a fiddle on tyre pressures (despite the mandatory 17psi minimum). They always do in these situations. But Dunlop is investigating what it can with the few shreds of tyres remaining.

The end result of all that was Whincup now leads McLaughlin by just 15 points in the championship, with defending champion Winterbottom third in The Bottle-O Ford another nine points behind. Veteran Craig Lowndes in the Caltex Commodore is fourth another 12 points down after a relatively quiet weekend.

These four have snatched a small points advantage over the pursuing pack of Will Davison (Tekno), Shane van Gisbergen (RBR), Michael Caruso (Nissan) and Garth Tander (Holden Racing Team).

McLaughlin and the Volvo now head from their happiest of hunting grounds to Barbagallo Raceway in Western Australia where the combination broke through for their first win back in 2014, but at which they struggled in 2015 for reliability and tyre durability on the coarse surface.

“To have a weekend like this – I have never had one like this in my career – has been amazing,” McLaughlin said.

“It’s a massive tick to every one that supports us and I can’t thank all the guys and girls at GRM enough.”

McLaughlin showed off his best form at a time when the speculation about his future is now really rising in temperature. He is out of contract with GRM at the end of this year and there are already reports linking him with both DJR Team Penske and the Holden Racing Team.

Such is the interest in his future, the post-race press conference focused more on that than his great results.

“All that stuff will sort itself as the year goes on,” he responded. “There was a lot of chat about that earlier this week but I am just looking forward to getting on with things and heading to the next round.”

Pye also copped plenty of questioning on the subject as it would be his seat McLaughlin would take if he did move to the team owned by US motor racing mogul Roger Penske.

But the former protégé of Triple Eight owner Roland Dane is stoic about such things, having been on the wrong end of various silly season maneuverings over the last few years despite consistently displaying strong form.

“Usually I get at least four rounds into the championship before this comes up,” Pye joked. “Every single year this comes up.

“The best thing I can do for my career is do the job in the car and not worry about the rest of it.”

Back on track this was the second outing for the new SuperSprint format and the first time on hard tyres. While the racing didn’t hit the heady heights of Tasmania two weeks ago, it was still intense and exacting. The high-speed course also ensured mistakes and car failures often resulted in spectacular offs – none moreso than Pye at turn one on Saturday after his tyre failure.

On Sunday it was his teammate’s turn to suffer the mechanical issues, an engine misfire ending any chance of a result from a highly promising fourth on the grid.

Also showing promise was McLaughlin’s new teammate James Moffat, who had his best outing yet in the S60. But Phillip Island was a solid landing back on terra firma for Tassie fastmen van Gisbergen and Davison, neither of whom were ever at the cutting edge of pace.  Nor were the Holden Racing Team and Brad Jones Racing where they would like to be.

The Nissans didn’t show the form en masse expected of them at Phillip Island either, with only Caruso running confidently in the top 10. However, Todd Kelly in the bikesales.com.au Altima did translate 11-12 finishes into a climb to 10th in the championship.

V8 Supercars Championship points (Penalty Points Difference):