MOTORSPORT: McLaughlin dominates WA

Scott McLaughlin has fired up his 2017 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship challenge with double victory in the Perth SuperSprint over the weekend.

McLaughlin and his DJR Team Penske Ford Falcon FG X were rarely challenged as the best combination on-track at Barbagallo Raceway.

On the sand-blown circuit’s aged and jagged surface, the 23-year old extracted an unbeatable combination of speed and durability from his Shell V-Power Ford’s Dunlop super-soft tyres.

Teammate Fabian Coulthard claimed pole position on Saturday for the 120km outing, but McLaughlin was fastest on Sunday for the 200km race and able to park his car while the rest of the field failed to top his time.

The Melbourne-based New Zealander dominated both races, his only hiccup coming on Saturday when he misunderstood his engineer Ludo Lacroix’s instruction to “push” as “pit” and caught his team by surprise when he entered pitlane. But despite that he still retained the lead of the race.

The result has pushed him up from fifth to fourth in the championship, narrowing the points gap from nearly 100 to just 31 behind leader Coulthard, who went 2-7 in his Shell V-Power Ford.

“I feel like I’ve kicked off my year now, with two wins under the belt and great pace, we’ve got plenty to look forward to for the rest of the year,” McLaughlin said

McLaughlin, who joined DJRTP from Garry Rogers Motorsport this year, scored his first championship race wins for the team in front of American team owner Roger Penske and his racing chief Tim Cindric. It was a weekend that emphatically demonstrated the shift in power in Supercars racing.

DJRTP locked out the front row on both days at a track where it has previously struggled, took over the lead in the teams’ championship from Red Bull Holden Racing Team and has won four of the last five races.

Triple Eight, the traditional pacesetter in the Supercars, racing this year as RBHRT, had no answer to the outright speed of the Penske Fords.

RBHRT’s Shane van Gisbergen damage limiting 4-6 results meant Coulthard’s championship lead slipped out from seven to 19 points over the defending champ.

His team-mate Jamie Whincup outperformed van Gisbergen in WA, finishing third twice and climbing within 22 points of the championship lead. Amazingly, the six-time champ remains without a win in 2017.

“We would love to have a win, so would the other 25 drivers in the category, but we will get there, it's not too far away,” said Whincup. “We will keep chipping away as we always do, it's that extra one percent that's needed. Two podiums here is a great result for us, everyone is being all 'doom and gloom' over the competition we are facing, but as I said earlier it's awesome for the category.”

The weekend was also notable for the continuing strong form of the Prodrive Falcons, with Chaz Mostert going 6-2 and qualifying on the front row for Sunday’s outing. Mark Winterbottom managed 5-4 results and is now entrenched in the championship top 10 in sixth place.

“We're starting to find a base with our car but we've got a bit more work to do yet,” said Mostert. “It was good to bag some more points and get another consistent result so I'm pretty happy."

The rest were cannon fodder for the star teams, managing tyre wear and battling for scraps as the superstars dominated the results.

The best of them was Will Davison, who managed two top 10s on one of his best circuits in the Tekno/Woodstock Commodore including a fifth on Sunday. It was a great return to form after suffering a fractured vertebra in Tasmania only a month ago.

At the other end of the spectrum was James Courtney and the now privateer Walkinshaw Racing team. After qualifying at the back in his Boost Commodore for both races and finishing only 17th and 22nd he called for “big changes” at the team in a video message to fans.

“There’s a lot of work to do but we’ll press on and see how we go. Hopefully we have some good news to come,” he said.

“We need some big changes here at the team and hopefully they come sooner rather than later so we can start to get results.”

What that means exactly isn’t yet clear. But Courtney hasn’t been scared to lobby for engineering changes at the team in the past, while team owner Ryan Walkinshaw has also shown a willingness to make bold personnel changes, such as when he lured Adrian Burgess away from Triple Eight to run the organisation in 2013.

Virgin Australia Supercars Championship pointscore:
1. Fabian Coulthard Shell V-Power Racing Team Ford Falcon FG X 802
2. Shane van Gisbergen Red Bull Holden Racing Team Holden Commodore VF 783
3. Jamie Whincup Red Bull Holden Racing Team Holden Commodore VF 780
4. Scott McLaughlin Shell V-Power Racing Team Ford Falcon FG X 771
5. Chaz Mostert Supercheap Auto Racing Ford Falcon FG X 771
6. Mark Winterbottom The Bottle-O Racing Team Ford Falcon FG X 648
7. Garth Tander Wilson Security Racing GRM Holden Commodore VF 606
8. Craig Lowndes Team Vortex Holden Commodore VF 564
9. Cameron Waters Monster Energy Racing Ford Falcon FG X 544
10. James Moffat Wilson Security Racing GRM Holden Commodore VF 507