MOTORSPORT: McLaughlin, Mostert and Ford on top

Wins for Ford drivers Chaz Mostert and Scott McLaughlin at the Gold Coast 600 have ensured the five-driver title fight continues to escalate with just two Supercars Championship events left to run.

Mostert and co-driver Steve Owen won Saturday’s soaking wet 300km race, while in dry conditions on Sunday, McLaughlin and Alex Premat came from 13th on the grid to snare their Surfboard trophies.

Mostert and Owen also collected the Pirtek Enduro Cup as the high scorers across the three co-driver enduros, while McLaughlin lived up to his declaration to motoring.com.au leading into the Gold Coast street races that he had adopted a win at all costs policy after dropping out of the championship lead at Bathurst because of an engine failure .

Mind you after finishing only 12th on Saturday and qualifying so poorly on Sunday, McLaughlin’s hopes looked slim. But a retune of the Shell V-Power Falcon FG X’s suspension, an inspired opening stint by Premat, McLaughlin’s own ultra-fast pace and an aggressive strategy by DJR Team Penske (DJRTP) that successfully undercut the three leading Triple Eight Race Engineering cars of Jamie Whincup/Paul Dumbrell, Shane van Gisbergen/Matt Campbell and Craig Lowndes/Steve Richards, delivered the win.

McLaughlin ran out of fuel on the slow-down lap entering pitlane and had to push the car to the podium, emphasising just how knife-edge the undercut strategy had been.

“What a finish – I don’t mind pushing my car if it’s pushing it into victory lane!” said the first-time Gold Coast winner.

“This is such a good way to come back after Bathurst. Alex did an incredible job in that opening stint, he saved our day with that drive.”

Holden factory driver Whincup now leads the championship, 17 points ahead of erstwhile leader Fabian Coulthard, who finished only 19th and ninth on the Gold with co-driver Tony D’Alberto. Team-mate McLaughlin is third 27 points behind.

Prodrive Racing Australia’s Mostert trails Whincup by 126 points, while the final contender is Whincup’s Red Bull Holden Racing Team team-mate and defending champion van Gisbergen, who trails by 189 points.

There are 600 points still up for grabs across the New Zealand and Newcastle races, which means the title fight will assuredly go to the very last race of the season at the controversial new street race in New South Wales’ second city.

One championship already decided is for manufacturers, which has gone to Ford, primarily thanks to DJRTP’s brilliant season-long form and PRA’s improvement as the year has gone on. Ford, however, pulled its support of Supercars at the end of the 2015 season, so it’s doubtful you will see a TVC promoting the result… That the Ford teams are racing a car that went out of production 12 months ago probably doesn’t help either.

Sunday’s result demonstrated how far DJRTP has come in less than 12 months with the help of former Triple Eight engineering guru, Ludo Lacroix. A win at a track where it wasn’t competitive in 2016 is a great achievement, but to do it with the help of brave and aggressive strategy says even more about the team’s rise to maturity.

That it defeated a more cautious Triple Eight in a straight fight won’t please hard-marking Holden team owner Roland Dane nor, clearly, Whincup.

"We're feeling mixed emotions as we're happy to be on podium, but we fought hard and just got done by pace,” Whincup said.

“They {DJRTP] were a bit more aggressive on strategy. It's disappointing not to get the win but it's obviously good for points for us and it's a good team result."

Certainly better than Saturday where van Gisbergen and Campbell managed a fighting fourth, while Whincup finished sixth after Dumbrell copped a penalty for punting Owen early in the race. Sunday had started much better for the team when it locked out the top three slots on the grid, with van Gisbergen taking pole, then dominated the early proceedings.

Mostert, who claimed Saturday pole, fought back from Owen’s early drama to lead all four PRA cars into the top 10 on Saturday. The Melbourne-based Falcons showed the same sizzling wet weather speed as they had at Bathurst. Sandown 500 winners Cam Waters and Richie Stanaway finished second, Mark Winterbottom and Dean Canto eighth and Jason Bright and Garry Jacobson ninth.

But Mostert and Owen benefitted from some luck late in the race also. After a sizzling opening stint from co-driver Andre Heimgartner, Tim Slade had the race in his keeping in the Brad Jones Racing Commodore until an air-jack sunk into a hole in pitlane at the final stop and slowed a tyre change. The desperately unlucky duo finished third.

Mostert and Owen backed up with seventh on Sunday, leading home Coulthard/D’Alberto and Waters/Stanaway in the PEC. The latter duo lost their shot at race and Pirtek glory on Sunday when Stanaway made a rash passing attempt on Richards at the very end of his tint and broke the front suspension.

Mostert has more than halved his margin to the lead of the championship over the course of the endurance races.

“Pretty tricky conditions there for every driver today,” he said after the Saturday win.

“But this is probably the sketchiest track I’ve ever driven on in the rain. White lines, zebra crossings, crowns in the road, it was all going on out there. Just proud to get the good result for the guys because the car was very, very speedy as you could see out there.”

motoring.com.au’s Luke Youlden’s Bathurst high didn’t last. He and David Reynolds had a weekend to forget in the Erebus Penrite Commodore, that included a driver change through the window because of jammed door on Saturday and then hitting a wall on Sunday.

carsales.com.au’s Todd Kelly and Jack Le Brocq crashed out on Saturday, but they fought back for 12th on Sunday.

Virgin Australia Supercars Championship pointscore:
1 Jamie Whincup Red Bull Holden Racing Team Holden Commodore VF 2580
2 Fabian Coulthard Shell V-Power Racing Team Ford Falcon FG X 2563
3 Scott McLaughlin Shell V-Power Racing Team Ford Falcon FG X 2553
4 Chaz Mostert Supercheap Auto Racing Ford Falcon FG X 2454
5 Shane van Gisbergen Red Bull Holden Racing Team Holden Commodore VF 2391
6 Craig Lowndes Team Vortex Holden Commodore VF 1950
7 Mark Winterbottom The Bottle-O Racing Team Ford Falcon FG X 1872
8 Cameron Waters Monster Energy Racing Ford Falcon FG X 1858
9 David Reynolds Erebus Penrite Racing Holden Commodore VF 1857
10 Garth Tander Wilson Security Racing GRM Holden Commodore VF 1830