MOTORSPORT: Mostert triumphs, McLaughlin extends…

Scott McLaughlin says he is living the dream, but if he keeps up his current form then winning the 2017 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship (VASC) will soon turn into reality.

The DJR Team Penske (DJRTP) Falcon driver stretched his championship lead over Red Bull Holden Racing Team’s (RBHRT) Jamie Whincup from six to 129 points over the weekend’s racing at Queensland Raceway (near Ipswich) . The young Kiwi went one-two over the two races as six-times champ Whincup suffered through a disastrous Saturday before fighting back with a fourth placing on Sunday.

Instead of Whincup, it was local boy Falcon driving Chaz Mostert, albeit driving for southern interlopers Prodrive Racing Australia (PRA), who posed the primary threat to McLaughlin, sharing the wins and second places with his childhood friend and nowadays rival.

In winning his second race of the season, Mostert showed poise under pressure on Sunday to drive away from the pack after the appearance of a late-race safety car (SC) period. The SC was called to collect debris from a series of popped tyres.

“I was a bit annoyed to be honest with the safety car," the Supercheap Auto PRA FG-X driver said.

"There wasn’t that much debris around and I knew some guys behind had fresher tyres… I didn’t expect to hold on [to the lead] but I put my head down and did what I had to.” Mostert stated.

McLaughlin got away poorly from pole in Sunday’s race, dropping to fifth in his Shell V-Power Falcon and effectively spent the rest of the race working his way forward.

On Saturday, he had also made an ordinary start from pole and twice had to pass Craig Lowndes in the race to take a clear win.

It was a welcome return to form for TeamVortex Commodore driver Lowndes, although tyre wear dropped him back to fifth by the end of the 120km outing. The veteran driver backed that up with sixth on Sunday.

McLaughlin was understandably upbeat after Sunday’s race two.

“I am living the dream," McLaughlin said in a television interview.

"I am 24 doing the job that not many people get to do. It’s pretty special, these guys are bloody good racers and it’s a lot of fun out there. Bring on the next couple of rounds," the Kiwi stated.

While the world is wonderful for McLaughlin, the nightmare is continuing for his team-mate, Fabian Coulthard.

The former championship leader is now 233 points off the pace after posting 6-5 results at Ipswich. He and engineer Phil Keed simply cannot extract the same qualifying or race pace from the DJRTP Falcon as can McLaughlin and his tech-man, Ludo Lacroix.

In fact, to be fair, no-one consistently can, which is why McLaughlin’s championship lead is extending. He has won or finished second in each of his last six outings. He is also up to 11 poles for the season, the last five of them consecutive.

The best of the rest at Ipswich behind the two young Ford drivers was defending Supercars champion RBHRT driver Shane van Gisbergen, who drove to 3-3 results. In both instances his strategy put him out on the track later in the race with fresher tyres. Being a bloke never scared to pass, he used his rubber to good effect. Whincup even pulled his Holden Commodore VF aside to let his teammate try and attack McLaughlin late in Sunday’s 200km outing.

On Saturday, van Gisbergen had a successful lunge at Tim Slade, on the last lap to take the final podium position. Slade was having a rare and welcome run at the front for Brad Jones Racing in his Freightliner Commodore,

Whincup finished only 20th on Saturday. He was penalised five grid positions pre-race for running into Garry Rogers Motorsport’s (GRM) James Moffat in pitlane as they drove out for qualifying. Then a bungled pitstop lost him 10sec in the race when the car failed to rise on its jacks.

“We'll take the points and move on to Sydney Motorsport Park where we'll put all our efforts into having a better weekend," Whincup said Sunday night.

A run along pitlane would have quickly found a few other drivers and teams expressing the same sentiment.

There were promising signs at Brad Jones Racing and a glimmer at Nissan, but GRM had no qualifying pace and Holden’s once factory squad, Walkinshaw Racing, remains mired in the midfield.

Virgin Australia Supercars Championship pointscore:
1 Scott McLaughlin, Shell V-Power Racing Team Ford Falcon FG X — 1896
2 Jamie Whincup, Red Bull Holden Racing Team Holden Commodore VF — 1767
3 Fabian Coulthard, Shell V-Power Racing Team Ford Falcon FG X — 1663
4 Shane van Gisbergen, Red Bull Holden Racing Team Holden Commodore VF — 1635
5 Chaz Mostert, Supercheap Auto Racing Ford Falcon FG X — 1257
6 Mark Winterbottom, The Bottle-O Racing Team Ford Falcon FG X — 1335
7 Craig Lowndes, Team Vortex Holden Commodore VF — 1317
8eq David Reynolds, Erebus Penrite Racing Holden Commodore VF — 1221
8eq Garth Tander, Wilson Security Racing GRM Holden Commodore VF — 1212
9 Cameron Waters, Monster Energy Racing Ford Falcon FG X — 1210