MOTORSPORT: Supercars heat up in Adelaide

It was stinking hot in Adelaide but the fire soon went out in defending champion Scott McLaughlin’s brand-new Ford Mustang as the Supercars championship kicked off in Adelaide on Thursday evening.

A power steering belt popped off the Mustang leaving him stranded in 12th position in the opening 30-minute practice session.

But he was far from alone among the heavyweights in having dramas. His 2018 championship rival Shane van Gisbergen disappeared up the escape road on his hot lap and finished seventh, while his Red Bull Holden Racing Team team-mate Jamie Whincup languished in 13th.

Instead, it was left to second-year Erebus driver Anton De Pasquale to top the timesheets in his Holden Commodore ZB, 0.3 sec ahead of Lee Holdsworth in a Tickford Racing Mustang, with Mclaughlin’s team-mate Fabian Coulthard in third.

In a promising opening hit-out ahead of two 250km races on the weekend, five of the new-for-2019 Mustangs finished in the top 10 in a session where many drivers had a crack on green tyres despite the dirty and fiercely hot conditions.

De Pasquale actually set the fastest two times and was the only driver into the 1m 20s bracket, albeit still 0.4 shy of Mclaughlin’s race lap record. Predictably, he played down the meaning of it all.

“It’s always good to start out the year on a high like that and it’s the first time I’ve topped a session,” he said.

“Obviously it’s only early days … we’ll just keep trying to improve the car because I am sure everyone else will be.”

It might be a case of ‘De Pasq-who?’ for some people, but the 23-year old showed his speed by qualifying third for the Bathurst 1000 last year. Last Saturday night he collected the Peter Brock Medal, an award previously won by the likes of Craig Lowndes and Mark Webber.

McLaughlin was atop the time sheets when he pulled onto the grass at turn 11. His early demise took the wind out of a Mustang celebration that earlier included him joining Ford legends Dick Johnson and Marcos Ambrose on track in street, Supercar and NASCAR Mustangs respectively.

But as per his disposition, he was downplaying the drama: “Our car felt good but we just had a little problem engine-wise,” he said.

The results were all suitably opaque, confusing and potentially misleading, considering the many variables that will be chucked at the field this weekend in Adelaide.

Apart from the unknown pace of the new Mustang and whole field having to grapple with the linear springs they must now all run, there’s the extreme heat that threatens to reach 40 degrees on Friday and Saturday and low to mid 30s on Sunday.

Add in the redesign of the turn six-seven complex, including the elimination of run-off at turn seven in the wake of controversy in 2018 qualifying, and the potential for upset results runs high.

Certainly, Coulthard has no doubt about the potential impact of the heat. Concrete-lined street circuits turn into ovens in these circumstances and drivers have been hauled from their cars exhausted in hot races in Adelaide before.

Supercars will enact hot weather rules on the weekend if conditions dictate, including mandatory cool suits and helmet fans.

“It’s going to be a race of survival and I think it’s going to be tough,” Coulthard said. “I think there will be some people who will struggle and hopefully I am not one of them.

“Anytime you hop in these cars they are hot and at an ambient of 40 degrees add 25-30 degrees to the ambient because that’s what they are in the cabin.

“So if you are doing that for two and a half hours ... I don’t know any other sport that works in those conditions.”

As for turn seven, Holdsworth was predicting carnage.

“I think the idea is great but what it will create is chaos,” he said. “If someone goes in there it sucks you in and spits you out or just stops you dead. Someone following closely is going to run up your arse and create a concertina.

“It will create plenty of dramas.”

Holdsworth is a fascinating part of another sub-plot running through this weekend: redemption. He’s moved to Tickford this year after four seasons in the wilderness at Charlie Schwerkolt’s single car entry.

Mark Winterbottom has effectively swapped seats with him, as well as Ford for Holden, moving into the Queensland entrant’s drastically overhauled team. He was an encouraging fifth fastest today.

Coulthard is another driver seeking a lift in results in 2019, with plenty of pitlane speculation his place will be taken in a prime Penske seat by Tickford’s Chaz Mostert in 2020.

But Coulthard is having none of that.

“My will and want to succeed is far greater than any pressure that someone can put on myself,” he said.