MOTORSPORT: Temper tantrums at Supercars finale

A fractious, traumatic Supercars championship has ended appropriately enough with off-track tantrums, sledging and social media sprays.

On-track at the Newcastle 500, DJR Team Penske won its second championship of the season, confirming the teams title ahead of Triple Eight Race Engineering, just two weeks after Scott Mclaughlin claimed his second successive driver’s title at the Sandown 500.

While the Ford Mustang team won the overalls, it was T8 and its revitalised Holden Commodore ZBs that won both 250km races on the streets of Newcastle East. Shane van Gisbergen topped Saturday and Jamie Whincup Sunday.

That’s five wins from five starts for T8 since McLaughlin and co-driver Alex Premat won the Bathurst 1000 – a victory now awash in controversy and bitterness thanks to the pace car fracas and McLaughlin’s disqualification from pole position four weeks after the event because of an illegal engine.

It’s those dramas which continue to suffuse the Supercars community with ill-feeling and nastiness, drowning out DJRTP’s clean sweep of all the major silverware on offer that left T8 without a driver’s or teams title or Bathurst win for the first time since 2005.

McLaughlin has emerged as his team’s most public defender and has copped vilification for it – from inside the paddock as well as from rusted-on Holden fans.

That’s ironic considering he’s one member of DJRTP who can share no blame for what went on. He just got in the car and drove flat-out, winning a record 18 races along the way.

McLaughlin was compared to bicycle racing cheat Lance Armstrong by fellow driver Scott Pye early in the piece, which drew a rebuke from Supercars CEO Sean Seamer. But there were plenty more insults distributed on Twitgram, or face to face.

After it was all over on Sunday night McLaughlin, adopting a champion’s mantle, reflected that maybe better behaviour was required all-round.

“I hope next year all of us who come into this sport with a better perspective,” he said. “I feel we could be better role models.”

If members of the Supercars paddock want to ponder real issues then they only need to consider 31 of 32 race wins in 2019 were shared between T8 and DJRTP.

No surprise then that McLaughlin and teammate Fabian Coulthard were first and fourth and van Gisbergen and Whincup second and third in the driver’s championship.

The second Ford team, Tickford Racing, got all four drivers into the top 10 and were best of a distant division B.

Not only who won but how they won is of concern.

High-speed processions, brilliantly executed no doubt by great drivers and well-drilled teams, but for the most part like watching fast-drying paint.

The cars have too much grip and create too much aerodynamic wash, a double whammy that makes passing – never easy in Supercars even before they grew huge wings – darned near impossible.

There is a potential remedy underway. The testing process to reduce the aerodynamic downforce (or grip) of the Mustang and Commodore starts today in Queensland. It will take two weeks to complete, including a week’s straight-line testing at the Oakey military airfield west of Brisbane.

Of course, this process known as VCAT – or Vehicle Control Aerodynamic Testing – was undertaken 12 months ago when the Mustang was introduced. It’s now acknowledged by all and sundry that it failed to measure the full aerodynamic potency of the new Ford.

It’s been vastly uprated for 2019 and Supercars really needs it to be a success and help reverse the current racing trend.

The introduction of a control Supashock damper across the field in 2020 may also help even the playing field somewhat.

All that will no longer be a concern for Garry Rogers Motorsport, which officially ended its Supercars involvement at Newcastle after 24 years. Sadly, team driver Richie Stanaway also announced his retirement from motorsport at just 28.

On the verge of a Formula 1 career only a few years ago, the New Zealander has been cut down by injury and a dispiriting inability to make progress in Supercars after a promising start.

Meanwhile, South Australian Tim Slade confirmed Newcastle was his last drive for Brad Jones Racing and likely his last outing as a full-time driver in Supercars.

Only the proposed Team Sydney shapes as a possible new home for him alongside James Courtney. But there is so much confusion and so many question marks over that project Slade isn’t getting his hopes up.

“I’m planning on taking Thursday Brewing to new heights,” Slade declared, referencing the boutique beer business he co-owns with five partners, including Brisbane Lions AFL footballer Lachie Weller.

Sounds like more fun than the Supercars paddock at the moment.

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