MCLAUGHLINS MUSTANG TURNS UP THE HEAT IN ADELAIDE

On a day where temperatures rose above 40 degrees Celsius, teams turned side windows into Swiss cheese and Supercars brought in their own cool room, Scott McLaughlin turned a blow torch on his opposition to claim victory on debut for the new Ford Mustang Supercar.

Fabian Coulthard had been the shining light in the Amour All Top 10 Shootout as he grabbed pole position with the only sub 1.20 lap from Jamie Whincup. Scott McLaughlin and Cameron Waters made it an all Ford affair for the second row of the grid. Shane van Gisbergen, David Reynolds, Will Davison, Nick Percat, James Courtney and Rick Kelly rounded out the top 10. Macauley Jones became a non-starter in his first Supercar race as a full-time driver after his Cooldrive BJR Commodore suffered brake failure on the high speed approach ti turn 9. Jones was fortunate that the car swapped ends just before it made heavy contact with the tyre wall then spun in mid air back into the tyre run off just prior to the corner. Jones escaped relatively unharmed but did mention a bit of a headache to reporters a short time later.

Coulthard failed to take advantage of his grid position when he crept marginally out of his grid box moments before the start of the race. He later said that he had seen Jamie Whincup flinch and he reacted. Whincup, who also flinched but avoided penalty when he managed to keep his Red Bull Holden Racing Commodore within the confines of his grid box.

SEE OUR PHOTO GALLERY FROM THE EVENT HERE

“We didn’t get the best start. Fabs jumped and I went ‘oh, are we going, or are we not?! I had the big panic and lit it up,” Whincup said.

As Coulthard and Whincup looked to address their initial movement, Scott McLaughlin made the perfect start and swept around the outside of the two ahead and too the lead on the run into the Senna Chicane. Coulthard maintained second place for the first nine laps before an early pitstop and an additional 10 second pit lance penalty for his start line indiscretion dropped him to the rear of the field. He eventually recovered to finish in sixth after a late battle with Chaz Mostert and Will Davison.

Scott McLaughlin controlled the remainder of the race which, to the surprise of many, ran green for the entirety of the 78 lap journey. He had established a 6 second gap to Whincup by the time the #17 Shell V-Power Ford made a first of two stops on lap 19. McLaughlin ran longer on his second stint and extended his lead to 15 seconds over the #88 Red Bull Holden Racing Commodore.

Cameron Waters‘ race saw an unexpected stoppage on lap 19 when Supercars officials became aware of a failure in his coolsuit system. Despite Waters assertion that he was fine, the Monster Energy Mustang lost 14 laps as the team were forced to change the system.

Lee Holdsworth and Scott Pye looked certain to bring out the Safety Car on lap 27  when Holdsworth found the wall at turn 7 and left Pye with nowhere to go. The pair managed to extricate themselves from the barrier and limp back to the pits with smoke pouring from the back of their cars. Holdsworth eventually returned, while the damage to the front right corner of Pye’s Mega Fuels WUA Commodore brought an early end to Pye’s day. To which Pye was non too happy.

“There wasn’t one driver that didn’t complain about that tyre wall in the lead up,” Pye told Fox Sports. “We wanted it removed. I think the wrong wall was put in place and they had to cover it with three layers of belt. I didn’t see yellow (flag) or anything, came around the corner blindsided and Holdsworth was right there.”

The gap between McLaughlin and Whincup dropped over the closing laps as lapped traffic came into play, however Scott McLaughlin still had a 13 second buffer at the chequered flag over Whincup, with van Gisbergen in 3rd. Chaz Mostert had challenged van Gisbergen for the final place on the podium only to lose contact with the #97 car when he was twice forced to use the escape road as van Gisbergen defended his position. Mostert dropped a place to Davison as a result and fought to regain the place as the laps counted down. Davison held onto 4th from Mostert, Coulthard, Nick Percat, David Reynolds, Mark Winterbottom and James Courtney.

SEE OUR PHOTO GALLERY FROM THE EVENT HERE

“That one’s for you Ford fans, first weekend for the Mustang,” said Scott McLaughlin. “We’re here, we’re here to party and we’re going to have a good time. It was really tough, but the cooling and all that stuff was really good for us and I just brought it home. I’m really happy with the car. We don’t have number one on the car but we’re number one today, it’s a great start.”

While the Mustang may not have set the world alight on initial appearances, the car certainly did the job on the racetrack to snare four of the top six positions at the end of the race.

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