Ford’s Scott McLaughlin has extended his Supercars series lead after claiming first blood at the Ipswich SuperSprint at Queensland Raceway on Saturday.
Pole sitter McLaughlin was never threatened in the 39-lap opener, taking line honours more than four seconds ahead of nearest title threat, Holden’s Shane van Gisbergen.
McLaughlin claimed his seventh win of the year and 23rd of his career.
He extended his series lead from 131 to 143 points over van Gisbergen ahead of Sunday’s 65-lap Ipswich finale.
Crowd favourite Craig Lowndes was third after starting the grid at 10th.
Remarkably it was Lowndes’ 23rd podium finish in 45 races at Ipswich.
Holden veteran Lowndes is enjoying his Supercars swan song after announcing a fortnight ago that he would retire from full-time racing at season’s end.
Van Gisbergen kept McLaughlin honest when he jumped from eighth to third in the first lap of Saturday’s 120km opener.
He was second by the 14th lap but could not reel in his fellow Kiwi.
“That was an awesome battle. I just dropped the clutch and away I went,” van Gisbergen said.
Holden’s seven-time series champion Jamie Whincup was just pipped of a podium finish by Lowndes but his fourth placing moves him ahead of David Reynolds into third on the drivers’ standings.
Ford’s Chaz Mostert qualified second fastest but dropped to fifth by the start after copping a three place grid penalty for impeding van Gisbergen during practice.
“I didn’t see Shane coming but when I did I tried my best to get out of the way – it’s a disappointing penalty but I probably deserved it,” said Mostert, who finished sixth.
Holden star Whincup tangled with Mostert on lap three but escaped sanction from stewards despite the Ford gun being forced off the track on turn six in the incident.
Whincup wasn’t so fortunate in practice – he copped a $1000 fine, $500 suspended, for not exiting pit lane correctly during Saturday’s warm-up session.
Holden’s James Courtney – who finished eighth – set a new race lap record of one minute, 09.65 seconds, eclipsing his own mark from last year by 0.07 of a second.
