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Supercars’ annual pilgrimage out west produced yet another intriguing weekend, with Scott McLaughlin continuing to assert himself atop the 2018 championship standings and a host of changes behind him.
Here are the major talking points from the Perth SuperSprint, from the young Kiwi’s clean-sweep of the two races and the success of the new elimination qualifying format that was on hand again at Barbagallo.
McLaughlin tames the West
His form at Phillip Island a fortnight ago was superb, but Scott McLaughlin has gone and repeated those efforts in what was a more challenging weekend at the Perth SuperSprint.
While Race 11 was a straightforward pole position to chequered flag race for the 24-year-old Kiwi, the events of Race 12 were something of a champion’s drive – with a stellar race from nineteenth on the grid to the win.
Strategically making ground throughout the race, the mastermind Ludo Lacroix orchestrated the race winning three-stop strategy, taking advantage of pit-stop troubles suffered by Chaz Mostert and poor stops from Jamie Whincup.
McLaughlin’s fourth consecutive win of the season has been hailed as one of the Kiwi’s best drive of his young career, demonstrating his newfound maturity off the back of that heartbreaking title defeat in Newcastle last year.
Holding a 158-point lead in the championship now, there will be no complacency until the chequered flag is waved at the end of the final lap in Newcastle and he is officially crowned the champion.
Lowndes’ Sunday comeback
Similarly, Craig Lowndes made the mother of all comebacks in Race 12, having qualified on the last row of the grid and taking third on the penultimate lap of the 83-lap affair.
A three-stop strategy for the veteran saw strong pace on each of his stints, making progress until that eventual overtake on James Courtney for the podium position.
At a circuit where Lowndes has had great success throughout his illustrious career, Sunday’s race saw the evergreen 43-year-old finish as the best Triple Eight car, despite the Red Bull Commodores starting on the front row.
Results of fifth and third for the weekend has kept Lowndes in the top four of the championship standings, with a 194-point deficit to McLaughlin.
(Photo: VUE Images / Red Bull Content Pool)
Tickford responds with a podium
With no podium to their credit in 2018 coming into the Perth SuperSprint, the onus was on Tickford Racing to deliver results or face conceding further points in the championship.
For Race 11, three of their four cars qualified in the top six and then a unique strategy from 2015 series champion Mark Winterbottom saw the Bottle O Racing car collect second on the podium – having made a late tyre stop and charged back through the field.
Winterbottom remarked post-race that “the feeling under the car is something I haven’t had for about two years. The changes we’ve made, I think hopefully are giving that.”
However, come Race 12 there wasn’t as much to celebrate with the Saturday stars in Winterbottom and Cameron Waters eliminated in Qualifying 1, and then neither of the Tickford quartet finishing among the top ten during the race.
Elimination qualifying surprises again
Having had a successful initiation earlier in the season at the Tasmanian round of the championship, the three-phased elimination qualifying format made its return in Perth and once again threw many a spanner into the works.
Championship leader McLaughlin had a straightforward Saturday, claiming his third consecutive pole position of the season, though come Sunday the previous race winner found himself in all sorts of trouble.
Having been a tad lackadaisical in setting a fast lap in the happy hour phase of the crucial Practice 4, the Kiwi was forced to contest Qualifying 1 being part of the bottom 16 drivers.
Even still, the Ford driver failed to get himself into the top six during the first qualifying session to progress into the next phase and was eliminated in 19th position – along with other Saturday heavyweights in his teammate Fabian Coulthard and Tickford duo of Winterbottom and Waters.
What this format has done is put greater emphasis on the preceding practice session, forcing drivers to avoid having to contest an extra qualifying and use an extra set of their precious Dunlop tyres.
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Is the Camaro coming?
In wake of the announcement that Ford would be bringing the iconic Mustang to Supercars in 2019, there has been much conjecture as to whether their United States manufacturing rivals in GM would follow suit with their flagship muscle car in the Camaro.
The Camaro is set to go on sale in Australia for the first time later this year, with HSV being the official importer for the Chevrolet manufactured vehicle, converting the cars to right-hand drive.
HSV’s managing director in Tim Jackson announced during the Perth SuperSprint that the organisation would ‘assess the feasibility’ of having the Camaro in Supercars, which would race alongside the current Holden ZB Commodore.
Logically, a Camaro entry in the category would be facilitated by Walkinshaw who currently own the HSV tuning company for GM vehicles in Australia.
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