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The odyssey in the North of the Australia came to its conclusion for the Supercars championship in 2018, with the running of the Ipswich SuperSprint marking the end of the category’s phase in the top end.
A test track for many, Queensland Raceway produced results which were key in the championship battle, with the foes from DJR Team Penske and the Red Bull Holden Racing Team locked in confrontation.
From the fast starts of a flying Kiwi, to a drought breaking outcome for Tickford’s Chaz Mostert; here are the major talking points from Ipswich.
Seventh heaven for McLaughlin
The numbers continued to tally for the championship leader at Queensland Raceway, with a pair of pole positions complimented by a victory in Saturday’s Race 19.
Responding to the threat of the Red Bull team, who dominated last time out in Townsville, Scott McLaughlin was impeccable in his Race 19 performance – controlling the 39-lap race from the start.
It was a seventh win for the 25-year old, who in this incredible season thus far is only one win away from equalling his tally from 2017, where he was the eventual runner’s up.
Despite having the pole for Race 20, McLaughlin hadn’t the answer to the flying Kiwi in his compatriot and title rival – however still came home on the podium for second.
Fast starting Van Gisbergen
Even though McLaughlin has been the benchmark in 2018, it was Shane van Gisbergen who was the fast Kiwi at Queensland Raceway and executed a pair of lightening starts to achieve solid results for the weekend.
The 2016-series champion was eighth on the grid for Race 19, but a jaw-dropping start saw the Red Bull Holden driver bolt from his starting position to third place on the first lap – displacing Rick Kelly at Turn 4 for the spot.
Having no answer to McLaughlin on Saturday and having to settle for second, Van Gisbergen made a similarly amazing start during Race 20 from where he had qualified second and was able to lead the race going to Turn 1.
The net result for Van Gisbergen from the weekend overall, is that the deficit in the championship standings is unchanged from the standings heading into Ipswich. 131-points was the margin between McLaughlin and his fellow Kiwi, and it remains the same heading into the next round at Eastern Creek.
Mostert breaks podium drought
It’s difficult to believe that a driver to the calibre of Chaz Mostert’s had been without a podium in 2018, coinciding with the woes that the Tickford team have had altogether.
That drought for the 2014 Bathurst 1000 was broken in Race 20 at last, with the Supercheap Auto Racing pilot having converted his return to pace throughout the weekend, into a third-place result.
Mostert was able to fend off a late challenge from the reigning champion in Jamie Whincup, who endured an anonymous weekend at large, to achieve Tickford’s second podium of the 2018 season.
The progress made from the #55 car over the weekend was masked by the penalty given for impeding Van Gisbergen during qualifying for Race 19. Despite qualifying second, Mostert was relegated to fifth and then couldn’t make their undercut work in the pit-stops.
Nevertheless, it will be a weekend that the rest of the Tickford stable will look at in awe, hoping that they can translate the progress made on Mostert’s car over their own.
Nissan co-drivers top test session
With the Enduro season around the corner, the co-drivers were once again able to jump into the cars they’ll be sharing for another additional practice session on the Friday at Queensland Raceway.
The top two positions in the 30-minute session afforded to the co-drivers, saw a pair of Nissan Altimas at the front, with Garry Jacobson aboard Rick Kelly’s Castrol car and Dean Fiore in the Michael Caruso entry – as one and two.
Former Super2 champion in Jacobson joins Kelly for the long-distance races in 2018, alongside another campaign in the feeder series now aboard an MW Motorsport Nissan. Fiore meanwhile, continues his partnership with Caruso in the #23 car.
Elsewhere, in the absence of Earl Bamber who was in the United States in his Porsche GT car in the IMSA championship, it was 2005-series champion and Fox Sports commentator Russell Ingall who drove Van Gisbergen’s Red Bull Holden.
In his first sampling of the new ZB Commodore racer, the 54-year old was eight-tenths off the pace in fourteenth fastest. Impressive considering the veteran last raced a Supercar in 2016, when he partnered Kelly in the Enduro Cup.
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