An ending you would only dream about.
The final day of the 2018 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship started and ended on a high for Scott McLaughlin after rival Shane Van Gisbergen was handed a post-race drive through penalty for breaching a fuelling regulation in the operations manual.
The following morning the stewards found that the Red Bull Holden Racing Team breached rule D25.6.2.3 which reads “the car must have all four wheels off the ground while refueling is taking place”.
However, the Triple Eight crew still had a celebration in place for Craig Lowndes, ending his full time racing career on the streets of Newcastle.
Lowndes’s race 30 performance was one that he would quickly forget as he walked down pit lane in his victory lap.
Craig Lowndes will leave the Supercars Championship on the last lap of race 31 leaving behind 22 years of mentoring and success, even in his ‘Arrivederci’ tour he won a Bathurst 1000 and gained several podiums, finishing on a high that sends him into a career of commentary.
And finally Scott McLaughlin becomes the 2018 season champion, a year of endless podiums and wins sees the young kiwi take the falcons 17th championship and Fords 25th.
McLaughlin let Dave Reynolds by in the final laps of race 31, not wanting to be involved in a battle that could potentially see him lose that championship and with a chance of a replay of 2017.
Congratulations to Scott McLaughlin, and farewell to Craig Lowndes, a true legend of the Supercars industry.