Scott McLaughlin swept the Adelaide 500 while Chaz Mostert had a bizarre crash in pit lane.
Scott McLaughlin led his #17 DJR Team Penske to finish line once again but he spent most of his time in mid-field due to strategy divergence caused by the Safety Car.
Cameron Waters in Tickford Racing held out Shane van Gisbergen at the end to make it one-two for the new Mustang in race 2. Mostert set a new lap record of 1:20.3792s after he was turned into the pit wall as a result of an unsafe release, finishing 15th.
The race was delayed for 25 minutes at the start in order to fix the tyre bundles at Senna Chicane and when it did get started, McLaughlin and van Gisbergen ran side-by-side until the exit of Senna Chicane.
A little further back, the Mustangs of Waters, Will Davison (23Red Racing), Mostert and Fabian Coulthard were also battling with other around them but with minimum trouble. The former muscled his way past David Reynolds for third at Turn 9 on Lap 1 and would pit after nine laps, a bit over five seconds behind the leader.
Car #17 was in on Lap 24 and resumed about 3.3s up the road from Waters. Only Rick Kelly had not pit when safety car came out on lap 27 to pick Tekno ZB Commodore of Jack Le Brocq who had stopped at turn 11.
There was chaos as Kelly pitted and most of the rest of the field, including all the front-runners, followed him in. Mostert, effectively top five at the time, drove into the fast lane in the path of Kelly, who did not relent and turned Car #55 into the pit wall.
The broadside Mustang and the Castrol Nissan all but blocked the lane and forced the rest to thread their way through the DJR Team Penske and Triple Eight pit bays.
Supercheap Auto entry was given a drive-through, which in serving saw him follow Kelly back into pit lane and the Altima driver held Mostert up while turning into the Kelly Racing garage as a result of the damage which Car #15 incurred.
Percat and Reynolds ended up at the head of the field having not pitted under Safety Car, from McLaughlin and two more that stayed out in Scott Pye and James Golding.
Sixth through 10th were Waters, van Gisbergen, Slade, Mark Winterbottom (Irwin Racing ZB Commodore), and Jamie Whincup (Triple Eight ZB Commodore). Coulthard dropped to 21st after he was brought straight back in, presumably to top up, having had to stack behind McLaughlin anyway.
Reynolds took the lead at the end of Wakefield Street when the race restarted on Lap 30 but he and Percat continued to run together at the front and actually gap McLaughlin somewhat. Race Control subsequently investigated a possible failure by that pair to maintain speed when the Safety Car pulled away, but they were cleared.
Waters was fourth when he pitted on lap 44 and McLaughlin came a lap later. They closed up through the terraces on the latter’s out lap but Waters couldn’t fashion a move and slowly fell off the back of Car #17.
However, he still had 5 seconds in hand when van Gisbergen pitted from the lead at lap 56. When McLaughlin got a five-second lead, van Gisbergen was chasing Waters with just 5 laps remaining in the race.
McLaughlin won the race with 2.3854s ahead of Waters with 71 laps completed of the scheduled 78 laps.
“Really excited; took the pony to the field and took on a couple German machinery and it won,” said McLaughlin.
“So, credit to everyone at Shell V-Power Racing, the car was unbelievable.
“The Ford fans all weekend have been all about the Mustang and pumped up about it, so thanks for the support. I just can’t wait to party tonight.
“We came in hoping for two top fives and came away with a 300-point weekend. Just blows me away.”
Percat of Brad Jones Racing looked as a threat for Tim Slade, his teammate, but followed him till the end of the race and finished just 5 tenths behind him.
Winterbottom was sixth from last on the 24-car grid, having jumped up the field during the Safety Car pit stops, from Whincup, Davison, Reynolds and first-time top 10 finisher Todd Hazelwood.
Coulthard finished 20th after serving a penalty for spinning Garry Jacobson at turn 4 of lap 52. Le Brocq did make it back out on track to finish three laps down in 21st and Macauley Jones was classified 23rd at 14 laps off the pace after electrical problems for the CoolDrive ZB Commodore.
Kelly finished the race in 24th while running 100%, he was penalized due to minimum fuel drop. McLaughlin’s championship lead sits at 42 points, with van Gisbergen second and Whincup third.
The next event is the Melbourne 400 at Albert Park on March 14-17.
Comentarios