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Crash course: McLaughlin’s team consider bold call

DJR Team Penske is considering a change following the biggest crash of Gold Coaster Scott McLaughlin’s career.

DJR Team Penske is considering fast-tracking the launch of Scott McLaughlin’s new Supercars chassis following the biggest crash of the Gold Coaster’s career.

McLaughlin violently hit a kerb whil egoing through the chicane and made contact with a left-hand side wall while going at around turn 11 at 135km/h at the GC600 on Sunday.

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A supplied Screengrab obtained Sunday, October 27, 2019 of the damaged Shell V-Power Racing Team Ford after Scott McLaughlin crashed out. (AAP Image/Supplied)
A supplied Screengrab obtained Sunday, October 27, 2019 of the damaged Shell V-Power Racing Team Ford after Scott McLaughlin crashed out. (AAP Image/Supplied)

It flipped the car on its side and sent it flying into the opposite wall on the right.

The 26-year-old former Saint Stephen’s College student managed to climb out of the driver-side door with the help of Triple Eight rival Shane van Gisbergen who stopped and rushed to help him out of the car.

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He was sent to hospital as a precaution shortly after.

McLaughlin said the car was due to be retired at the end of the season after his Bathurst triumph but they won’t have the chance after it was written-off.

Scott McLaughlin has walked away from a spectacular high-speed crash that caused his Mustang to flip on the streets of the Gold Coast this morning. Picture: Supercars Australia
Scott McLaughlin has walked away from a spectacular high-speed crash that caused his Mustang to flip on the streets of the Gold Coast this morning. Picture: Supercars Australia

“We have a new shell at home that was potentially going to be for me next year,” McLaughlin said of the team’s options ahead of the next Supercars round at Sandown, to start on November 8.

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“We were going to retire the car after our Bathurst victory. I’d say we will rebuild another car sitting there or build a new one.”

McLaughlin was the second high profile driver to crash out at the weekend following Chaz Mostert’s Top Ten Shootout accident on Saturday that ruled him out of both races.

McLaughlin said Sunday’s crash, after finishing third in race one on Saturday, was the biggest of his career.

“I haven’t had one like that before,” McLaughlin said.

“I was being too risky in some ways going out of the first chicane. I felt more under control than I (had) been in the couple of days (before) through there.

“We tried to do a shootout lap there to practice for the shoot out and I just clipped the wall on the corner.

“I hadn’t done it all weekend. I’d done the tyre but I clipped it further around the corner this time.

“It surprised me, when it hit and went that way.

“By the time I was on my side, it all happened really quick. I gave myself a clip around the ears but I’m terribly sorry. I want to thank Shane (van Gisbergen) for pulling up and seeing if I was all right.

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“I was more worried about people hitting my roof. I saw the fluid and didn’t know what it was so I thought I’d get out (of the car).”

Van Gisbergen was the man who was on the scene first and helped McLaughlin out of the car.

“It’s not a nice feeling coming around the corner and seeing one of your mates there,” The Triple Eight driver said.

“He was pretty far down the road so it must have been a big shunt.

“He is pretty shaken but he is OK. He will be fine.

“It is irrelevant who it was in the car when I saw it, you would do it for anyone in the field. It was shocking.”

Just over a minute of qualifying was left when McLaughlin crashed and the man who qualified on poll for race one on Saturday held the second fastest lap in the second qualifier on Sunday before van Gisbergen.

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McLaughlin could have sealed a second straight Supercars Championship with a good result on Sunday after holding a 613 point lead over van Gisbergen going into race two of the Gold Coast 600.

Original URL: https://www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au/sport/gold-coast-600/crash-course-mclaughlins-team-consider-bold-call/news-story/e67d9e826885bac51807bded2d6a03cd