DJR Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin turns his focus towards sealing Supercars title after having Bathurst 1000 win confirmed
Winning his first Supercars Championship in 2018 was a dream come true for former Gold Coast student Scott McLaughlin and sealing a second straight title in his home city would be even better.
Gold Coast 600
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WINNING his first Supercars Championship in 2018 was a dream come true for former Gold Coast student Scott McLaughlin and sealing a second straight title in his home city would be even better.
McLaughlin could guarantee a second consecutive title win with a good result at the Gold Coast 600 after a dominant year that has already included a record 18 wins, holding a 622 point lead over closest rival Shane van Gisbergen going into the event.
“It would be fantastic to win it on the Gold Coast,” the former Saint Stephen’s College student said.
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“I did a lot of my schooling there so I’d love to do it. If we come out of Gold Coast with more than 600 points than we have wrapped the title up.
“Ideally, that is what you want to do, wrap it up sooner rather than later. But at the same time we don’t need to rush it. We just need to keep executing the best we can and hopefully it comes out all right.
“Gold Coast is one race you really want to win with the surfboard.”
The 26-year-old added to his impressive resume with a win at Bathurst that was only confirmed on Sunday following a week-long investigation by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport into the controversial tactics used by his team.
McLaughlin’s win was in question but the governing body chose not to strip him of the milestone moment while handing out sanctions to his teammate Fabian Coulthard and DJR Team Penske.
Coulthard and co-driver Tony D’Alberto have been relegated from sixth to last, DJR Team Penske has been docked 300 championship points, and the Ford squad has been fined $250,000, of which $100,000 is suspended.
It comes after DJR Team Penske ordered Coulthard to slow down during a late-race safety car.
McLaughlin’s success in 2019 came as no surprise to rivals and fans of the DJR Team Penske team following his 2018 title win.
But with the change from a Ford FG X Falcon to the Mustang, McLaughlin revealed he was unsure how it would go.
“It’s gone a lot better than we thought it would have,” McLaughlin said.
“It’s a tough championship as it is so to have the domination that we have had has been unreal.
“In some ways it was unexpected because of the new car. You just didn’t know where you were going to be or how fast.
“You always hope you will come out with a pretty fast car as a team, you work hard for that but unfortunately sometimes it doesn’t work out.
“But overall I think we have come out with a really fast car and we have been jumping up and down. It’s been awesome.”
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