NEW CAR FOR SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN

Scott McLaughlin to get a new car after Gold Coast crash – Photo: InSyde Media

Scott McLaughlin will race for the Supercars Championship at Sandown in a brand new DJR Team Penske Ford Mustang, while the Bathurst winner he wrote-off on the Gold Coast will be rebuilt as a museum piece.

By BRUCE NEWTON

McLaughlin crashed in Sunday morning qualifying on the Gold Coast clouting the wall exiting the front straight chicane before the car ended up on its side after a second heavy contact with the concrete.

McLaughlin was taken to hospital for check-overs while factory Holden Commodore driver Shane van Gisbergen kept his championship hopes alive by taking victory with Garth Tander in the 300km race.

DJR Team Penske team principal Ryan Story confirmed Pace Innovations had already completed the fabrication of the new Gen2 control chassis and it was at the team’s Stapylton workshop being turned into a Mustang before the accident happened.

“We will take the running gear out of the current car, put it into this new chassis and build this new chassis in the break we have between the Gold Coast and Sandown,” confirmed Story.

“It’s a really tight break and building a new car up is fairly labour intensive, but we will throw everything at it and get that new car ready to go for Sandown.

“If we can get the time we will try and do a 60km shakedown before we head to Melbourne.”

To be able to complete all that including the category-mandated shakedown, the DJRTP transporter is unlikely to leave southern Queensland for Melbourne until late Monday or early Tuesday next week, To speed the trip two drivers are likely to be used.

Rather than being picked over for spares and parked, McLaughlin’s Mustang will be rebuilt in accordance with Team Penske policy that championship and significant race winners be retired and preserved as museum pieces.

Eventually, the car will find its way to the Penske museum in Arizona. The 2018 championship-winning Ford Falcon FG X is already earmarked to head there.

The scheduled retirement of the Bathurst winner car at the end of the season had already meant Mclaughlin was in-line for a new car. Crashing means he gets it sooner.

It also upsets the normal cadence at DJRTP as team-mate Fabian Coulthard was scheduled to get a new car for 2020.

“Such are the circumstances we finds ourselves in,” said Story.

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