The last time Supercars raced the “Paperclip”
This weekend, Supercars ends a six-year hiatus with its first Queensland Raceway round since 2019 and a lot has changed since then.
The ninth round of the 2019 Supercars Championship was dominated by Dick Johnson Racing and Triple Eight Race Engineering.
McLaughlin completed a remarkable six-peat of Ipswich pole positions in the all-conquering Mustang, while Whincup helped spark Triple Eight’s fightback.
A lot has happened in the six years since highlighted by a worldwide pandemic, whilst the venue has received a significant facelift thanks to new owner Tony Quinn.
A lot has changed on the Supercars grid as well now in the Gen3 era with Whincup retiring and McLaughlin and Shane van Gisbergen making waves in America.
Chaz Mostert, David Reynolds, Cameron Waters, Will Davison, Nick Percat, James Courtney, Anton De Pasquale, Andre Heimgartner, James Golding, Macauley Jones, Jack Le Brocq and Richie Stanaway the sole survivers from the 2019 round with the rest making their main game debuts at the track this weekend.
To prepare for the Ipswich Super440, below is the full Auto Action report of the 2019 event by Heath McAlpine.
Townsville’s results demonstrated that Scott McLaughlin and the DJR Team Penske juggernaut could be defeated. Although that occurred in a time shortened event that finished under safety car, a win is a win.
Entering the second half of the 2019 Supercars Championship season, Jamie Whincup was in unprecedented territory having not scored a single win in 2019, which only further highlighted the seven-time champion’s dominance of the category since 2006.
Queensland Raceway was his opportunity to right this wrong.
However, after Friday’s two practice sessions it appeared no one was going to stop the McLaughlin steamroller, though 23Red Racing’s Will Davison made a good fist of it. He had led the final practice session of the day for the majority before a scorching lap from the championship leader proved unbeatable.
Supercars most wanted man, Chaz Mostert completed a Mustang trifecta ahead of a surprise. The lead Holden was neither a Red Bull Holden Racing Team or an Erebus Motorsport Commodore, but the lone Matt Stone Racing 47, ZB driven by Todd Hazelwood, a driver potentially racing for hisSupercars career.
The pace failed to translate in qualifying for Hazelwood, though the struggles were wide spread. The Walkinshaw Andretti United pair were having a torrid weekend and were never among the top 15, nor were Nissan – not even Andre Heimgartner could drag his Altima into his now customary top 10 slot.
McLaughlin and Whincup shared the front-row for Race 19, but when the lights went out, it was Davison from third who made the best jump leading to the top three entering the first turn side by side.
Jame Whincup leads the field down the back straight. Image: Peter Norton
A smart manoeuvre from the RBHRT driver saw him take the lead with a slide down the inside of McLaughlin at Turn 2.
The shallow entry into Turn 1 also didn’t help McLaughlin as he not only lost position to Whincup, but an opportunistic Davison sent his Mustang down the inside as well, nudging McLaughlin slightly through Turn 2.
Qualifying had again been the domain of the Mustang. All six made the top 10, Lee Holdsworth started fourth and was all over McLaughlin heading into Turn 3. The pass was unsuccessful and it was the start of a drop down the field for the veteran.
His own teammate Mostert was the first to demote him around the outside of Turn 6, then van Gisbergen followed down the inside at Turn 4 the next lap. Holdsworth was struggling, which may have been due to copping a punt at Turn 1 on the opening lap that sent him sideways Despite being jumped at the start, McLaughlin was back on the pace by Turn 4, placing pressure on Davison as behind the dust and dirt was flicked up in the midst of a frantic opening lap.
The battling behind enabled Whincup to build a 1.5s margin over the chasing Davison and McLaughlin.
The championship leader was in unknown territory, trailing in the hot air of another Mustang, leading Ludo Lacroix to employ the undercut on lap 10.
The pit stop was a disaster. A problem with the front-left tyre change delayed Mclaughlin by 5s and although his rivals emerged behind, on older tres it was only a matter of time before Scotty was caught and passed by the chasing pack.
Scott Pye was another to suffer wheel issues, but this was after a clash of wheels had burred the nut.
Back up the front, Whincup had extended his lead to 4s, but then toured pit lane to undergo the compulsory tyre change, which was completed in 4.1s.
If McLaughlin was having a dirty day, his teammate was stuck back in the pack. A strong pre-event test gave Fabian Coulthard confidence of a race winning performance, but it was not the case.
He had struggled on Friday and had no answer, leaving him frustrated with a mistake almost inevitable. A lock up at Turn 3 resulted in the second DJR Team Penske Mustang taking to the sand, dropping a number of positions.
After the leaders had pitted, it was Whincup from McLaughlin, Davison and Mostert, but the two Tickford-prepared Fords were hunting the DJR Team Penske leader down. A brave, but successful pass by Davison at Turn 3, coming from way back, dropped McLaughlin back to third, then it was fourth as Mostert relegated the Kiwi at Turn 4 on the next lap.
Whincup held a comfortable 3.9s lead which was all he needed to secure his first victory of the season, ahead of Davison – 23Red’s first podium – and Mostert. McLaughlin followed, but van Gisbergen was closing, while a gear position sensor failure had derailed the race for David Reynolds back in ninth.
Another to suffer was Tim Slade after a pressure sensor alerted him to an issue but too late, as the ZB Commodore died and he was punted from behind.
If it was a bad day for McLaughlin by finishing fourth, can anyone beat him to the title?
It’s a question teams were asking after Sunday, when the steamroller moved back on course to notch up win number 14 for the season and further consolidate a significant title lead.
Pole didn’t assure victory, not even a podium, as was demonstrated the previous day, however McLaughlin didn’t make the same mistake as the day before at the start of Race 20 and fought off the early challenges from Mostert.
Brad Jones Racing was busy before Race 20, the transaxle in Macauley Jones’ ZB required changing and Slade was so unhappy that his crew broke the Parc Ferme regulations to execute changes, forcing him start from the back.
Side-by-side at the start went McLaughlin and Mostert, while behind it was on between Whincup, van Gisbergen and Davison. The RBHRT teammates fought through the opening corners, but had to be careful as Davison lurked, eyeing a podium double.
McLaughlin was quick to assert his lead out front, setting a 1m 09.623s lap record on the sixth tour to open a 2s gap back to Mostert, in what was a much less frantic opening. None of the top seven positions had changed off the start, Reynolds breaking the monotony in eighth after climbing from 10th.
Scott McLaughlin was fast as usual in his DJR Mustang in 2019. Image: Peter Norton
Fresh from announcing he was committing to Erebus Motorsport for 2020, Anton De Pasquale was experiencing a mixed weekend. After qualifying in the 10 for Race 19, he was involved in an incident late in the race, which dropped him out of the 10, then another coming together with Coulthard halted his progress. A lock up from the DJR Team Penske driver caused the collision, and harmed the duo’s race.
Suffering from the flu, Cam Waters continued his great form to finish sixth the previous day, and kicked off the pit stops on Sunday by taking on 43L, then Whincup was next two laps later in an attempted undercut. This was stifled by DJR Team Penske, McLaughlin coming in a lap later without the problem he had encountered during Race 19.
Mostert put the most fuel in, 56L, as van Gisbergen was to follow the Tickford Mustang, but didn’t and came in a lap later, filling with 48L. This set-up an attack from the Kiwi that provided a thrilling finish.
McLaughlin could have been forgiven for thinking that he had the race stitched up at half distance, with a 5.7s lead, especially at the team’s test track, its own backyard.
However, the team it shares the testing with at QR was chasing and chasing hard, van Gisbergen had the eyes on.
The same couldn’t be said for Whincup, who was jumped in the pits by Mostert, losing a podium place in the process. Nick Percat had been the only BJ driver not to encounter troubles, but a poor start dropped him down to 21st, though a strong recovery drive led to a top 10 finish at the conclusion.
The Altimas had also found something overnight, well two of them did. Heimgartner and his team boss were well entrenched in the top 10, finishing in a strong seventh and eighth, respectively.
The superior pace van Gisbergen had demonstrated in the back half of his stints was on show, taking chunks out of McLaughlin’s lead, initially 0. 1s, then 0.450s stating “I’m there now” on the radio as he moved within car lengths of the Mustang.
Erebus Motorsport keeps shooting itself in the foot, this time misjudging the fuel calculation for Reynolds which dropped him from inside the 10 to nowhere after an extra pit stop was needed.
The battle for first went past Reynolds as he exited pit lane.
McLaughlin made a mistake on the final lap at turn 4, but this was equalled by van Gisbergen at Turn 5 leaving the championship leader to take a tight victory.
Maybe the tide is turning, has the RBHRT finally awoken?
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