UNDER pressure in the Supercars championship, under pressure to turn potential into a Bathurst 1000 podium and under pressure to make amends – in spite of all of that, Scott McLaughlin is feeling comfortable.
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The Shell V Power Racing star will begin his seventh Great Race campaign this week at Mount Panorama – a 6.213 kilometre circuit that he is yet to conquer.
Since making his Bathurst 1000 debut in 2012 as Jono Webb’s co-driver he has had his chances to get on the podium, but thus far his best finish has been a fifth in 2015.
He is focused on changing that this year and in doing so, trying to reclaim the Supercars championship lead. McLaughlin currently trails Red Bull Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen by 55 points.
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“I’m excited, I know what to expect these days and I’m probably rolling up to Bathurst the most comfy I’ve been for a long time. So I’m excited for it and looking forward to the challenge,” he said.
“Last year I was in a very similar spot, but this year I just feel comfortable and know what we need to do to get points to our advantage.”
As McLaughlin pointed out, last year he when arrived at Bathurst it was with talk of a maiden Supercars championship surrounding him.
He held an 84-point lead in the championship and gave every indication he would build that advantage after his record qualifying lap – a 2:03.8312 effort – in the top 10 shootout.
He went from pole position for the 14th time that season, but things did not unfold as he had hoped from there.
A mechanical issue left his Falcon stranded while climbing the Mount on lap 74, he ended up with a DNF and dropped to third in the championship.
It hurt him them – and still does now – but McLaughlin is keen to erase that disappointment with a strong showing this Sunday.
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“Obviously last year was a pretty average sort of race, so in some ways you want to get a little bit of redemption for the whole squad and we’ll give it our best shot,” he said.
“We went from hero to zero in some ways. Basically as soon as it started raining on Sunday I knew it was not going to be the most calm race of them all and then when it gave up the ghost halfway through – it sucked a bit.
“But you can’t do much about that and we had to move on with things, but it does put the fire in the belly to have a good one this year.”
The man who shared his Falcon last year, Alex Premat, has once again been paired with McLaughlin for the 2018 Enduro Cup rounds.
Together they placed fourth in the first of those, the Sandown 500, last month. They were well off the pace of the three Triple Eight Race Engineering Commodores of Jamie Whincup, van Gisbergen and Lowndes which locked out the podium.
Still, the speed that McLaughlin’s car had at Mount Panorama last year and that he has stood on the podium 16 times this year gives him confidence.
“In some ways with the form Triple Eight have had we go in as a bit of an underdog compared to them, but we certainly have a car that we know is very capable of winning,” he said. “I think it is going to be a tough race, a battle of attrition, and it always is, but I feel good going into it and feel like we can really have a good tilt at it.”
