Kiwis Overseas News For old articles go here
EIGHTH OVERALL FOR ROOKIE TEENAGER IN TOWNSVILLE STREET RACE
Another
year older and another year wiser is what they say and Gold Coast teenager Scott
McLaughlin showed maturity beyond his years to survive his first V8 Supercar
street race at the Townsville 400 event last weekend. In just his third V8
Supercar event the recently turned seventeen-year-old finished in a very
commendable eighth overall driving his Fujitsu Racing, SBR prepared Falcon -
having looked like claiming an even better result right up until the last corner
of the last lap of the last race. Just 250-metres of racing road lay between
Scott and a sixth place result, however, an incident within sight of the
chequered flag saw him drop down the order after one of his best drives to
date.
After endless hours driving the circuit on his track simulator prior to the event, young Scotty applied himself well throughout the weekend, learning the tricky and bumpy Townsville circuit with every lap. He reduced his times well in practice and other than two minor excursions stayed well away from the ever-present concrete barriers. Qualifying was slightly disappointing but considering the big names returning to the field for this weekend Scott was not too displeased with his efforts. “I’m fine in the first couple of sectors of the lap but just can’t seem to complete it as well as I start it. I am a little bit daunted by the concrete walls in some spots but that will go away once I complete more laps. What I really need to do is to get behind some of the bigger names here and see what they are doing and that won’t be too hard come race time because there are plenty of former race-winners in the 26-car field.”
Scott raced extremely well throughout the weekend, and despite slow and cautious starts he climbed his way back up through the field in every race, passing many of his more experienced rivals with well calculated manoeuvres – and, in many different parts of the circuit.
His final race was his best - well, for 17.9 of the 18 laps at least. Having dropping to 16th spot at the completion of the opening lap he drove the wheels of the Fujitsu machine and charged through to be in 6th place with one corner remaining. Unfortunately an overly-optimistic move from fellow Ford runner Drew Russell caused contact with the left rear quarter of Scott’s 93 car, this resulted in Russell spinning Scott out on the last lap and corner, Scott immediately restarted to race off over the line but was back to 12th at race end. Scott was philosophical about the incident but pleased to have improved his lap times and continually over the course of the weekend. “It was a great bonus to have the Terry and Colin with us for the weekend from Thermo King; I could show them how we go about preparing for a race meeting also how we all gel together as a team, it was awesome to have some sponsors watch us race.
“I really need to do some more practice on those starts ... they’re killing me and it’s such hard work having to fight back through the field - and missing some of those crazy accidents that seem to happen so often. I’m stoked at the race pace we have, and the team gave me a great car, but we deserved that sixth place in the final race.” To be racing against so many former Fujitsu Series winners has taught me a heap and to come home well inside the Top-10 overall is right on the money and what I had hoped for prior to arriving here. I loved the track, the atmosphere and the people of Townsville and can’t wait to get back here. It’s a long wait until we race next at Bathurst and that will be wild, but at least I’ll have plenty of time to practice the track on my simulator and with a bit of luck I can drive to Mount Panorama because I am finally going for my road licence this week.”
Scott’s next Fujitsu Series outing will be at Mount Panorama, Bathurst NSW over the weekend of October 7-10
RESULTS - FUJITSU V8 SUPERCAR SERIES: Townsville Street Circuit, QLD (July 9 -11, 2010)
Practice Qualifying Race 1 Race 2 Race 3 Overall
Started TOP 10 16 16 9 7 8
Finished 9 8 12