Penske Ford driver shatters Bathurst record to take pole

Roger Penske congratulates McLaughlin

Despite the pressure of Mostert’s lap in front of him Penske Ford driver Scott McLaughlin said he was focused on ‘breathing and executing’ on the way to smashing his own lap record.

“I was really calm. I was going about my business, I knew what I could do," he said.

“Breathing and executing was my main goal and I was focused. I am just pumped man."

Waters was lighting across the top of the mountain with the fastest time in history for the sector which put him in with a shot by breaking the magical 2m:04s for the first time of the day.

The lap was just one tenth of a second outside of McLaughlin’s “Lap of the Gods" last year.
But Mostert accepted the challenge as one of four drivers to break the 2m:04s barrier only to be beaten by McLaughlin’s flawless lap.

Jamie Whincup took chase of Waters and went close to the youngster as the second driver to break the 04s mark, three hundredths of a second back.

McLaughlin and his co-driver Premat. How many times will they lap the IndyCar stars on Sunday?

“Clearly Cam’s lap was quite nice but a bit of a slide onto Conrod Straight cost me. All in all happy with that, hopefully I can hand it over to Craig tomorrow in a good place," Whincup said.

Milwaukee Mustang veteran Will Davison followed but was unable to get in front of Waters or Whincup, slotting into third at the time. By the end of the shootout he was sixth.

“It was a bit disappointing," he said. “We battled a lot of understeer in practice but got a lot of turn in the car but I just didn’t read it as well as I would have liked."

Young Penrite Racing start Anton de Pasquale opened the shootout with a fantastic smooth lap to set the first time of the day at 2m:04.38s.

“I think we had a bit more in that," De Pasquale said. “The run out of turn one cost me, the lap was okay after that. Still okay, hopefully it pushes me up the order."

Mark Winterbottom took the Irwin Racing Commodore out next and was slightly slower in the first sector with some lockups which put him half a second behind De Pasquale.

BJR pair Nick Percat and Tim Slade followed each other out with the former edging out his team-mate by two hundredths of a second to start eighth and ninth respectively.

MCLAUGHLIN QUOTE: “Wow. That’s just incredible. I was hanging on for dear life there. That in-lap was pretty impressive, I’ve never seen so many people cheering us on. I’m really proud of the team at Shell V-Power Racing, far out this car is a rocket ship and it just hooked up in those conditions. I’m just pumped. Coming down the hill, I was pretty fast and thought ‘jeez, I’ve just got to hold onto the thing’. Then just threw it into the Chase and the last corner and it held on, it stuck well. We’ve got one big one to get tomorrow, that’s what I’m focused on a lot more, but we’ve qualified now and we’re starting from the best possible position."

STARTING GRID FOR 2019 SUPERCHEAP AUTO BATHURST 1000

Scott McLaughlin/Alex Premat (Shell V-Power Ford)
Chaz Mostert/James Moffat (Supercheap Auto Ford)
Cam Waters/Michael Caruso (Monster Energy Ford)
Jamie Whincup/Craig Lowndes (Red Bull Holden)
Shane van Gisbergen/Garth Tander (Red Bull Holden)
Will Davison/Alex Davison (Milwaukee Racing Ford)
Anton De Pasquale/Will Brown (Penrite Racing Holden)
Nick Percat/Tim Blanchard (7-Eleven Mobil Holden)
Tim Slade/Ash Walsh (Freightliner Holden)
Mark Winterbottom/Steven Richards (Irwin Holden)
Rick Kelly/Dale Wood (Castrol Nissan)
Richie Stanaway/Chris Pither (Boost Mobile Holden)
Andre Heimgartner/Bryce Fullwood (Plus Fitness Nissan)
Scott Pye/Warren Luff (Mobil 1 Holden)
Todd Hazelwood/Jack Smith (Unit Holden)
Fabian Coulthard/Tony D'Alberto (Shell V-Power Ford)
Simona De Silvestro/Alex Rullo (Harvey Norman Nissan)
James Courtney/Jack Perkins (Mobil 1 Holden)
James Golding/Richie Muscat (Boost Mobile Holden)
Lee Holdsworth/Thomas Randle (Bottle-O Ford)
Garry Jacobson/Dean Fiore(RABBLE.club Nissan)
David Reynolds/Luke Youlden (Penrite Racing Holden)
Macauley Jones/Dean Canto (CoolDrive Holden)
Brodie Kosteki/Jake Kostecki (Boost Mobile Holden)
Alexander Rossi/James Hinchliffe (NAPA Holden)
Jack Le Brocq/Jono Webb (Truck Assist Holden)

Combined Practice Times (IndyCar Stars Dead Last)

Click to enlarge