In the first night race at Sydney Motorsport Park in two years, Virgin Australia Supercars Championship leader Scott McLaughlin won the Truck Assist Sydney SuperSprint’s opening race in style.
Starting on pole after posting a brilliant qualifying lap earlier in the day, McLaughlin dropped to fifth place early on, thanks to a different strategy.
With a number of the top drivers running on softs, DJR Team Penske chose to start McLaughlin on hard tyres before switching to the quicker softs midway through the race.
Despite Shane van Gisbergen cruising to a commanding lead in the first half of the race, when the pit stops came around, it was only a matter of time before the reigning Champion found himself at the front of the field.
After fighting off a challenge from Lee Holdsworth, who ran soft tyres across both stints, McLaughlin proved too good, crossing the line and saluting chequered flag in the round’s first race.
Holdsworth eventually settled for second place ahead of Anton De Pasquale, while van Gisbergen finished almost 13 seconds behind the Erebus Motorsport driver and ahead of Triple Eight teammate Jamie Whincup, who rounded out the top five.
Following on from his fourth victory of the season, a proud McLaughlin praised his team for its successful strategy.
“The car was really good on both compounds and the team did great,” McLaughlin said.
“These guys at Shell V-Power Racing have been working so hard to get these pit stops right and consistent, and every time I come in, they’re mint. I am really proud of them.
“I was really thankful because I got a good start and I was able to position a little bit better. It was good hard racing at the start and I knew they were going to come at me pretty hard. It was great just to hold on those first few laps.
“We have another set of soft tyres up our sleeves. There is still a lot of racing left and we knew people were going to use two softs in this race. We stuck to our guns and we knew the car had a lot of car speed.
“Racing in the night took a while to adjust. When you’re trying to race people with headlights, it is hard to see where they are. Everyone races hard and fair and races like this are why we love the sport.”
The Truck Assist Sydney SuperSprint continues tomorrow with the first of two races taking place at 12:25pm AEST.