Scott McLaughlin claimed his best V8 Supercars weekend of 2015 at his home event in New Zealand, securing pole position and a podium finish for Volvo Polestar Racing.
”To claim pole in New Zealand is amazing and something that I’ll never forget. We have come a long way since the start of the year with the Volvo and we are moving up the ranks in terms of speed and reliability,” said McLaughlin.
The Kiwi claimed ninth in the first race and a strong third place in the second race. The third and final race saw McLaughlin again fighting for the podium spots, but ultimately dropping spots during the pitstops finish sixth.
”We rolled the dice in the final race and unfortunately it didn’t quite come off with the right thing. If we didn’t have the safety car in the start we probably would have looked really well. But we have nothing to worry about in the championship, we are just going to go hard. We wanted a win but unfortunately that just wasn’t the case. The best thing from this weekend is that we’ve got car speed,” said McLaughlin.
Team mate David Wall had a weekend of ups and downs, with 18th position in the first race as his best result.
”We didn’t qualify where we needed to qualify and made the life hard for our selves. The race pace was as good if not little bit better pace as the guys we were racing. We had a good start in the final race and then really put our heads down. We did a long run after the safety car which helped at the end. A pretty straight forward day,” said Wall.
McLaughlin has climbed to tenth position in the championship with just two race weekends remaining of the 2015 season. Next up is the Phillip Island SuperSprint on November 22nd.
”We did of course want a win from the weekend, but Scott did nonetheless a great job at his home circuit to claim another pole and podium finish. We have two race weekends left of 2015 where we hope to continue fighting for the top three spots in the races,” said Christian Dahl, Volvo Polestar Racing.
ITM 500 Auckland – V8 Supercars
Circuit: Pukekohe Park Raceway
Length: 2910 m
Lap record (V8SC): 0:56.0781, Greg Murphy, 2005
Results
Race 28 – Top 5
1 Jamie Whincup Holden Commodore 21 laps
2 Shane Van Gisbergen Holden Commodore +4.3846
3 David Reynolds Ford Falcon +5.0154
4 Scott Pye Ford Falcon +7.4882
5 Craig Lowndes Holden Commodore +7.9546
…
9 Scott McLaughlin Volvo S60 +11.5763
18 David Wall Volvo S60 +23.1532
Race 29 – Top 5
1 David Reynolds Ford Falcon 21 laps
2 Jamie Whincup Holden Commodore +0.5031
3 Scott McLaughlin Volvo S60 +0.8706
4 Mark Winterbottom Ford Falcon +1.5664
5 Shane Van Gisbergen Holden Commodore +1.9131
…
22 David Wall Volvo S60 +15.6773
Race 30 – Top 5
1 Jamie Whincup Holden Commodore 69 laps
2 Craig Lowndes Holden Commodore +4.0638
3 Scott Pye Ford Falcon +10.8063
4 David Reynolds Ford Falcon +12.7012
5 Michael Caruso Nissan Altima +13.1203
…
6 Scott McLaughlin Volvo S60 +17.0832
20 David Wall Volvo S60 +1:07.0146
Qualifying for Race 28 – Top 5
1 Jamie Whincup Holden Commodore 1:03.3203
2 David Reynolds Ford Falcon +0.0045
3 Scott Pye Ford Falcon +0.0850
4 Shane Van Gisbergen Holden Commodore +0.1325
5 Scott McLaughlin Volvo S60 +0.1569
…
21 David Wall Volvo S60 +0.8220
Qualifying for Race 29 – Top 5
1 David Reynolds Ford Falcon 1:02.4690
2 Craig Lowndes Holden Commodore +0.0228
3 Scott McLaughlin Volvo S60 +0.1024
4 Jamie Whincup Holden Commodore +0.1220
5 James Courtney Holden Commodore +0.1982
…
23 David Wall Volvo S60 +0.9288
Qualifying for Race 30 – Top 5
1 Scott McLaughlin Volvo S60 1:03.1629
2 Jamie Whincup Holden Commodore +0.0014
3 Scott Pye Ford Falcon +0.0559
4 David Reynolds Ford Falcon +0.0888
5 Michael Caruso Nissan Altima +0.1219
…
24 David Wall Volvo S60 +0.7509
Championship Standings – Top 5
1 Mark Winterbottom Ford Falcon 2779 points
2 David Reynolds Ford Falcon 2540 (-239)
3 Craig Lowndes Holden Commodore 2539 (-240)
4 Garth Tander Holden Commodore 2297 (-482)
5 Shane Van Gisbergen Holden Commodore 2269 (-510)
…
10 Scott McLaughlin Volvo S60 1786 (-993)
24 David Wall Volvo S60 920 (-1859)
TV Schedule
Australia: http://www.v8supercars.com.au/view/tv-schedule
Europe: http://www.motorstv.com
Sweden: http://www.viasat.se/sport/motor
International: http://www.v8supercars.com.au/v8live/schedule