Supercars – Adelaide 500 – Wrap

IT was a perfect start for Scott McLaughlin’s title defence, a DJR Team Penske mastershow and a whole lot of chaos in the first round of the 2019 Supercars Championship.

Fabian Coulthard secured the first pole position of the year, but that was about the only thing to go right for car #12 over the weekend. Teammate McLaughlin secured the second pole position and two race wins in the first outing of the Ford Mustang Supercar.

DJRTP and Tickford Racing’s Mustangs showed they have what it takes to dominate the timesheets, while the Red Bull Holden Racing Team reaffirmed their stance as the team to beat this year.

McLaughlin became only the second driver in the last three years to win the Adelaide 500, and now leads rival Shane van Gisbergen by 42 points in the 2019 Championship.

Temperatures soared in Adelaide on Friday and Saturday reaching 40 degrees Celsius, wrecking havoc on the circuit. Tickford was forced to replace Cameron Waters’ cool box early in Race 1 after a cool suit failure which exposed Waters to temperatures higher than 60 degrees. Saturday’s misfortune was soon forgotten as Waters held off a fast-finishing van Gisbergen to claim second in Race 2.

Macauley Jones was the biggest headline of Saturday, after a high-speed crash in practice ruled him out of his first race. Jones’ car suffered a brake failure and hit the wall at more than 200km/h, causing the back half of his car to detach completely. Fortunately, Jones walked away from the crash with no injuries.

Sunday’s top ten shootout was one for the history books, with both Chaz Mostert and Fabian Coulthard disqualified, while Todd Hazlewood competed in his first ever shootout.

It was a front-row lockout with only the slightest of margins able to split McLaughlin and van Gisbergen on lap 1 on Sunday, however it was Mark Winterbottom who showed he is not to be messed with, driving his Commodore from 24th to 6th.

A safety car on lap 27 caused chaos in pit lane, creating congestion as cars double stacked. Mostert was given the green light from his team to leave his pitbox and enter the fast lane following his stop, but had to be pulled back by his team as he couldn’t get around Fabian Coulthard. Mostert was then unsafely released in front of Rick Kelly, who turned car#55 sideways, completely blocking the fast lane outside of the Red Bull garage. Mostert received a pit lane penalty for the infringement, while Kelly’s car suffered damage.

Mostert told supercars.com the issue was caused by a lack of communication.

“It was a really tight pits for me, I tried to get into the box at the best angle I could. I had to get pushed back and it was just a lack of communication on our par,” he said.

Similarly, Kelly also blamed Mostert’s crew.

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“It’s one of those things I believe at that point should still be in the control of his car controller, who obviously didn’t alert him to the fact I was next to him,” he told supercars.com.

Tickford Racing boss Tim Edwards slammed Kelly for his part in the collision, saying Kelly could have braked to avoid impact.

“To be honest, I blame Rick. Because that was the dumbest thing, just driving straight into the side of Chaz at full steam,” he told supercars.com.

Kelly denied he had a chance to stop. Mostert finished the race in 15th, while Kelly finished last in 24th position.

Supercars will return to the track in two weeks for the Melbourne 400.