McLaughlin keeps title but team cop record fine
Scott McLaughlin will keep his Bathurst title after DJR Team Penske were hit with heavy sanctions for asking driver Fabian Coulthard to deliberately slow behind the safety car during the Bathurst 1000 last weekend.
Coulthard has been relegated from sixth to 21st (last of the finishers) and his team docked 300 championship points as well as fined A$250,000, the largest in Supercars history.
McLaughlin was leading late in the race when a safety car was introduced. As the Kiwi driver went into the pits, Team Penske teammate Coulthard slowed the pack while sitting behind the safety car which gave McLaughlin time to take on fuel for the final sprint to the finish.
At the time, Coulthard looked to have ensured a two-car race between Jamie Whincup and McLaughlin for the title after his go slow approach during the yellow flag ensured a huge gap between a hard charging Shane van Gisbergen and the leading duo.
Coulthard’s slow pace also ensured he avoided waiting behind McLaughlin in the pits. Team radio showed van Gisbergen was filthy about Coulthard’s tactics. “Fabian is going stupidly slow,” van Gisbergen said. “Fabian should get a penalty for that — that was shocking.”
Motorsport legend Larry Perkins labelled the tactics “disgraceful” on race day, while Penrite Racing boss Barry Ryan said the Penske team
“fixed the race” with Coulthard’s actions, which held up the field. McLaughlin had a different view. “Bathurst is always unpredictable and there’s always woulda, coulda, shoulda stories, and I think there are some people in other teams that should be focusing on their internal team issues before they kick on about us. And that’s what pisses me off a lot about the whole thing.”
McLaughlin said the controversy had taken the gloss of what he expected to be one of the most enjoyable experiences of his career.
“We deserved to win that race, I believe we won it fair and square, it just sucks we have to deal with all this stuff and what probably should be the greatest week of my life. I’m not going to lie, it has been a bit sad and it could have been a lot better for us to enjoy it.”