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Scott McLaughlin scored a landslide victory in the opening race at the Robson Civil Projects Townsville SuperSprint, extending his championship lead.
McLaughlin scored the ARMOR ALL Pole and was the effective leader throughout the 39-lap journey, beating the checkered flag 3.4897 seconds behind his closest rival.
Like six days ago, that man was Cameron Waters, who proved himself the best of the rest in Tickford Racing’s Monster Energy Mustang.
Like Waters, Chaz Mostert also climbed to three podiums from his last four starts in third place, while Jamie Whincup climbed from his seventh on the grid to fourth.
Two of those spots were earned early on, while the other was the result of the disappearance of his teammate Shane van Gisbergen.
Van Gisbergen started second and held that place early, inheriting the lead on the road when McLaughlin pitted on lap 17.
However, the Kiwi suffered a power steering failure four laps later, preventing a wild slide of his car’s own fluid on the sweeper at Turn 10 before pitting.
He was reinstated with new tires and a larger steering wheel, to physically make it easier to drive the car without power assistance, but was immediately flagged for fluid leakage.
That marked the end of his career, joining David Reynolds on the recall list after the Penrite Holden driver was also affected by the same problem.
Whincup had been the first of the first to pit on lap 16 and jumped Mostert and Waters, on lap 18 and 19 respectively, in the cycle.
With cooler rubber, the duo made quick work of Whincup, but could do nothing to shut down McLaughlin.
It marks McLaughlin’s second consecutive victory, following his victory in the last race six days ago.
“We had a great qualifying car that we worked on all this morning, but we didn’t touch the race car from last week,” he said. “It bodes well for tomorrow.”
Waters added: “We tried a lot of things in practice to help where we were missing last week. I think we fixed some, but Scotty Mac is obviously still pretty fast,
“I am quite motivated, I hate losing, like everyone else, and we are working very hard. We will continue to work and pursue it. “
Anton De Pasquale was fifth, having come out on top in a spirited mid-career fight with Nick Percat that included several side-by-side contact bouts.
Percat secured sixth place against Fabian Coulthard, who made ground from 12th on the grid, Jack Le Brocq, Scott Pye, James Courtney, Rick Kelly and Todd Hazelwood.
Pye, Courtney and Kelly were also big drivers, having started 17, 14 and 21 respectively.
Hazelwood qualified sixth but grabbed twelfth the hard way, having fallen last when stalled at the start.
Brad Jones Racing teammate Jack Smith was another who struggled with steering, hitting the wall twice before heading to the pits for repairs.
McLaughlin now leads the standings by 143 points from Whincup, with Mostert third 398 behind and van Gisbergen falling behind Waters in fifth.
The Robson Civil Projects Townsville SuperSprint will continue with another two ARMOR ALL qualifying sessions and two 39-lap races on Sunday.
