[ad_1]
Shane van Gisbergen offered a short but direct response to Scott McLaughlin’s accusation that he played “dumb games” in the Townsville final.
McLaughlin was offended by van Gisbergen’s late-race pass for the 39-lap race lead, where the Holden driver raced the Ford wide, allowing teammate Jamie Whincup to follow.
As a result, Whincup slashed McLaughlin’s championship lead to 143 points with three events remaining in the 2020 title race.
McLaughlin called the move “pretty normal,” adding that “it’s a little early for those silly games.”
When asked about that comment at the post-race press conference in which all three drivers participated, van Gisbergen said: “I don’t know anything about this.
“We don’t need to bring up ‘debris’ and things like that. I thought it was a fair pass from me. “
Van Gisbergen’s “wreck” reference was a blatant reminder of the 2019 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, where McLaughlin and co-driver Alex Premat won in controversial circumstances.
McLaughlin’s teammate, Fabian Coulthard, had occupied the field under the safety car during the race, for which the team was later fined and scored points, which was found to have violated the Equity Obligation rules of the FIA.
In their findings, the delegates stated that the mispronunciation of the word “debris” in the radio messages to Coulthard was evidence that his engineer was “speaking with a script.”
Bathurst will host the decider of the championship this year for the first time in two decades, and its recently confirmed October 18 date will close the season.
When asked at the press conference if the rivalry between the teams is boiling over as Bathurst approaches, McLaughlin said: “It’s always boiling, it’s obviously still on their minds.
“We have the victory [at Bathurst last year] and we are very proud of that achievement and of last year’s championship and how we got it.
“But at the end of the day, we worked hard as a team to bring the fight to one of the best teams in the pitlane.
“You like to have a battle to the end. Obviously we’re going to knock on doors and disagree from time to time, that’s what motorsport is like and that’s how we get along.
“It’s not going to change the way I run with the two of them or whatever. I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t.
“If I say something, they are going to hate me and if I don’t say something people will say I’m soft, so it’s one of those deals where I have to accept it.”
Meanwhile, Whincup welcomed the controversy of the day, adding about the late race pass: “I was doing my thing. It’s racing, it’s a team sport and we run hard.
“It has been going on for years and we hope it continues for many years to come. That’s what it’s all about.
“The day that nobody talks about [the sport’s rivalries] it is the day we have to be concerned. “
