Scott McLaughlin wraps up Darwin triple crown

Scott McLaughlin maintained his unstoppable form in the 2019 Supercars Championship with victory in the second race of the weekend at Hidden Valley – wrapping up the Darwin Triple Crown at the same time.

The DJR Team Penske drivers made history becoming the first driver to take the award, which is handed out to the driver and team who win both races and the top ten shootout.

Having equalled Peter Brock’s 57 pole positions in the morning to go into a share of second on the all-time list, McLaughlin cruised to victory to take every trophy on offer across the weekend.

It means the defending champion now has twelve wins in 16 starts this season at the wheel of the new Mustang, and an extended lead of 319 points over team-mate Fabian Coulthard.

As on Saturday, McLaughlin said the victory was a show of support for engineer Richard Harris who has returned to the UK after the death of his father.

“It’s an awesome thing for all our guys and girls at Shell V-Power Racing, Ford Performance, to be the first to win the Triple Crown is really cool,” he said. “It’s a big team effort. We’re missing our boy Richard at home in the UK, our thoughts are with him.

“I’ve got a great car, great team, the pitstops were unreal. I had a good battle with Fabs at the start. I’m just lucky. I’m 26, just living the dream driving race cars and I’m lucky I drive a fast one.”

McLaughlin held off the challenge of Coulthard at the start and soon started to build a lead before Coulthard lost position to David Reynolds.

The top two were split by nearly eight seconds when they pitted together for the first time and McLaughlin then extended his lead to nearly 14 seconds by the flag for another success.

Cam Waters had held second after the first round of stops having pitted early but Waters would battle his way back up into second spot for a podium finish that cements third in the championship standings, with Coulthard following him home in third spot.

Waters had to settle for fourth place ahead of Jamie Whincup, who recovered from a poor start that saw him drop all the way down to 24th on the opening lap to secure fifth place.

Chaz Mostert took sixth from Lee Holdsworth, with Anton De Pasquale took eighth, ahead of Will Davison and Shane van Gisbergen rounding out the top ten.