Scott McLaughlin leads at lap 100 with four hours run

Championship leader and Bathurst 1000 polesitter Scott McLaughlin has taken hold of the lead for the Great Race as the 161 lap epic passed the halfway mark.

The DJR Team Penske driver took over from co-driver Alexandre Premat just before the 100th lap, taking the lead in the process and stretching out a lead until a safety car came out close to the end of the fourth hour.

As the one-third race distance was reached, the leading pack came in for their third round of pit stops. After leading a majority of his stint, Alex Premat came in from fourth in the #17 DJR Team Penske car, giving it over to polesitter Scott McLaughlin for the Kiwi’s first stint after the start of the race.

Cam Waters was in next, pitting from third, handing the Tickford Mustang over to Michael Caruso and coming out just behind McLaughlin, the #6 sitting in effective fourth place. Jamie Whincup was the next in, staying strapped in to the #888 while Chaz Mostert took his stop from the lead with James Moffat getting back into the #55 car, coming out in the lead.

Throughout the stint, Whincup started to chip away at Moffat’s lead as McLaughlin ate at the leading pair, wanting to get back into the lead after being at the front in every one of his laps in the first stint. It wasn’t long before the top three were covered by under a second, Moffat having to defend from Whincup and McLaughlin who hounded each other, lap after lap.

Back in fourth, Caruso had his hands full keeping the #97 of Garth Tander at bay, the Triple Eight driver taking the fight to the Tickford car and remaining within half a second of each other on the cusp of fifth place.

Moffat was given a brief reprieve as Whincup had to defend from McLaughlin, holding on to second place and letting the leader get a bit of breathing space. The gap stayed at a consistent second between the top three as the race edged closer to the halfway mark.

On lap 79 both McLaughlin and Caruso came in for their next stops, the #17 being handed back to Premat as Caruso stay behind the wheel of the #6. Whincup was the next to pit at the start of lap 81, getting out of the #888 with Lowndes put back in the driver’s seat, coming out of the lane two seconds clear of Premat behind.

Moffat made his stop just on three hours in to the race, staying in the #55 to remain in sync with the rest of the co-drivers amongst the lead pack. A stall when he was dropped from the jacks meant he dropped a bucketload of time, giving the effective race lead to Lowndes with Premat second, nearly seven seconds in front of Moffat.

As Tander held onto the lead, though out of sequence, Premat kept in touch with Lowndes, hovering within one and a half seconds of the effective race leader who was starting to post his personal best laps of the race.

Handing over the lead to team-mate Lowndes and control of the #97 to Shane van Gisbergen, Tander came into the pits on lap 87 to take his final break before jumping back into the car later on. van Gisbergen emerged in fourth, eight seconds back from Moffat and only just in front of Tony D’Alberto’s DJR Team Penske Mustang.

Premat moved into the race lead on lap 92 at Hell Corner, getting a better run on Lowndes who had got a poor exit from Murray’s Corner to start the lap. With the #17 back in front, Premat held the lead but Lowndes kept in touch, holding the gap at under half a second for the next few laps.

With 95 laps done, Premat pitted and hopped out of the #17 for the final time, giving control of the Mustang over to McLaughlin to bring the car home. Lowndes stayed out, racking up a few more laps as Moffat sat seven seconds down on him with van Gisbergen chipping away at the two front cars, albeit from 13 seconds away.

Lowndes relinquished the race lead on lap 99, again getting out of the #888 with Whincup resuming his position behind the wheel. As Caruso followed him in, being replaced by Cam Waters in the #6, Whincup came out of the pits some five seconds down on McLaughlin who was pushing for a margin.

The second safety car for the race finally came out on lap 102 after Todd Hazelwood went into the wall leading up to Sulman Park, taking the #35 Matt Stone Racing Commodore out of the race.

At the same time, Will Brown entered the pits and stalled on entry, having to roll his #99 Erebus Commodore as far up the pit lane as possible before his team could come to the rescue. While it refired and went to leave the lane, the problem came back before he could rejoin the circuit, stopping at the end of the pits.

With the field now under control of the safety car, Moffat and van Gisbergen came into the pits, giving the lead to McLaughlin with Whincup in second, sitting in front of Fabian Coulthard to make it a DJR Team Penske one-three.

As McLaughlin led the pack back to the green flag, Whincup followed with Coulthard in third ahead of Waters, the Kelly Racing #7 of Andre Heimgartner, James Courtney in the #22 Walkinshaw Andretti United Commodore, Chris Pither’s Garry Rogers Motorsport #33, the Tickford Racing Mustang #5, van Gisbergen and Mostert in the top ten.

Pither was dropped from seventh to tenth on the restart lap, getting past in a bunch of brave moves from van Gisbergen and Holdsworth while Mostert went side-by-side with the GRM car into The Chase. van Gisbergen made up two spots, first on Holdsworth after an opportunistic move at The Cutting followed by the move on Pither.

McLaughlin started to open up a gap to Whincup despite the #888 setting its fastest lap of the day with his team-mate in Coulthard holding down third from Waters and Heimgartner in the highest placed Nissan.