McLaughlin and Premat forced to sit out Sunday Gold Coast race after qualifying crash

The Enduro Cup leaders in Scott McLaughlin and Alex Premat will be watching Sunday’s Supercars Championship race around the streets of Surfers Paradise from the sidelines after their DJR Team Penske car was involved in a qualifying crash.

Trying to improve on his provisional pole time, McLaughlin was pushing hard when he overran the first chicane, pin-balling the Ford Mustang across the track and onto its side, causing the session to come to a premature end.

After getting the car back on a tow truck, DJR Team Penske has confirmed that their #17 entry will be withdrawn from the rest of day’s proceedings due to the damage sustained from the incident.

McLaughlin had the chance to wrap up the title today, being 622 points clear of Triple Eight’s Shane van Gisbergen with only 600 points on offer after this round.

The defending series champion will now have to wait until the Sandown 500 in two weekends time for a chance to clinch his second title, having secured 18 race wins and 15 pole positions so far this season in a dominant title defence.