Hi to all you Supercars fans around the world!
On the weekend of the 14th to the 17th of March 2019 was the Beaurepaires Melbourne 400 at Albert Park in Melbourne, Victoria.
The Larry Perkins Trophy is up for grabs with Jamie Whincup defending ownership after his great win last year. Incidentally, earlier in the previous week Larry Perkins went into hospital for surgery to remove a gallbladder.
In the past The Melbourne 400 was run as a support category to the Australian Grand Prix F1 series. It was only last year that the Melbourne 400 officially became the second round of the V8 Supercars championship. I think it makes for more exciting racing as it is no longer seen as a ‘test run’.
The Melbourne 400 is an interesting opportunity in the championship because there are actually four races (25, 13, 25 & 13 laps), giving drivers with different strengths an opportunity to take advantage.
It also means 4 qualifying rounds which give the rookies a better chance to get to know the track.
Albert Park is an interesting venue as it is one of the longer tracks being 5.303Kms.
Race 4 also had the honour of being the 1000th race since the championship started in 1960. So the weekend was quite a milestone for the sport.
As we entered the weekend, the Red Bull Holden Racing Team held the Team’s Championship lead by 5 points, while Scott McLaughlin defends his lead in the Driver’s Championship.
In the pre-race sessions it was Chaz Mostert driving his new superfast Ford Mustang who had his best weekend in a while:
- Chaz Mostert was fastest in Practice 1
- Scott McLaughlin was fastest in Practice 2
- Scott McLaughlin was also fastest in Qualifying for Race 3, 4 & 5
- Chaz Mostert was fastest in Qualifying for Race 6
All 4 Qualifying sessions were only 10 minutes each.
Race 3 was run on Friday as sunset approached at 5:55pm
Scott McLaughlin started on pole position and alongside him was Fabian Coulthard.
At the start of 130 Kilometre, 25 lap race Scott McLaughlin got the jump on his teammate Fabian Coulthard.
Scott McLaughlin now didn’t have to worry about clean air or about being stuck behind his teammate.
It was all Mustangs at the front, Scott McLaughlin, Fabian Coulthard and Cameron Waters followed by Red Bull’s Shane Van Gisbergen in his Commodore.
However, it was the compulsory tyre change pit stop that would be the decider for many.
The only time Scott McLaughlin wasn’t leading the race was during the pitstop shuffle.
Scott McLaughlin hit the pits on lap 12 with a 4 second lead and once again came out on track to dominate.
Jamie Whincup pitted first because he didn’t want Shane Van Gisbergen who was running with a chance for a podium position to be waiting in the pits for too long behind him.
However, Shane Van Gisbergen waited to pit on lap 15 and it just mucked up his flow. There were now 4 Mustangs ahead of him.
Will Davison was happy with the way his ford Mustang was performing with only 10 laps to go he was now in 4th position.
Macauley Jones was travelling well and enjoying his first Albert Park event as a rookie.
With 6 laps remaining Shane Van Gisbergen picked up and returned to his lead over Will Davison.
Towards the end of the race, with only 4 laps remaining Shane Van Gisbergen’s engine let go which meant he was the only car to have no points. He came into Albert Park 2nd in championship, but after a disastrous weekend he is now 11th in the championship on minus 175 points.
Scott McLaughlin comfortably took in first place. This made it his 3rd win from the first 3 races in the season.
However, it was Chaz Mostert who had everyone’s eyebrows raised. He started in 22nd on the grid and was 13th by the middle of the race. Once out of the pits he showed everyone just what his car could do and came across the finish line 5th just behind Will Davison. That is a gain of 17 in 25 laps!!!! (I am sure I could hear Chaz singing ‘Day-o, day-o. Come, mister tally man, tally me banana’).
Results for race 3
1st Scott McLaughlin – Shell V Power Racing Team
2nd Fabian Coulthard – Shell V Power Racing Team
3rd Cameron Waters – Monster Energy Racing Team
4th Will Davison – 23 Red Racing Team car 23
5th Chaz Mostert – Supercheap Auto Racing Team
In race 4 Scott McLaughlin started on pole position alongside him was Chaz Mostert.
But again Scott McLaughlin dominated race 4, which wasn’t surprising because the Mustang’s were quick all weekend.
Jamie Whincup was battling with Chaz Mostert for 3rd place. When Chaz Mostert passed him and then Cameron Waters, Jamie Whincup had dropped back to 4th place.
Garry Jacobson and James Golding made contact on the main straight which I thought would end in a massive shunt but thankfully there wasn’t.
Scott McLaughlin was still the driver no one could beat because he was flying and dominated the race from start to finish. He crossed the finish with 2.5 seconds plus lead. This made it his 4th win out 4 starts in the championship.
It also seems the Mustangs, the newest entry to the track this year are making quite a splash. It was Chaz Mostert (Mustang) and Cameron Waters (Mustang) that pushed Red Bull’s Jamie Whincup in his ZB Commodore out of the top 3 positions.
Results for Race 4
1st Scott McLaughlin – Shell V Power Racing Team
2nd Chaz Mostert – Supercheap Auto Racing
3rd Cameron Waters – Monster Energy Racing
Before race 5 started on the warm up lap, both Scott McLaughlin and Cameron Waters came together which resulted in both drives not starting and being classified as a NC (Not Complete) as a result Nick Percat and Tim Slade were affectively on the front row of the grid.
Tim Slade kept the lead as Jamie Whincup who started from 6th position came in behind him.
Fabain Coulthard was trying to stay out of trouble because he didn’t want to help the Dick Johnson Racing Team by leaving the track to repair his car.
At lap 13 Jamie Whincup finally took the lead. Tim Slade and Nick Percat then battled for the trailing positions. Nick Percat came into turn 15 in a poor position on the outside driving wide and lost several places that he just couldn’t recover from in the remaining time.
After the pitstops it was Mostert who was right behind Whincup at the lead. The pressure was on.
With only 6 laps remaining Shane Van Gisbergen lost his right back wheel! The Vodafone Safety Car was called out.
With four laps to go Chaz Mostert once again wanted to prove what his Mustang could do and took the lead off Jamie Whincup who was now closely followed by Tim Slade. David Reynolds in his ZB Commodore was not far behind. I get the feeling it was more important to him to stay ahead of Fabian Coulthard’s Mustang than to try take 3rd position from Time Slade (also Commodore).
Chaz Mostert was incredibly fast and opened the gap on his lead to over a second. It was incredible to watch. This was his first race win for 2019. Congratulations Chaz! ‘Day-o, day-o
Daylight come and me wan’ go home’.
Aside from Scott McLaughlin and Cameron Waters who never made it past the warm up lap, it was only Richie Stanaway who was disqualified from the results due to making contact with another car. He later received a $10,000 fine for the incident. Ouch!
Results for Race 5
1st Chaz Mostert – Supercheap Auto Racing.
2nd Jamie Whincup – Red Bull Holden Racing team.
3rd Tim Slade – Brad Jones Racing.
In race 6 Chaz Mostert started on pole position and alongside him was Scott McLaughlin.
At the start of the race Scott McLaughlin got the jump and led the way early on. Given that it was only a 13-lap race with no pit stops, Scott McLaughlin dominated the race once again.
Chaz Mostert got off to a bad start from pole and was immediately behind Jamie Whincup.
It took until lap 3 for Mostert to take Whincup and get into 2nd position but by now Scott McLaughlin had a 2+ second lead.
Rick Kelly didn’t want to get to close to the drivers in front of him otherwise he would get caught up in an accident.
In the middle of the race Macauley Jones had another massive shunt which meant the safety car was deployed to clear Macauley Jones car. He was the only car to leave the race with a Not Complete.
As the race resumed Chaz Mostert made a go for Scott McLaughlin’s lead spot but couldn’t come close. It was still exciting to watch and Im sure it did have Scott McLaughlin on edge.
As they came across the line no one could catch those top 3; Scott McLaughlin, Chaz Mostert and Jamie Whincup.
Results for race 6
1st Scott McLaughlin – Shell V Power Racing team
2nd Chaz Mostert – Supercheap Auto Racing Team
3rd Jamie Whincup – Red Bull Holden Racing Team
Chaz Mostert won the Larry Perkins Trophy and Jamie Whincup claimed his 200th podium in his Supercars Career.
Supercars has dropped the time certain race finishes unless there are major Safety Car delays.
Triple 8 are going to debut a new Supercars wheel retention system which is to stop the wheel from coming off the car out on the race track.
The next event is the Tyrepower Tasmania Supersprint on the 5th to the 7th of April 2019.
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please feel free to comment on How the Beaurepaires Melbourne 400 went.