MOTORSPORT: Ford Mustang wins Bathurst

Scott McLaughlin and Alex Premat’s win in the Bathurst 1000 is understood to be safe despite DJR Team Penske being charged with breaching team orders rules in yesterday’s race.

The charge relates to an instruction issued to the team’s other Ford Mustang of Fabian Coulthard and Tony D’Alberto which slowed dramatically during a safety car period, delaying much of the field behind it on lap 135 of the 161 lap race.

That delay of more than 40 seconds enabled Coulthard to pit without stacking behind team-mate McLaughlin.

Coulthard subsequently received a drive-through penalty for his slow pace, which the team claims it instructed him to do because his engine was overheating.

But backing up the field also had tactical consequences. Most obviously affecting Holden factory driver Shane van Gisbergen.

He had a fuel advantage over the other leading cars and would have taken the lead of the race by staying out. But trapped and backed-up behind Coulthard, he was instructed to pit.

“I don’t want to say anything, but it’s pretty obvious what happened,” said van Gisbergen post-race.

“Probably still we would have had to fight it out with Jamie (Whincup) and Scotty, which would have been awesome, and we would have had to (have) been closer.

“We were stuck behind so many more cars, so much more traffic, but it is what it is.

“That car (Coulthard) has been a sacrificial lamb all year, so deal with it.”

Coulthard, who ended up sixth in the race, was no happier with the situation, as he was copping the brunt of fan criticism post-race.

In public and at a CAMS stewards hearing into the matter on Sunday night, DJRTP made it explicitly clear Coulthard was acting under instruction and not unilaterally.

DJRTP has been charged with a breach of Rule D24.1 that “prohibits Team Orders and provides that an instruction to a Driver or Team member, either verbal or otherwise the effect of which may interfere with a race result is a Team Order”.

A hearing on the matter will be conducted in the lead-up to the Gold Coast 600 within the next two weeks.

It is expected that a teams’ championship points penalty and/or a monetary fine are the most likely punishments to be meted out. It could be more severe, depending on the evidence presented at the hearing.

The controversy around the team orders issue overwhelmed the euphoria of another hectic Bathurst 1000, which came down to a one lap-sprint to the chequered flag after the safety car withdrew from the track for the eighth and final time in the 161 lap race.

McLaughlin successfully held off fellow New Zealander van Gisbergen (sharing with Garth Tander), with Walkinshaw Andretti United duo James Courtney and Jack Perkins finishing third ahead of van Gisbergen and Tander’s team-mates Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes.

It was McLaughlin’s first win at Bathurst and the first win at the first attempt for the new Ford Mustang Supercar. The dominant duo are now set up to clinch the driver’s championship on the Gold Coast.

After qualifying on pole by 0.4s, McLaughlin entered Sunday as heavy favourite. But as normal, Bathurst threw plenty of curve balls, starting with a lap one safety car when Tim Slade slammed his Brad Jones Racing Commodore into the concrete.

Things stayed relatively calm for the next 100 laps as the co-drivers churned through their mandatory laps, but seven safety cars in the last 60 laps turned the race into a strategic maze.

McLaughlin always had pace but the fall of safety cars turned his emphasis to fuel economy.

In the end, he made it home comfortably as the safety cars enabled him to manage the Shell V-Power Mustang’s fuel burn.

“I can’t believe I won the bloody Bathurst 1000! We had such a good car all week, I put so much pressure on myself, our whole team put so much pressure on themselves to make this a good one. I’m so proud of everyone. We made a bloody good car. I’ve dreamt about this, standing on that roof.”

The big loser out of the race was undoubtedly Tickford Racing. Yet again leading drivers Cam Waters and Chaz Mostert tangled, with both ending up bogged in the sand. Both Ford Mustangs were winning chances till then.

Mostert took full responsibility for the incident. Despite both cars being on a fuel-saving run and him actually benefitting from the tow from following his team-mate he still tried to overtake Waters in the chase.

When Waters moved left to defend, Mostert dodged right, locked up and tripped over his team-mate.

“Obviously I’m shattered,” Mostert said in a team statement. “You know, it’s the biggest race of the year, the event we look forward to most, and the race we want to win most. It was so tight up the front all day, we were just setting up for the last stint, had a good run on Cam, and just got crossed up and we hit. I didn’t need to pass him, shouldn’t have tried, and it ruined both our races which is the worst part.

“I’m really sorry to Cam and the whole team, we should be celebrating a podium or two right now, but we’re empty handed.”

Check out the full championship points here