Supercars star Scott McLaughlin has secured a 100th pole position for Dick Johnson Racing after winning his 12th qualifying race of the season at the Ipswich SuperSprint.
McLaughlin set a practice lap record and backed it up the next day with another sizzling lap the Queensland Raceway on Saturday.
The Kiwi ace is responsible for 41 of DJR’s 100 poles and praised Johnson after stopping the clock at 1:08.6369 seconds in his Ford Mustang.
« It’s awesome, so proud of everyone, DJ told me the first was in car 17 and the 100th is in car 17, » McLaughlin said.
« I’m pretty stoked to get the pole with the margin we have. »
McLaughlin leads the drivers’ standings by 292 points and finished just ahead of Jamie Whincup, who is looking to snap a 24-race winless run – his worst in 13 years.
« That was a really good effort, we weren’t that happy with the car in practice, but the car was better and we got more out of it, » Whincup said.
« We owe it to everyone that has paid $50 to get in the gate today to get the start and make it a race. We’re not here to run second, we’ll give it a red-hot go. »
Will Davison rounded up the top three.
McLaughlin has won just three of the past 14 races at Ipswich. The 26-year-old and Chaz Mostert (2015) are the only two drivers to convert pole into victory in the past eight years.
http://www.espn.com/v8-supercars/story/_/id/27266668/mclaughlin-wins-100th-pole-djr
