HE may have departed for the IndyCar Series but Scott McLaughlin still holds bragging rights for the fastest lap in a Supercar around Mount Panorama.
The reigning Repco Supercars Champion set a 2m03.4813s lap during the 2019 Bathurst 1000 race weekend, an event which ended with he and co-driver Alex Premat taking the victory.
The time – 0.0779s quicker than Cam Waters’ pole position time from last year’s Bathurst 1000 – still stands as the fastest lap completed by a Supercar at the Mount Panorama circuit, even though McLaughlin’s fastest laps from the weekend were scrubbed from the record books.
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The #17 Ford Mustang was retrospectively excluded from the Qualifying and the Top 10 Shootout results from the 2019 race following post-event analysis of the engine that was in the car for the start of the weekend.
DJR Team Penske received permission to change the engine in the car after the Top 10 Shootout after seeing abnormally high water pressure.
A post-race inspection by Supercars revealed that the engine exceeded the maximum valve lift in five cylinders – something the team put down to either damage that occurred due to running hot, or improper measurement as it was being assembled.
Although Supercars’ own dyno tests found that the engine produced a legal amount of horsepower in this state, the fact that it was outside the technical specifications listed in the rules resulted in a penalty that, among other things, stripped McLaughlin of his fastest times in the two qualifying sessions.
That handed the Pole Award – and pole position in the record books, plus the Supercars qualifying lap record – to Chaz Mostert.
Mostert’s qualifying mark was surpassed last year by Cam Waters, who took pole position for the 2020 Bathurst 1000 with a 2m03.5592s lap.
But, as of this year’s season-opening Repco Mount Panorama 500, it is still McLaughlin and not Waters who holds the fastest Supercars lap recorded around Mount Panorama.
McLaughlin’s 2m03.4813s lap was set in Practice 5 of the 2019 event and still stands given that he was only excluded from Qualifying and the Top 10 Shootout.
However, it is Mostert who still holds the race lap record in a Supercar – the one that is traditionally considered the ‘official’ lap record as it was set under race conditions – with a 2m04.7602s time set late in the 2019 Bathurst 1000.
