Supercars LIVE: Scott McLaughlin hunts Peter Brock record in Sydney night race

V8 Supercars Championship 2020, Truck Assist Sydney SuperSprint, Race 10 (6.25pm EST) — The lights will be turned on at Sydney Motorsport Park on Saturday for the first night race since 2018 as the Supercars season resumes.

Cars will take to the track for the 32-lap showdown from 6.25pm (AEST) which follows qualifying during the afternoon.

Scott McLaughlin heads into the event as the championship leader, sitting on 574 points after winning races seven and nine during last month’s event at the same track.

And he’s in pole position to repeat the feat in Saturday night’s race, having claimed P1 on the grid after the qualifying shootout ahead of Shane Van Gisbergen.

Follow the action in our live blog below!

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After McLaughlin’s recent victories, he could pass Bathurst legend Peter Brock on the all-time wins list this weekend.

He needs to sweep all three races to do so which will be a tough task given the limited tyre allocations that saw results mixed up during the last round.

QUALIFYING REPORT

Scott McLaughlin claimed pole for Saturday night’s race after a sensational qualifying lap of 1:27.7428, claiming a record lap time and beating out Shane van Gisbergen for top spot.

Shane van Gisbergen got closest but ultimately fell 0.2756s short, while Cam Waters was the finest performer of qualifying by starting first in the Top 15 shootout but claiming P3 with a stellar 1:28.0596.

Jamie Whincup ended up fourth ahead of Lee Holdsworth and Fabian Coulthard.

The Holdens of Mark Winterbottom, Anton De Pasquale, Macauley Jones, Bryce Fullwood, Nick Percat, David Reynolds filled seventh through 12th.

The top dozen all used softs in the shootout, but Chaz Mostert, Chris Pither and Todd Hazelwood completed the order on the hards.

“I’m pretty stoked, the car was awesome then,” beamed McLaughlin.

“You always feel like this is happy hour now, you can go really fast in these times and these conditions and the car felt really good, I’m really comfortable with it on soft tyres.

“We need to make a little bit better on hards but overall I’m really happy with it.”

Those eliminated in Q2 and starting 16th through 20th were Scott Pye, James Courtney, Jack Le Brocq, Garry Jacobson and Andre Heimgartner.

Rounding out the field will be the Q1 casualties Rick Kelly, Alex Davison, Jack Smith and Zane Goddard, marking a tough start to the event for Kelly Racing.

- with Supercars.com

Top 15 shootout result:

1. Scott McLaughlin

2. Shane van Gisbergen

3. Cameron Waters

4. Jamie Whincup

5. Lee Holdsworth

6. Fabian Coulthard

7. Mark Winterbottom

8. Anton De Pasquale

9. Macauley Jones

10. Bryce Fullwood

11. Nick Percat

12. David Reynolds

13. Chaz Mostert

14. Chris Pither

15. Todd Hazelwood

How it happened:

Rick Kelly, Davison, Smith, and Goddard (21-25 respectively) were the bottom four performers in Qualifying 1, before Pye, Courtney, Le Brocq, Jacobson, and Heimgartner were excluded at the end of Qualifying 2.

Cam Waters started first in the Top 15 shootout, having finished P15 after Quali 2. He set a strong time with a 1:28.0596. That was better than the next three drivers could offer (Jamie Whincup, Lee Holdsworth, and Todd Hazelwood).

Scott McLaughlin was next, and blasted onto provisional pole with a qualifying record 1:27.7428 for the two-time champ.

Shane Van Gisbergen went next, and managed to move into provisional P2 with a very strong 1:28.0184.

B Fullwood went provisional P6, before losing that spot to Mark Winterbottom’s 1:28.5133.

M. Jones split the pair to go provisional P7 straight after.

Chaz Mostert followed and went P9 provisionally, before Reynolds did the exact same on used soft tyres, claiming P9.

Anton de Pasquale pulled out a good lap to go P7, before Nick Percat slotted into provisional P10.

Finally, Coulthard came out last and went into P6.

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PRACTICE REPORT

Shane van Gisbergen battled Scott McLaughlin in the dying stages of Practice 2, as the category’s heavyweight teams slugged it out during the day’s second practice session.

The second 30-minute session ended with the Red Bull Commodores of van Gisbergen and Jamie Whincup first and fourth, split by the two Shell Mustangs.

Having focused on long-run pace on the hard tyre in Practice 1, van Gisbergen immediately went to the top in the second session, recording a 1:29.0089s.

That time stood until McLaughlin shaved 0.0984s off with two minutes remaining, before van Gisbergen went 0.2602s quicker again with the chequered flag flying.

“My first lap then on the soft was two and a half or three seconds faster so the time difference is a lot more than I thought it was going to be,” he said.

“I think there’s going to be a lot of people run the soft twice to win a race and then screw the rest of the weekend.

“The time difference between the tyres is massive.”

— With Supercars.com

SATURDAY SCHEDULE

PRACTICE 2: 1:30 PM - 2:00 PM

ARMOR ALL QUALIFYING PART 1 - RACE 10: 3:10 PM - 3:20 PM

ARMOR ALL QUALIFYING PART 2 - RACE 10: 3:25 PM - 3:35 PM

ARMOR ALL QUALIFYING TFSO - RACE 10: 3:45 PM - 4:25 PM

RACE 10: 6:25 PM - 7:23 PM

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