Dramatic double victory for Scott McLaughlin at Phillip Island

Scott McLaughlin claimed a dramatic double victory for Volvo Polestar Racing in the V8 Supercars weekend at Phillip Island, jumping him from eighth to fifth in the championship. ”I feel pretty ecstatic! It was an awesome fight with Lowndes in the first race and an awesome end to the final race,” said McLaughlin.   Watch a video from the dramatic race here: http://bit.ly/1sWxB8Z   The 21-year-old headed the field from lights to flag in the first race from pole position and was under hard pressure from Red Bull Racing Australia drivers Craig Lowndes and newly crowned champion Jamie Whincup throughout the entire race.   But the real drama came in the final race of 45 laps. McLaughlin jumped pole sitter Whincup to take the lead into the first corner from second place on the grid. The Volvo driver then lost one spot to Holden driver Garth Tander during the pitstops as McLaughlin took what proved to be a vital extra amount of fuel compared to Tander.   McLaughlin reeled Tander in during the final ten laps and was right on the rear bumper of the Holden driver in the final couple of laps. Just as it looked like McLaughlin had to settle for second place, Tander ran out of fuel in the very last corner of the last lap, enabling the Volvo driver to blast past to take his fifth victory of the year with a 0.4521 second margin. ”I feel for Garth (Tander) and in some ways it was a bit lucky. But my car was great the whole time and I knew that I had enough tire life to attack him. It was very difficult because of the dirty air, you get a lot of understeer coming onto the straight. I am stoked to get two wins, climb to fifth in the championship and to claim my ninth pole of the year,” said McLaughlin.   Team mate Robert Dahlgren had a fighting weekend with 19th as best qualifying result and 22nd as best race result. ”It was a tough weekend for me, we just didn’t get it right. We had a problem yesterday that continued today. We will take more time after this weekend to analyse it and hopefully come out stronger in Sydney,” said Dahlgren.   The fifth victory, the ninth pole position of 2014 and the climb to fifth in the drivers’ championship of McLaughlin confirms the strong form of the Volvo S60 Polestar V8SC in its debut V8 Supercars season. ”We are very glad to have our best weekend of 2014 and a performance curve pointing straight up in the final run of races ahead of the 2015 season. Scott and the team put in an amazing effort this weekend and it is of course extra nice to have that dramatic end to the final race for us and all the fans,” said Christian Dahl, CEO of Polestar.]]>