He was Supercars' highest-priced off-season signing and Scott McLaughlin is proving to be worth the big money he was paid to join flying Ford squad DJR Team Penske.
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McLaughlin scored his third straight win - and the American-controlled team's fifth in a row - in the opening leg of the Winton SuperSprint on Saturday to join his teammate and fellow New Zealander Fabian Coulthard at the top of the championship standings.
Coulthard, who finished third in the 40-lap, 120-kilometre sprint, is now just 10 points clear in the lead as McLaughlin vaulted from equal fourth to become a serious title contender after nine races. He has overcome an error-ridden start to his switch to DJR Team Penske to become the driver to beat after dominating the past three races, which started with his sweep of the Perth SuperSprint two weeks ago.
McLaughlin, 23, had been targeted by the Ford team now owned by American racing legend Roger Penske in partnership with local Ford folk hero Dick Johnson as far back as 2015.
He was snapped up as soon as he became available, signing as a multi-year, multi-million dollar deal in the middle of last season to join Coulthard this year.
McLaughlin, regarded as the fastest rising star in Supercars, was already a proven race winner with Garry Rogers Motorsport and has quickly lived up to DJR Team Penske's expectation that he would help lead it forward.
He has done that with not only his own speed in the squad's refettled Falcons, but also by inspiring Coulthard to lift his game and consolidate as a regular front-runner, winning two races early in the season. Just as he did in the previous race in Perth, McLaughlin dominated from pole position in Saturday's opening sprint race at the twisting 3km Winton Motor Raceway, only conceding the lead as the 29-car field - boosted by three wildcard entries from the second-tier Super2 series - cycled through the compulsory pit stop to fit at least two fresh tyres.
Record six-time V8 champion Jamie Whincup finished a solid, if uninspiring, second in his Holden Commodore, 1.6seconds behind, and just ahead of Coulthard, who battled on to the podium from fifth on the starting grid.
David Reynolds stormed through from 14th on the grid to finish fourth in his underdog Erebus Motorsport Commodore, overtaking Bathurst champion Will Davison on the second last lap.
Whincup remains third in the title standings, 13 points behind Coulthard, while his Triple Eight teammate, defending Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen, has slipped from second to fourth in the standings a further 45 points behind.
Van Gisbergen started from third, but a poor start in his Holden Racing Team Commodore and a slow pit stop saw him struggle to eighth place.
In contrast, V8 veteran Craig Lowndes stormed through from 19th to sixth place in Triple Eight's third entry in a performance similar to his charge from last to eighth in the previous race in Perth.
James Courtney almost pulled off a stunning recovery for beleaguered Walkinshaw Racing, battling back from another desultory qualifying performance to contend for 10th in the closing stages. On the final lap Courtney was poised to muscle his way past Percat's Brad Jones Racing Commodore, only for the pair to collide, sending Courtney off into a sandtrap and out of the race.
