McLaughlin breaks record and claims pole in Sydney

Scott McLaughlin

The lights are on and the stage is set for Supercars spectacular return to night racing this evening and it's two-time defending Champion Scott McLaughlin who will again start from ARMOR ALL Pole Position.

A lap record time in the Top 15 Shootout has given the 27-year old kiwi his 64th career pole and third from the last four races, ensuring he starts from the best spot on the grid under lights tonight at the Truck Assist Sydney SuperSprint.

Today's pole follows McLaughlin's results at Eastern Creek three weeks ago in which he claimed two poles and two race wins.

The #17 Shell Mustang driver was just the fifth man out in the Shootout amid a three-stage qualifying format spiced up by the weekend’s limited allocation of soft tires.

He recorded blistering lap time of 1:27.7428s that would not be beaten by any of the 10 remaining runners and narrowly undercut his own track record from three weeks ago.

Running directly after McLaughlin, Shane van Gisbergen got closest but ultimately fell 0.27 short in his Red Bull Holden Racing Team Commodore.

Cameron Waters was an even bigger Shootout mover, running first and setting a time that proved good enough for third in his Monster Energy Mustang.

Seven-time Champion Jamie Whincup was second out and ended up fourth ahead of Lee Holdsworth and Fabian Coulthard, who topped Q2 and was therefore the final Shootout contender.

The first of three races for the weekend will take place under lights from 6:25pm AEST.

Starting grid for Race 10 – Truck Assist Sydney SuperSprint
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
16. Scott Pye
17. James Courtney
18. Jack Le Brocq
19. Garry Jacobson
20. Andre Heimgartner
21. Rick Kelly
22. Alex Davison
23. Jack Smith
24. Zane Goddard

Race 1 will start under lights at 6:25 pm on Saturday followed by Race 2 at 12:25pm on Sunday and Race 3 at 2:50pm on Sunday.