Scott McLaughlin and Michael Caruso put incident behind them
A potential rift after Nissan Motorsport’s Michael Caruso knocked Volvo Polestar Racing’s Scott McLaughlin out of the lead from the second race at Queensland Raceway seems unlikely, with the two drivers quick to clear the air after the incident.
Caruso came together with McLaughlin’s S60 at Turn 6 on lap 22, with the 31-year-old taking his Nissan Altima down the inside in a late lunge whilst chasing Nissan’s first win since Winton last season, his first win since Hidden Valley in 2009, which was with his previous employer, Garry Rogers Motorsport, which now run the Volvo squad.
McLaughlin was turned around and dropped down the order, while Caruso continued on in the lead until he was handed a drive-through penalty for the manoeuvre, which handed victory to Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Jamie Whincup.
Caruso spoke to McLaughlin immediately after the race, before the TV crew spoke to the 21-year-old Kiwi about the incident.
“He had to have a go,” said McLaughlin. “I don’t blame the bloke for having a go, it’s just one of those things, but I had to make the turn. It’s just racing, I would have had the go if I was in second place as well, everyone makes mistakes.
“I’m pissed off, but at the end of the day everyone makes mistakes, we’ll move on, we’ve got tomorrow, I’m good mates with Michael, it’ll make it a bit awkward, but we’ll work it out.”
Caruso added:
“We had a lot of speed today, and that has been very encouraging for the Nissan Motorsport team,” said Michael Caruso.
“Qualifying second was great, and my start wasn’t too bad and I was just plugging away at Scott (McLaughlin’s) lead.
“We had the coming together down at the last turn. I had a chat with Scotty and apologised to him. Obviously, the incident was not intentional.
“That’s racing. We’re out there, having a go and it is what it is. We’ll have to focus on tomorrow now.”
Michael Caruso’s drive-through was the only penalty handed out in either of today’s races.
The Ipswich race meeting continues tomorrow with the third race of the weekend which is run to 200km, or 65 laps.
