The Ford Mustang Supercar with which Scott McLaughlin won the 2019 Repco Bathurst 1000 has arrived at The Bend ahead of this weekend’s OTR SuperSprint.
DJRTP06 is one of the most successful chassis in Australian Touring Car Championship history, notwithstanding that it was all but written off in a crash at the Gold Coast in 2019.
McLaughlin got off to a storming start to that season, the first for the Mustang nameplate in the modern era, winning six of the first seven races while not starting the other due to a collision on the way to the grid at Albert Park.
DJRTP06 would go on to win at least one race in every meeting it started, save for the Gold Coast 600, when the New Zealander crashed heavily at the front chicane in Sunday morning qualifying.
It would be rebuilt by PACE Engineering and is now owned by Roger Penske, who was a co-owner of what was DJR Team Penske at the time.
The highlight of the car’s racing life was arguably the 2019 Bathurst win, with Alexandre Premat as co-driver, although the achievement was soured somewhat by controversies over the infamous slowdown and then an engine breach which saw McLaughlin officially stripped of pole position weeks after the fact.
It will be on display at the Welcome Centre of the circuit now known as Shell V-Power Motorsport Park this weekend, before being sent to the Penske Racing Museum in Arizona.
“We are forever trying to blow fans and visitors of the Shell V-Power Motorsport Park away and it is a privilege to host this iconic car in our Welcome Centre, which is truly the epicentre of our venue,” said circuit CEO Alistair MacDonald.
McLaughlin won both of his races at The Bend in DJRTP06 and would also (unofficially) seal a third straight championship title at the South Australian venue in 2020.
Meanwhile, the Peter Brock Trophy which is held by the most recent Bathurst 1000 winners has visited Adelaide Oval as part of its tour to this year’s Great Race.
It too will appear at The Bend this weekend.
GALLERY: Scott McLaughlin Bathurst 1000 winner at The Bend
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