Friction between childhood friends Scott McLaughlin and Chaz Mostert has intensified following a late-race clash in the Wilson Security Sandown 500.
Mostert took seventh position away from fellow rising star McLaughlin with just over four of the 161 laps remaining with an inside move at Turn 9.
The two cars made contact at the apex, bumping the Volvo off the circuit and back to eighth place.
McLaughlin immediately unleashed a furious tirade against Mostert on his team radio, promising that his rival was “going in the fence”.
After tailing the Ford Performance Racing Falcon to the line by almost two seconds, McLaughlin soon marched down to the Ford garage to remonstrate with Mostert.
“That was probably the most angry I’ve ever been,” McLaughlin told Speedcafe.com afterward.
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“I don’t rate it when you get absolutely shafted.
“You’ve got to race hard and rubbing is racing, I’m all for that.
“But there’s a point where someone has just used you as a brake.
“It doesn’t matter how far up you are, I’ve got to make the turn as much as he does.
“You can’t just use someone up like that.”
Stewards later declared that no breach of the driving code had occurred during the incident; a stance that Mostert not surprisingly agreed with.
“We had fresher tyres than most people and I saw an opportunity into Dandenong Road Corner,” Mostert recounted to Speedcafe.com.
“I put my nose down there, stopped the car and unfortunately he turned in and didn’t give me much room.
“We could have run side-by-side but we touched and he ran wide.
“It was a racing incident in my eyes.
“Obviously he had the lip down afterwards but that’s the way it is. That’s racing.”
“To me it’s just Scotty,” he added when asked if he was surprised be confronted by McLaughlin post-race.
“He had a bit of a kerfuffle with Van Giz in Perth and had a sook about that.
“I was expecting it after the race that he’d have the lip down.”
McLaughlin and Mostert enjoyed a friendship during their karting years but have since grown increasingly competitive with one another during their parallel progression through the Dunlop Series and into the main game.
“It’s complicated,” said McLaughlin of the former friendship.
“We used to be pretty good mates but obviously careers change.
“I still respect him as a driver, he’s a bloody good driver, don’t get me wrong.
“But there’s no friends out there.”
Despite the heat-of-the-moment threat of retribution, McLaughlin says he will “just move on” from today’s incident.
“I’ve got more important things to worry about than that guy,” he said.
“He’ll trip over himself, he normally does, so we’ll be right.”
Mostert likewise says he’ll be focussed on beating each of his rivals at next month’s Bathurst 1000, not just McLaughlin.
“We were mates through go-karts but unfortunately when you get into competitive racing it’s hard to keep it that way,” he noted.
“I love racing everyone out there and you’re always going to have your moments with someone.
“I’m just doing my thing and looking forward to getting to Bathurst.”
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