FOLLOWING his third straight Championship victory, Scott McLaughlin’s move to a career in Indycar presents an interesting opportunity for the field in the 2021 title chase.

WORDS: Mark Walker IMAGES:  Frank Hodak / The Bend Motorsport Park

We’ve crunched the numbers on the 27 races contested throughout 2020, with McLaughlin clearly ahead in most of the important categories.

This year, the red 17 Mustang won 48% of all races, Holdens won 41%, and the other Fords claimed a combined 11% – the absence of McLaughlin will present a massive opportunity for others to step up next season in his absence.

Elsewhere in the field during 2020 there were some sizable improvements made.

For instance, Jack Le Brocq made the biggest improvement in the driver’s standings, while Team 18’s expansion to two cars saw them post some big numbers, and ultimately place two cars in the top-ten of the driver’s championship.

Holden too showed overall improvement, with Ford left in an interesting place heading into next year.

Below are many of the key stats – including where Jack Smith set the same number of fastest race laps as champ McLaughlin!

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By the Numbers

-2,334.94km: Total distance shorter, 2020 season (4239.7km) versus the 2019 season (6,574.64km)

2.9: Scott McLaughlin’s average qualifying position to lead the series, while he had an average finishing position of 3.7.

3: Most DNFs of the season, shared between Chris Pither and the Jake Kostecki/Zane Goddard Superlites entry. Alex Davison had one DNF and a pair of DNS’s at the penultimate round after engine issues.

5: Different teams won races, up from three last year, but the same as 2018.

6: Different venues were raced at during the season – the least since five in 1969, the first year a series was contested. Of those six venues, there were seven different circuit configurations, taking into account the changes at The Bend week-on-week. Albert Park was interesting – following practice, two out of the four qualifying sessions contested, before the event was abandoned – but the four non-contested races were still counted in the overall tally for the year. From 1970, at least seven different venues have been visited in each season.

8: Most lead changes in a race – Bathurst. Race 1 Adelaide Parklands, Race 1 Darwin 1, Race 1 The Bend 1 and Race 2 The Bend 2 each had seven official lead changes each. Meanwhile at the other end of the scale, races in Sydney, Darwin (2) and Townsville (2) each only had two lead changes each.

8: Different race winners throughout the season, three more than last year, but the same as 2018.

11: Safety car appearances (five coming from Bathurst), with 22 races running safety car free. A total of 32 laps were spent behind the Safety Car.

11: Races won by the Holden ZB Commodore – the same as last year, although in five less races – a 41% winning rate in 2020 versus 34% for 2019.

12th: The lowest starting position to win a race, Shane Van Gisbergen Race 3 Townsville 2.

13: Different drivers set the fastest laps of the 27 races. Chaz Mostert led the way with 6, from Shane Van Gisbergen (5), Bryce Fullwood, Anton de Pasquale, Scott Pye, Cameron Waters and Jack Le Brocq on two, with David Reynolds Andre Heimgartner, Jack Smith, James Courtney, Fabian Coulthard and Scott McLaughlin registering 1 each.

14: Races were won from the pole position.

15: Different main drivers stood on the podium this year versus 13 last year.

15: Pole positions for Scott McLaughlin. Jamie Whincup scored 5 and Shane Van Gisbergen 2, while Cam Waters, Chaz Mostert, Nick Percat, Todd Hazelwood and Andre Heimgartner scored one each.

18^th: Highest placed rookie at the end of the season – Bryce Fullwood.

21: Podium finishes for Scott McLaughlin, leading home Jamie Whincup (14) and Shane Van Gisbergen (10).

27: Races actually contested, the least since 26 in 2017.

161.801km/h: Average speed of the Bathurst 1000, the fastest of the year. Second fastest race was Race 1 Tailem Bend 2 (West Circuit) at 157.000km/h average. The slowest race was Race 3 Townsville 2 with an average speed of 123.829km/h.

320: Laps led by Scott McLaughlin, ahead of Shane Van Gisbergen on 306, with 105 of his P1 laps registered at Bathurst. Whincup led for a total of 169 circuits, with Cameron Waters ahead for 50. The only main drivers not to lead a lap during the year were Alex Davison, Garry Jacobson, Macauley Jones, as well as the Matt Stone Racing Superlite entry of Jake Kostecki and Zane Goddard.

1,134: Total laps contested in season 2020, with Scott McLaughlin and Chaz Mostert completing every circuit.

2020 Without McLaughlin

Pretending for a moment that Scott McLaughlin was absent from the 2020 results sheets, the following second place finishers to the number 17 Mustang would have won the below number of additional races:

Shane Van Gisbergen – 3

Lee Holdsworth – 2

Fabian Coulthard – 2

Jamie Whincup – 2

Cameron Waters – 2

Chaz Mostert – 1

Nick Percat – 2

Anton de Pasquale – 1

This would have swayed the Holden/Ford win ratio for the season to 74%/26%.

Driver’s Championship

Improvement/deterioration in the standings +/- over 2019

1. Scott McLaughlin (0)

2. Cam Waters (+4)

3. Shane Van Gisbergen (-1)

4. Jamie Whincup (-1)

5. Chaz Mostert (0)

6. Fabian Coulthard (-2)

7. Nick Percat (+2)

8. Anton de Pasquale (+6)

9. Scott Pye (+3)

10. Mark Winterbottom (+3)

11. Lee Holdsworth (-1)

12. David Reynolds (-5)

13. James Courtney (-2)

14. Andre Heimgartner (+2)

15. Jack Le Brocq (+7)

16. Rick Kelly (+1)

17. Todd Hazelwood (+1)

18. Bryce Fullwood (Rookie)

19. Macauley Jones (+2)

20. Chris Pither (Returning)

21. Garry Jacobson (+2)

22. Jack Smith (Rookie)

23. Alex Davison (Returning)

24. Will Davison (Limited campaign)

25. Zane Goddard (Rookie)

26. Garth Tander (Co-driver)

27. Jake Kostecki (Rookie)

Six drivers changed teams for 2020, with four drivers improving in the standings (Le Brocq +7, Pye +3, Jacobson +2, Hazelwood +1), one staying the same year-on-year (Mostert), and one went backwards (Courtney -2).

Team’s Championship

Improvement/deterioration in the standings +/- over 2019

1. Shell V-Power Racing Team (0)

2. Red Bull Holden Racing Team (0)

3. Tickford Racing (6 & 55) (0)

4. Tickford Racing (5 & 44) (0)

5. Penrite Racing (0)

6. Team 18 (Two cars for 2020)

7. Walkinshaw Andretti United (-1)

8. Brad Jones Racing (8 & 14) (-1)

9. Kelly Racing (-1)

10. Brad Jones Racing (3 & 4) – (Four cars for 2020)

11. Team Sydney (Two cars for 2020)

12. Matt Stone Racing (Two cars for 2020)

Interestingly, the top five from 2019 were replicated in 2020, with Team 18’s move to two cars vaulting them up the order ahead of some fancied competition.