V8 Supercars
Ed Jackson 4y

McLaughlin tests new Mustang pre-Sandown

V8, AutoRacing

Supercars championship leader Scott McLaughlin has gotten behind the wheel of his newly-built Ford Mustang ahead of Sunday's Sandown 500.

The DJR Team Penske star will race a completely new car at the Melbourne event after wrecking his old Mustang in a scary crash at Surfers Paradise last month.

While McLaughlin walked away unharmed from the crash at the Gold Coast 600, his team was forced to build a new No.17 racer for the Sandown event.

The New Zealander put the new car through its paces on Monday, completing a 60km shakedown at Queensland Raceway.

"To turn a completely bare chassis into a running Supercar in less than seven days is truly incredible, and a testament to the skill and dedication of this crew," the 26-year-old said.

"The car ran beautifully this afternoon, we got through all the systems checks and shakedown testing that we need to manage today so we know that the brand new Car 17 is going to be good to go for Sandown."

The vehicle will now be transported to Victoria for the Sandown event, where McLaughlin can claim back-to-back titles.

Despite his Sunday mishap at Surfers, McLaughlin still holds a mammoth 463-point lead over nearest rival Shane Van Gisbergen.

That means he will be crowned champion if he leaves Sandown with a margin greater than 300 points over his fellow Kiwi.

McLaughlin said he was confident he had recovered physically from his scary Surfers crash.

"I was pretty sore and sorry for myself and the team last week, but today I'm good as gold and it was fantastic to get back behind the wheel," he said.

"This is what I do for a living. I love it and I don't want to do anything else. I have a championship to win, we have a teams' championship to win and that is now the focus for the team."

The Sandown 500 begins on Friday with practice, before qualifying on Saturday and the 500km endurance race on Sunday.

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