Anton de Pasquale won his first BP Supercars All Star ESeries round after a relatively quiet event of racing.
The Erebus driver shared race wins with Shane van Gisbergen and Lando Norris.
McLaughlin meanwhile struggled after encountering troubles with other drivers in the reverse grid race.
Qualifying and Top Ten Shootout
The usual trio of Anton de Pasquale, Shane van Gisbergen and Scott McLaughlin occupied the top three positions in regular qualifying.
The top ten was completed by Lando Norris, Chaz Mostert, Bryce Fullwood, Lee Holdsworth, Will Power, Cameron Waters, and Jack Le Brocq.
Le Brocq begun the shootout, although he would not set a time after receiving a kerb strike during his lap, thus eliminating his time.
Waters was able to lay down the first time in what was a scruffy lap; a 1:31.663 was the early benchmark.
In his return to the series, Power put in a very respectable time – 1:31.003 – to jump to the top of the board.
A messy first sector hampered Holdsworth’s lap, falling just two tenths shy off Power.
After a promising second sector, Fullwood fell by the wayside after incurring an off-track, annulling his time and relegating him to the rear.
Team-mate Mostert opted for a tidier approach, but it wasn’t enough to eclipse Power’s time.
Norris was the next car out, but an off-track breach at the penultimate corner meant the McLaren Formula 1 driver would have to start from the eighth.
McLaughlin was the first driver to break into the 30-second bracket, marginally beating out Power to go to the top of the timing sheets.
But the moment was short-lived as Van Gisbergen laid down the gauntlet with a 1:30.386 with on car remaining.
However, De Pasquale was unable to rein in the time set down by Van Gisbergen, falling into second.
Race 1
Van Gisbergen led the field away as 31 cars attempted to negotiate turn one in what was a largely clean start to the race. The only exception being with Josh Fife, who was fired off into the fence in the first few hundred meters of the race.
Both Waters and Norris began to trudge up the order, although the top three had already began to romp away into the distance.
Most of the key runner had made their compulsory pitstop on lap six, with the exceptions being De Pasquale and Waters.
Pitting a lap later, De Pasquale would emerge just behind Van Gisbergen, albeit with the advantage of fresh rubber.
Controversy arose after Norris made contact with Waters, sending the Tickford driver down to 13th position.
Driving Standards Observer, Craig Baird, issued Norris a drive-through penalty for the contact.
It was a relatively uneventful last few laps, as Van Gisbergen won comfortably from De Pasquale and McLaughlin. Power finished as the best of the wildcards in fourth.
Race 2
In the reverse grid race, it was Fife and Lowndes who occupied the front row of the grid.
It was a predictably more chaotic start with multiple incidents catching out key runners, including McLaughlin.
Hazelwood took the lead early on as Lowndes and Fife rapidly tumbled down the order.
Norris began to battle with Hazelwood for the lead, with the two exchanging positions over the first few laps.
As the race settled down, pitstops came into play. Norris was the effective leader of the race, with Van Gisbergen opting for a longer strategy in his bid to catch Norris.
However, Norris emerged the leader and would keep that position for the remainder of the race to take his first Supercars ESeries victory. Waters and Hazelwood completed the podium.
Race 3
De Pasquale got the jump off the line over Van Gisbergen as McLaughlin and Norris tangled at the first corner, almost resulting in tears for the Kiwi.
The flurry of competitors completed their first pitstops within the first few laps, including McLaughlin and Norris.
As the pitstops fizzled out, the battle for the lead between De Pasquale and Van Gisbergen began to take shape.
With five laps remaining, De Pasquale completed his final pitstop as Van Gisbergen trudged on for another lap.
When Van Gisbergen rejoined the race following his stop, De Pasquale maintained the lead with four laps remaining.
McLaughlin and Waters came to blows at the first corner while the Kiwi attempted to pass the Tickford driver on the outside.
The incident was deemed to have been the fault of Waters’ and was subsequently told to readdress the situation.
The gap between De Pasquale and Van Gisbergen had closed up significantly in the final lap.
In the last few corners on the final lap, the Red Bull driver tagged De Pasquale, sending him into a spin.
However, the situation was readdressed, and De Pasquale kept the lead all the way to the line for his first round win of the series. Van Gisbergen and McLaughlin rounded out the podium.
The next round of the series will take place on the road course variants of Daytona International Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Image Credit: Supercars
