DANDENONG SOUTH, Victoria, Australia — Team Preview by Race Chaser Online V8 Supercars Correspondent James Pike — Robert Cianflone/Getty Images AsiaPac photo —
Welcome back to Race Chaser Online’s Preview of the 2015 V8 Supercars Championship! We continue our run through the field with a team that had no problems finding the front of the field in 2014 — they’re just looking to do it again. Up the grid we go to find some jandal with the Volvos, Wilson Security Racing GRM!
Wilson Security Racing GRM / Garry Rogers Motorsport
DRIVERS:
No. 33 – Scott McLaughlin, Wilson Security Volvo S60
No. 34 – David Wall, Wilson Security Volvo S60
2014 TEAM POINTS FINISH: 6th
2014 HIGHLIGHT MOMENT: Scott’s first career V8SC win at his home track, Pukekohe Park Raceway
We begin this next preview with an excerpt from Race Chaser Online’s 2014 Preview of Wilson Security Racing GRM:
“While their aspirations will eventually be to be one of the top teams in the Championship (something that Holden couldn’t offer GRM, hence why they made the switch to Volvo in the first place), the most important thing for the team will be to simply finish their races without any issues. In particular, they need to make sure that they limit the mechanical issues that tend to often befall new manufacturers; they hit both the Nissan and the Erebus teams a season ago in Adelaide. If they can do that, the speed should be there for the Volvos to put in some strong performances in 2014.”
“In a worst case scenario, they fall from grace much like SBR did in their switch to Erebus last season; in the best case, they match (maybe even outperform) what they accomplished with the Fujitsu Holdens in 2013. The smart money will be on the latter though, because unlike Erebus, the management has not changed, and Garry Rogers is one of the most knowledgeable owners in the series.”
“At the end of the day, Scott McLaughlin should continue to his rise as one of the top V8 Supercars drivers for the future (along with Chaz Mostert), Robert Dahlgren should turn more heads than expected, and the battle for fifth place between Volvo Polestar Racing, the two Nissan teams, the Holden Racing Team, and even the Erebus Motorsport cars should be one of the best that the series has to offer this season.”
Save for the bit about Robert Dahlgren being successful (he was quite simply not fast at all in 2014), Race Chaser Online was spot on with just about all of its predictions for Wilson Security Racing GRM’s 2014 season.
Where to begin with reviewing their 2014, then? Their debut season with Volvo was quite simply tremendous, as they outperformed all expectations and were vastly quicker than they were in their final season with Holden. Scott McLaughlin was the man responsible for their success, as he had what will go down as his breakout season in V8 Supercars at the ripe old age of 21!
The statistics are impressive by any measure: four wins, 10 podiums, 10 poles (good enough to tie Jamie Whincup for the season long ARMOR ALL Pole Award, which Whincup won on a tiebreaker), 16 top fives, 27 top tens, an average starting position of 3.7 and an average finish of 8.9. Though he might not have had the single brightest moment of the crop of rising stars in V8 Supercars (that honor went to Chaz Mostert when he won the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000), McLaughlin was the most consistent of them, and earned that fifth-place finish in the final point standings (though it was in the driver’s standings and not the team standings like we predicted, it still counts for something!) and the prestigious Barry Sheene Medal (given to the driver with the greatest combination of sportsmanship, personality, and fan appeal).
McLaughlin set the tone for his season right at the start in Adelaide, where he fought Jamie Whincup to the very last corner for second place in Race 2. McLaughlin was so excited in the post-race interview that he accidentally let an expletive slip on live TV — it received a thunderous roar of applause from the grandstands and immediately endeared the crowd to him. Since that moment in Adelaide, he has risen to become one of the series’ most popular drivers — barring the unexpected, there should be no reason as to why he can’t continue his rise to the top of the series in 2015.
Beyond that, there are some changes in 2015 at Wilson Security Racing GRM. David Wall comes over from Dick Johnson Racing to replace Robert Dahlgren, and brings his Wilson Security title sponsorship with him. Wall had struggled with Dick Johnson Racing over the past few seasons, but there is no denying that the equipment from GRM was stronger than what DJR had in 2014. He won’t be the quickest driver in the field, but with the better equipment Wall should fare better this season than he did last.
The focus for this team, however, will be on the continuation of Scott McLaughlin’s ascent to the top of V8 Supercars. McLaughlin had the pace to run for second or third in points in 2014, but fell to fifth primarily because of the mechanical gremlins that befell his Volvo S60 (which Race Chaser Online also predicted). For many of the great weekends like the ones he had at Pukekohe and Phillip Island, there were weekends that were equally disappointing- namely his performances at Sydney Motorsport Park and Bathurst.
In both of the latter cases, McLaughlin had a car fast enough to finish on the podium in all three races at SMP before engine and tire issues (he had an entire wheel fall off in the second race of the weekend there). But Scott’s weekend at Bathurst might be the one that was the most disappointing — he led 70 of the 161 laps in the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, only to clip the wall at the Cutting, break his suspension, and lose his shot at winning in the process.
However, there was an important point that Wilson Racing GRM made last season that none of the other outfits who have switched manufacturers in recent seasons have been able to make: the Volvos have the pace to consistently compete and win in the V8 Supercars Championship. In a Speedcafe.com.au poll, fans voted Wilson Security Racing GRM as the most likely team to usurp Red Bull Racing Australia and challenge for the V8 Supercars title in 2015 — above the likes of the Holden Racing Team, Prodrive Racing Australia, and Tekno Autosport. That says volumes about how impressive the Volvo debut was in 2014.
Wilson Racing GRM has officially entered the next phase of their program development. Last year was all about establishing pace in their machines, and they were quick all throughout last season. With the pace established, 2015 will be about cutting out all of the mechanical issues that hurt them in 2014.
Improving consistency should be of paramount importance for Wilson Security Racing GRM in 2015 — if they can do that, then their second Volvo campaign will be the opposite of a sophomore slump — and Jamie Whincup might not have such an easy run to the series title this time around.
For more information on Wilson Security Racing GRM, visit www.grmotorsport.com.au.
For more information on the V8 Supercars Championship, visit www.v8supercars.com.au.
