Motorsport: Scott McLaughin sweeps the weekend to open up title lead

Scott McLaughlin takes the chequered flag during the Supercars Phillip Island 500. Photo / Getty Images

Kiwi Scott McLaughlin extended his Supercars championship lead by clean sweeping the weekend's races at Phillip Island Raceway in a dominant weekend for last season's title runner-up.

The Shell V-Power Ford racer opened up a margin of 60 points over David Reynolds after powering to victory in Sunday's race. It backs up pole positions in both races and a win on Saturday.

Reynolds finished second Sunday in the Erebus Racing Holden in a massive boost to his championship chances while Rick Kelly completed a second consecutive podium in a good weekend for Nissan Motorsport.

McLaughlin came out of his final pit stop behind Reynolds and had to fight for the front spot for a few laps before making the pass.

"We had an awesome rocket-ship all weekend," the 24-year-old said. "I had to fight there a little bit.

"It has been a great weekend. I need to be consistent all year to get it [the championship] done – it is something I didn't do last year so today was a good start."

McLaughlin got a major boost after narrowly edging Red Bull Holden Racing's Jamie Whincup in Saturday's race when the defending series champ was hit with a post-race penalty that saw him tumble down the order and lose ground in the championship fight.

Whincup could only manage ninth in Sunday's race and is now 142 points off the pace.

Red Bull Holden driver Shane van Gisbergen took a different tyre strategy on Sunday and managed to pick up some late spots to finish sixth and move up to third in the standings.

Kiwi Fabian Coulthard finished fourth on Sunday to get his Shell V-Power Ford inside the championship top 10. Fellow New Zealanders Andre Heimgarter and Richie Stanaway finished 14th and 20th respectively.

The series moves to Perth in a fortnight.