All Scott McLaughlin could say after his race-ending accident at the year’s biggest V8 Supercars events was: “It’s just Bathurst”.

He said moving on would be “the hardest thing ever” but the one positive was that his Volvo S60 did not suffer significant damage, as many others did at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000.

The 21-year old, paired with Frenchman and former teammate Alex Premat, led 70 laps of the race, looking a true contender to win the 161-lap Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 after getting a great jump off the line at the start of the day.

On lap 117 McLaughlin made an error and hit the wall at The Cutting, which put the Volvo out of contention and left him devastated. Once his S60 was back in the garage, the young gun sat in the drivers’ seat with his head in his hands, just one of the emotional moments of this year’s unbelievable race.

“It’s one of those things. It’s just Bathurst. And one day – hopefully that luck changes,” McLaughlin told v8supercars.com.au.

“You just don’t get that many opportunities in some ways. We had a great car, a great day, Alex did a fantastic job and it was really looking good.

“And I just had that one moment – I was out wide, I was just helpless.

“If I backed out, I probably still would’ve ended up on the outside, and if I didn’t back out, look what happened. I was sort of, rock and a hard place.”

When asked about the emotion he showed after the incident, McLaughlin noted how difficult it was to handle the disappointment.

“It’s not just the race, it’s mentally, physically – the majority of it is mentally [tough]. And when you think you’re a chance, and you get all pumped up for the last stint and something like that happens within the first few laps, it’s pretty bad.”

With the next event, the Castrol EDGE Gold Coast 600, less than a fortnight away, McLaughlin knows he and the team will need to focus on that final Pirtek Enduro Cup event.

“You’ve just got to move on – I know it’s probably the hardest thing ever, but you can’t do anything about it, you’ve just got to push forward.

“At the end of the day no one can take away from [the fact] that we led the majority of the race, we were one of the dominant cars, and it’s just one of those things that happened.

“But one day, the luck will be on our side and we’ll be right.”

McLaughlin was able to get the Volvo back to the pits, and was positive the car would be fine for the next event.

“It was a hard lick, but it wasn’t a car ending shunt, so there’s no dramas … we fixed it and it felt not too bad.”

The sister Volvo driven by Robert Dahlgren and Greg Ritter had coincidentally hit the wall at the same part of the track just two laps earlier, ending a decent campaign for the team’s other pairing.

“It sucks for them too because 34 was on for a great race as well, they were in the top 10 and running really good. That stuff happens – and then for that to happen when we’re one of the lead cars – it sucks.”

When speaking to v8supercars.com.au McLaughlin had not yet seen the closing laps of the race, where Championship leader Jamie Whincup – who started at the rear of the field, and would not say die after a pit lane penalty and number of driving errors costing him positions – ran out of fuel on the final laps to surrender the win.

“To be honest I didn’t see it, but I heard it was pretty crazy and something real loose.”

McLaughlin/Premat ended up finishing the race in 17th, and McLaughlin sits eighth in the Championship.