Everything in Scott McLaughlinโs world is on the rise.
The three-time Australian Supercars champion moved to the United States following his last title in 2020, and in four fast NTT IndyCar Seasons, the New Zealander has become Team Penskeโs top performer, earning the organizationโs best championship positions in 2023 and again in 2024.
Heโs gotten married, recently became a father, welcoming a daughter, and then thereโs the latest gift heโs received in the form of an invitation to spend 24 hours in January with countryman, friend, and former Supercars rival Shane van Gisbergen in a Corvette at IMSAโs Daytona season-opener.
Although heโs known today as an IndyCar driver, the Kiwi’s greatest exploits in racing โ at least so far โ have come with a roof over his head, and thatโs what makes the upcoming union with van Gisbergen, young American phenom Conor Zilisch, and the ageless Ben Keating in a Trackhouse by TF Sport Z06 GT3.R such a special opportunity for McLaughlin.
Heโs raced at the Rolex 24 At Daytona in a LMP2 car, but the return to Supercars-style machinery in the GTD Pro class is another first for the Indianapolis 500 polesitter, and he canโt wait to make the most of what heโs been given by General Motors, Trackhouse Racing, and Tom Ferrierโs TF Sport team.
โI make no secret in the pride that I have with our goal to be the best Chevy IndyCar team every year, and to do that two years in a row has been really special,โ McLaughlin tells RACER. โAnd when Eric Warren presented this opportunity, for sure, I was very grateful. And to be honest, I’ve never really had anything like this presented to me.
โIโm absolutely honored to be wearing the Chevy badge at Daytona. I count myself pretty lucky to have a brand that not only invests in me, but invests in our team, and motorsport in general with the stuff GM and Cadillac are doing in Formula 1. I think that’s amazing. In this day and age, especially where you think people are shying away, GM are all-in and that’s really, really cool.โ
If thereโs a specific angle of interest with the program for international racing fans, itโs the combination of McLaughlin and van Gisbergen โ who were routinely portrayed as heated rivals from their battles Down Under โ in the same team.
The van Gisbergen/McLaughlin rivalry got a little heated during their time in Australia’s Supercars Championship, like at Eastern Creek in 2017 (above). Safe to assume there won’t be a repeat of that at the Rolex โ not least because they’ll be in the same car. Daniel Kalisz/Motorsport Images
Can the two peacefully coexist in a Corvette? Mclaughlin says donโt believe the hype.
โHe’s a little bit older than I am, but I’ve known Shane since I was probably 15,โ he says. โI started at Stone Brothers Racing, and he was the main driver there, and I was in the Dunlop Series, the development series below V8s. We were pretty good friends, and when he was growing up, I was right there. And then I moved to Melbourne in 2013 and he went and did his thing with another team. But I moved to Melbourne to be in Supercars, and that’s when we really started banging doors for the first time.
โBut we were always good about having a beer; we used to hang out at after parties, where I’d always go up to him and just hang out. And when he went to Triple 8 and won his championship, at that point I was still involved with Garry Rogers Motorsport, and then I got the Penske deal. And from that point onwards, we were pretty much arch rivals. But the media made it a lot worse than it was.
“The TV guys just wanted a rivalry, which was fine. And there was times where I deliberately spun him out, and he deliberately did a couple of things as well. It was things that he did to me and I did to him just because we’re either pissed off or trying to get in each other’s heads. But that was all part of it, and it was probably more awkward, because our teams really disliked each other. It wasn’t rude between the people, but the powers that be, the Penskes and Tim Cindric and then Triple 8 and Roland Dane didn’t really get along. We were the Ford team. They were the Holden team, and it was always just a little awkward.
โBut no matter what, throughout the years, we would always catch up for a beer after the race. So there was always this false narrative that we didn’t like each other, and that wasn’t the case. But in that time, I never got to race with him in the same team in the same car. So this is the first time that we’re back in the same team together, which is pretty cool.โ
McLaughlin is also loving the prospect of sharing the car and experience with Keating, a gentleman driver who ranks among the worldโs best who arenโt full-time professionals, and Zilisch, already a class winner at the Rolex 24 as a teenager whoโs used his prodigious talent, and IMSAโs ladder system, to earn a bigger opportunity with Trackhouse in NASCAR next to van Gisbergen.
โI’m keen to race with Ben. I’ve raced against him a lot of times, and he’s so awesome,โ he says. โBen is successful in his own right, business and professionally, and heโs a champion in the sport. And then Conor is a huge star in the making. Heโs one of the first dudes that have actually made me feel old, because I’ve always felt young, I’ve always been the young person, but he’s the first kid that I’ve been like, โ****, yeah, he’s pretty young.โ I mean, for me, anyone that’s born in the 2000s, theyโre young. So weโve got the whole range of age and experience with us.โ
