Stuff Digital Edition

Dixon admits it’s been a weird IndyCars season

Scott McLaughlin is a long way from home and out of his comfort zone – but, writes Ben Stanley, the Supercars superstar is learning to deal with IndyCars speed and distance.

MIndy 500. Work, time, talent and pride: it all metastasized, mate. Scotty wept.

He then did something no other driver had done. Standing in the Brickyard, he felt his heart miss a beat a world away, in the Waikato.

Pandemic-forced border restrictions meant Cambridge-based parents Wayne and Diane and his Sydney-based sister Samantha could not be with him in Indianapolis in May. They won’t see a single start of his rookie IndyCars season in person.

‘‘Whether it was going to be Nascar or IndyCars, we’ve all dreamed about it for a long time – me racing in America,’’ the threetime Aussie Supercars champion says.

It’s hard to imagine a trickier year for him to make his longdesired switch to the high-profile world of international open-wheel racing.

First, McLaughlin has had to learn an entirely new vehicle class. He has regularly raced ovals for the first time on reduced race schedules that cut time on track.

He has been the rookie on a four-driver team that has claimed five of the eight IndyCar championships. He has let go of coming back for Bathurst this November.

He has adapted to the complicated realities of living in a pandemic, experiencing the lived experience daily. He’s more than 10 kilograms lighter. His golf game has improved. He’s become a New York Mets baseball fan.

With two races left, McLaughlin sits 13th on the driver’s leaderboard. Top-10 finishes in his last two starts – Madison, Illinois, and Portland, Oregon – give him a decent crack at the top-10. He’s a virtual lock for IndyCar Rookie-of-the-Year.

Like nearly 20,000 Kiwis who live in the US, McLaughlin has done it without little hope of seeing family. Wha¯ nau haven’t just been living a long way away for the last two years; they’ve been living in a whole other world.

‘‘It’s probably not going to be this year; even going back for Christmas [is hard],’’ McLaughlin told me in Nashville.

‘‘It’s almost a risk to go home because there’s a chance I might not be able to get back here. Look, my life’s here, my career’s here now – and I’ve got to put that first. Mum and Dad get that. My family and friends get that.

‘‘It’s a tough blow, but there are many people around the world with [even] tougher situations.’’

Toments before the most significant moment of his racing career, Scott McLaughlin did something many drivers have done before their first

he Nashville skyline is full of cranes and has been for years. If Nashville were Auckland, Memphis would be Hamilton. It might have grit, grind and ghosts off Beale St, but nothing like the money and influence the state capital boasts. Those things always get you a lot in America.

This year’s Music City Grand Prix is the first IndyCars event the state has hosted since the Firestone Indy 200 in 2008. Then 28, Scott Dixon won the last Tennessee title that year, on the way to his sole victory at the Indy 500 and second championship title.

McLaughlin started following IndyCars in 2008. He was 15 and received a scholarship to work with Birtek Motorsport. He spent time with the team at Bathurst that year.

We meet at a Team Penske trailer in the Music City Grand Prix race paddock, a massive car park for Nashville’s Nissan Stadium. It was a hot summer morning, a Saturday in early August. Temperatures topped out at more than 30degC. The morning was humid.

More than 90,000 attend the track over race weekend. Masks were rare. Spirits high. Engines were roaring.

With the ninth-fastest time, McLaughlin whipped it around in practice on Friday. Qualifying lay ahead of him that afternoon. A trend of quick practices and a slower qualifying time had dogged him in 2021. Part of the learning curve, perhaps?

‘‘I’m so used to banging doors and panels in the Supercars [but] in IndyCars, you can’t do that,’’ he says. ‘‘You’re wheel-to-wheel, and if you hit wheelto-wheel, normally you’ll come off with damage.

‘‘. . . getting confidence racing wheel-to-wheel and knowing the proximity of the other race cars has been difficult, and that’s probably taken the most time.’’

‘‘The toughest part for him – and he’s kind of similar to Jimmy Johnson in some ways here – is that you’re trying to unlearn what you’ve done before,’’ Kiwi ace Dixon, IndyCars’s defending champion, says.

Much of Dixon’s pre-IndyCars racing came on open-wheelers. A six-time champion, the Pukekohe-raised icon currently sits fourth. Josef Newgarden, McLaughlin’s superstar team-mate, is

third. Spain’s Alex Palou, a Chip Ganassi Racing team-mate, is the surprise season leader.

‘‘Obviously, this is a shorter window to unlearn, but the things that typically feel at home or work for you are kind of the opposite,’’ Dixon says.

‘‘What’s been really tough for guys like him is the reduced schedules. A lot of these events are single days, so you don’t even have a night to sleep on it.’’

‘‘He’s very mature; he doesn’t throw it into the fence,’’ Will Power, McLaughlin’s Team Penske team-mate, says.

‘‘He’s pretty smart. But he’s also learning a different style: an open-wheel car. It’s just a different situation to your regular rookie. A lot more maturity, but less experience.’’

Powered by a twin-turbocharged, 2.2-litre V6, the lightweight IndyCar open-wheelers can push 380km/h. They weigh around half that of McLaughlin’s former touring car. Supercars max out at 290km/h. It’s a bomber to fighter transition.

‘‘It’s hard to find the limit of the IndyCar; I’d say,’’ Power – a 40-year-old Queenslander and 2014 IndyCar champion – says.

‘‘I feel like the V8 has an obvious limit to find, which makes the field very stacked. You have to find these little bits, and you have a lot more weight to deal with.

‘‘Learning to brake in a Supercar is probably the toughest thing. But with these things, it’s just finding the limit. The faster you go, the more downforce and grip you’ve got.

‘‘The faster the corner, the harder it is to find that limit. The limit is very quickly gone when you’re relying on aerodynamics. The IndyCar is very much an ‘attack’ car. You’ve got to keep pushing the limits.

‘‘It’s hard to find. Even after being in them for years, it’s still hard. You’ve got to be very fit, very cardio fit. They are very physical cars.’’

‘‘I’ve had to really re-learn racecraft,’’ McLaughlin – who has lost more than 11kg since last October – says. ‘‘Re-learn now to pass cars, how to defend properly, how to be aggressive. [It’s been] character-building . . . humbling.’’

Being on a four-person team has been equally humbling for the three-time Supercars champion. Newgarden (2017 and 2019), Power (2014), and Frenchman Simon Pagenaud (2016) have claimed four of the last seven titles for Team Penske.

‘‘Scotty probably is not used to having really tough team-mates – he hasn’t had that before,’’ Power – who enjoys a good ‘‘s. . . giving’’ relationship with the Kiwi driver – says.

‘‘He certainly has good people to learn from, but it’s a tough gig. You always want to be the best, but it’s really hard in this team because they look for the best guys and put them here.

‘‘There’s always that pressure on you. You can’t relax, and you’re not always going to be the quickest.’’

McLaughlin points to his surprisingly quick adaptation to oval tracks as evidence of his accelerated learning IndyCar curve and confirms Team Penske’s competitiveness.

Talking about open-wheelers with mechanics and engineers has been new for the Kiwi, but McLaughlin’s desire to learn and improve has been

‘‘I’m so used to banging doors and panels in the Supercars [but] in IndyCars, you can’t do that.’’ Scott McLaughlin

noticed by many. He has bagged five top-10 finishes so far, finishing in the top five twice.

If you’ve been following along on social media, you’ll know McLaughlin has thrown himself at America. Suppose you haven’t, #ScottLearnsAmerica. Sport, food and shots from the road tell the story.

He and his wife Karly live in Charlotte, North Carolina, Team Penske’s base. The average house price there is nearly half of what it is in Hamilton. Karly is from New York, meaning the pair have nearby family support.

‘‘It’s almost fate that we’re together,’’ McLaughlin says. A big New York contingent made the trip to Nashville.

A massive sports fan, McLaughlin has got his teams here sorted. For baseball and ice hockey – for Karly – it’s the New York Mets and Rangers. For American football, the Carolina Panthers. His golf game has improved; his handicap now hovers around 12. Roger Penske shouted him the clubs.

Few can argue with the incredible degree Covid19 has revealed the great nation’s great problems, but one thing McLaughlin has noticed is the absence of tall poppy syndrome. Power attests to the lack of it in American life.

‘‘Over here, you can be a very confident person and not look like what you’d call a ‘wanker’ in Australia,’’ Power says. ‘‘You can be more yourself [here], I’d say. [Back home], you’re trying to suppress the proudness within you.’’

Rival teams slammed Team Penske after its 2019 Bathurst victory for a safety car manoeuvre it employed. Penalties and fines were dished out, but the reaction seemed to grow larger than it needed to. It left a sour taste in McLaughlin’s mouth.

Both he and Team Penske left Australia the following year. It wasn’t the sole reason, but it was part of it for McLaughlin.

‘‘[It] was tough towards the end of my Supercar career,’’ he says. ‘‘There was a severe amount of tall poppy [stuff] especially between the competitors and other teams, and towards Roger and what we were doing.

‘‘That sort of stuff was a problem towards the end because it made you fall out of love with the sport, in some ways.

‘‘I love Supercars; I love everything about it. I just wish that when someone’s going good – regardless of if it was myself or someone winning gold at the Olympics – [others would just] respect the hard work people have put in to do it.

‘‘Not ‘oh, this happened, so that’s why they got it’. People don’t see behind the scenes. That’s just the epitome of some of the thought process Down Under, that’s for sure.’’

For Kiwis who live abroad, our love of New Zealand has been tested mightily. Folks understand a pandemic is a pandemic, and specific measures must be taken, but watching the drawbridge pull up has felt strange.

When I met McLaughlin, the Olympics were on. Unprompted, McLaughlin brings up Lisa Carrington and Tokyo. He reminds me he’s the proud patron of the Hamilton Car Club. He can still recall the first time he made the cover of the Waikato Times. Home is with Scotty Mac, but it’s without him too.

‘‘It’s weird because everything over here is normal,’’ McLaughlin says. ‘‘Well, not normal, but slowly getting back to that stage.

‘‘You see back home, they get two cases or whatever and there’s a lockdown. Far out, it’s been a-year-and-a-half. You get frustrated, not only for yourself not to get home, but it’s frustrating for [my family]. My Mum and Dad are in business – it’s tough for them. A lot of uncertainty. That eats at you, for sure.’’

For a time last year, McLaughlin was considering splitting his between Australasia and the States. His father Wayne thought it unwise.

‘‘I was thinking about coming back after my first race in October, and Dad was like ‘no no, you’ve got to stay there and get on with your life, because your life is going to be there’,’’ McLaughlin says.

Professional race car drivers are in the same boat as everyone else when MIQ reopens. McLaughlin has all but ruled out heading back home this year. It’s nearing two years. Dixon has yet to introduce his Kiwi family to his son Kit, who’ll be two next January.

Outside the two drivers, there are a couple more IndyCar Kiwis who know the feeling. Malcolm Finch – an Auckland University mechanical engineer – works as McLaughlin’s data engineer.

Mechanic brothers Blair (Dixon) and Anton (Pato O’Ward) Julian hail from Taranaki. Circuit veteran Paul ‘Ziggy’ Harris is team manager for Andretti Autosport. He’s from Auckland.

McLaughlin started 22nd on the grid in Nashville and finished in the same spot on race day. Dixon finished second. Dixon says they plan to grab dinner on the West Coast, between the two last races of the year, in Monterey and Long Beach.

The pair first met at Big Boys Toys in Auckland in 2014. Then 21, McLaughlin was into his second full Supercars season, driving for Garry Rogers Motorsport. Dixon was a hero, still is. ‘‘[To] be able to race him and still be in his era, I count myself very lucky,’’ McLaughlin says.

Dixon has been impressed by how McLaughlin has started in the States. He’s impressed by his attitude and eagerness to immerse himself in a new culture. The veteran says it will serve the rookie well.

‘‘You can fly under the radar a little bit and make as big a splash as you want, depending on how you use social platforms or how you use your personality in general,’’ he says.

‘‘He’s definitely got his head on his shoulders. He knows when to speak and when not to speak and that sometimes can be a pretty tough part for some people to understand.

‘‘He’s had some great guidance at Team Penske, and teams he was at before that, like Garry Rogers. And obviously great parents to bring him up that way.’’

I ask McLaughlin how different a driver he is from the one who left Australia and New Zealand. How has all this changed him?

‘‘I definitely feel more complete, in some ways,’’ he says. ‘‘I’m more adaptable than I probably was. Every race I go to is a new track.’’

‘‘Over here, you can be a very confident person and not look like what you’d call a ‘wanker’ in Australia.’’ Will Power

News

en-nz

2021-09-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-09-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/282823604314191

Stuff Limited