McLaughlin’s tough farewell
Expect there to be tears in the Garry Rogers Motorsport garage in Sydney next Sunday afternoon as Scott McLaughlin bids farewell to the team that gave him his break.
The 23-year-old New Zealand driver is next season moving on to DJR Team Penske, whose big budget could give him a better chance of winning a championship.
Motor racing is a cut throat sport with little room for sentiment, but even so McLaughlin admits it will emotional saying goodbye after Sunday’s race at Homebush, the final round of the season.
‘‘It’s going to be weird knowing that I’m getting out of the Volvo for the final time and seeing all the guys for the last time,’’ admitted McLaughlin, who was in Auckland this weekend for the Legends of Speed event at Vector Arena.
‘‘But things come to an end and we move on for good reasons, I’m looking forward to next year and just getting on with things.
‘‘We’ve had a good run and I’d love to finish in a good spot with them.
‘‘Garry has been amazing to me and I’d do anything to finish off in a good way and finishing third in the championship would be great, to give him that to say thank you.’’
McLaughlin goes to Sydney just 21 points behind Craig Lowndes in the battle to finish third in the championship. It would be a fitting way for him to finish this chapter in his career to make it to the podium and while it would be an impressive achievement, next year could be bigger for him at his new team.
While the DJR Team Penske Fords, driven by Fabian Coulthard and Scott Pye, haven’t done as well as McLaughlin in his Volvo this year, he’ll have a better opportunity to consistently fight it out with the Triple Eight cars at his new team.
He’ll also benefit from the ground work his next team-mate Coulthard put in over 2016 to get the cars quicker.
‘‘In some ways I’ve been very lucky,’’ McLaughlin said. ‘‘Fabian has done a fantastic job for the team and Scotty for that matter, just to take the team forward in a lot of way and try different things. Coming into the team now, I probably will pick up what they’ve learnt and will get into a better car than they started with, but we’ve still got a long way to go to catch up with Triple Eight.
‘‘We’ll make sure that happens as a team and I’m pretty confident that we’ll be the ones to watch soon.’’