Top Kiwi driver stays grounded
Scott McLaughlin has proven that nice guys can get to the top.
For your average sports star, their success is matched by their ego and they regard themselves as a brand as much as an athlete.
Yet with New Zealand’s McLaughlin, who’s leading the Supercars championship coming into this weekend’s Bathurst 1000, there’s none of that.
Inside the DJR Team Penske team he’ll happily chinwag with the junior staff as he would with the bosses. Outside it he’ll have his photograph taken and sign things for however long it takes, regardless of how tedious it is.
He’s also a dream for the media, not only because of the f-bomb he dropped on live TV when over excited in 2014, but because he gets that being open and honest is the best way to be.
On the whole, Supercars drivers are good to deal with and understand they’re playing a part in trying to sell the sport in a competitive market like Australia.
But there are some who are chatty while they’re getting asked questions how successful they’ve been, but instantly clam up whenever asked anything negative about them.
Not so McLaughlin. He’ll talk at length about the good and bad parts of his racing.
The way the 24-year-old McLaughlin is, comes from how he was raised and his father, Wayne McLaughlin, Scott’s father, says this is something he instilled in his son.
‘‘We’re probably more proud of him off the track than on it, for what he does, like mixing with kids,’’ Wayne said.
‘‘He’s got a thing going for motor neurone disease [an ambassador for Cure for Motor Neurone Disease Foundation], he does a lot for child cancer and I’m very proud of him for all of that.
‘‘I’ve always said to him that the people you’re rude to on the way up are the people you’ll meet on the way down,’’ Wayne added.
Scott was born in Hamilton awhere the family lived until relocating to Australia, where Wayne built up a successful transportation business, McLaughlin Freightlines, which was acquired by Toll in 2010.
From his business success, Wayne was able to support Scott’s motor racing, once his talent became apparent.
‘‘We bought him a go kart for his seventh birthday and he won his first New Zealand title a year later and then we went to Australia,’’ Wayne said.
‘‘By the age of 13 he was leaning towards becoming a professional and that’s when we enlisted the help of a full-time engineer/mechanic.
‘‘At 14 I started marketing him amongst some of the V8 teams and he got his first drive at 16.
‘‘By that stage we’d sunk a lot of money into his career, but it certainly wasn’t a waste. He was dedicated to it and both Di [Wayne’s wife] and I had no qualms about what we were spending - we could see it was going to go somewhere.’’