McLaughlin’s biggest fans delighted to see him again
New Zealand motorsport star Scott McLaughlin had an emotional reunion with his parents before the Indianapolis 500. Jenna Fryer, of Associated Press, reports.
THE first thing Wayne McLaughlin noticed when he saw his son for the first time in 31 months was how much weight he had lost.
Scott McLaughlin moved to the United States in late 2020 to become an IndyCar driver, and pandemic restrictions in Australia and New Zealand prevented him from saying goodbye to his family.
Finally able to travel out of New Zealand, his parents began their 14th trip to the United States to watch their son compete in the Indianapolis 500.
The overdue reunion for Wayne and Diane McLaughlin came at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
‘‘I was a little bit nervous to see them,’’ Scott McLaughlin said.
‘‘It was just all this energy and excitement and I was weirdly nervous.’’
FaceTime had kept the family connected, but those calls had not prepared his parents for how they would find their 28yearold son. McLaughlin lost weight when he left Australia, where he won three consecutive V8 Supercars championships, but then had to build muscle to handle cars that lack power steering and travel 322kmhplus.
‘‘We knew he lost a lot of weight,’’ Wayne said.
‘‘He was always a pretty fat guy, and I just got a big shock to see him.’’
Wayne and wife Diane had enjoyed racing as a couple before their two children were born. They bought their son a gokart for his seventh birthday as a hobby, but would not let him race for the first six months.
When they finally entered him in competitions, the kid turned out to be pretty good.
Wayne decided to move the family from New Zealand to Australia — partly for a trucking business he owned, but also to further their son’s career.
‘‘Wayne said, ‘If he’s going to be any good in racing, if he wants to get to V8, we really need to be in Australia,’’ Diane said. ‘‘And I’m going, ‘The kid is only 9!’’’
‘‘Diane kept saying ‘It’s pieinthesky stuff!’’ Wayne recalled. ‘‘So when he won his first championship I said, ‘Pieinthesky stuff, eh?’’’
It was not long before Wayne realised it was not ‘‘dad and son racing any more’’ and found some help with one rule: absolutely no openwheel racing.
But then McLaughlin made it to V8 Supercars, and then Roger Penske bought into the team McLaughlin was with and the Kiwi became a fullblown star in Australia.
Team Penske wanted to move McLaughlin to the US to race. McLaughlin assumed it would be a Nascar opportunity; Penske instead took him to IndyCar — an openwheel series.
‘‘But he’s a grown man now, what are we to say?’’ Wayne said.
It was terrifying for his parents, but conversations with Penske and team president Tim Cindric ‘‘assured us they’d take care of our boy,’’ Wayne said.
For the first time in his career, his parents were not a part of it.
McLaughlin was more than 12,874km away racing in a series they found uncomfortable and knew little about.
The rims around Wayne’s eyes turned pink and teared up many times talking about the 31 months from when they last saw their son and the journey he has taken without them.
Watching their son compete in his IndyCar rookie season required waking up at 4am, relying on McLaughlin’s wife, Karly, to keep them informed during a race weekend, and a lot of yelling at the television.
Wayne went viral when his son posted a video of his ‘‘Number One fan.’’
When McLaughlin’s sister arrives this week, it will be the first time the entire family has been together since
McLaughlin’s wedding in 2019.
His parents’ visa is good for 12 weeks and they will travel to nine IndyCar races and spend time at Scott and Karly’s North Carolina home.