Mclaughlin gets Indycar season
Scott Mclaughlin became the first driver since Gonzalo Rodriguez at Detroit in 1999 to make his Indycar racing debut at the wheel of an official Team Penske entry when he started last weekend’s Indycar Series finale in St Petersburg.
On the Friday evening, the legendary team had announced it was pulling out of Australian Supercars after a hugely successful six seasons partnered with
Dick Johnson Racing, and simultaneously confirmed the fairly open secret that reigning and three-time Supercars champion Mclaughlin will be driving a fourth Penske Dallara-chevrolet Indycar full-time in 2021, alongside Will Power, Simon Pagenaud and Josef Newgarden.
Mclaughlin, who finished a startling third fastest in Indycar Spring Training at COTA this year, was due to make his Indycar debut on the Indianapolis road course in May this year until the coronavirus-induced delays and shuffles of the Indycar and Supercars schedules caused a clash with his commitments Down Under.
The 27-year-old New Zealander’s St
Pete debut was difficult (see panel, page 41) but he again showed huge promise.
Meanwhile, on Saturday morning Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing announced it had signed a new contract with Takuma Sato, who scored the squad’s (and his own) second Indianapolis 500 victory in August. It will be his fourth consecutive and fifth overall season with RLLR, for which he has scored four wins already. In St Pete, ex-formula 1 driver Sato sealed seventh in the championship – his highest position since switching to Indycar in 2010.
The following day, Ed Carpenter Racing confirmed it had picked up its option on Rinus Veekay’s contract, mere hours before he clinched Rookie of the Year honours simply by starting the race. The Dutchman has shown great pace on most tracks – he was the only Chevrolet-powered driver to qualify in the Indy 500’s Fast Nine, and took pole and his first podium on the
Indy road course this month.
Team owner Ed Carpenter also confirmed that ECR will continue to run two full-time entries, and that he would remain the oval driver for the team’s other car.