McLaughlin's nerves over Bathurst return

Adjusting from his IndyCar has Scott McLaughlin “nervous” about his Great Race return.

IndyCar points leader McLaughlin is set to return to Mount Panorama for this year’s Repco Bathurst 1000.

The New Zealander won the IndyCar season-opener in St. Petersburg, and followed it up with a Texas podium.

McLaughlin, a three-time Supercars champion, last raced at Mount Panorama in October 2020.

Few drivers have mastered Bathurst quite like McLaughlin; he won the race in 2019, and owns the practice/qualifying lap record.

Speaking on The Race IndyCar Podcast, McLaughlin said he doesn’t want to look like an “idiot" after two years driving an open-wheeler.

“I don’t know, I’m nervous about that,” he replied when asked if he may have to unlearn certain habits.

McLaughlin on track in the 2020 Great Race

“I thought about it the other day like, ‘Far out, Bathurst, hopefully I don’t go back there looking like an idiot’.

“I just love motorsport… Supercars is a great series to watch.

“I grew up watching Supercars from five, six years old.

“I’m like an encyclopaedia for Supercars, I watch it nearly every week.”

McLaughlin’s IndyCar career is now in full swing, but it took a bruising 2021 rookie campaign to get there.

It came after eight full-time seasons in Supercars, the last four of which he was in a title fight.

He cited his Supercars championship fights as a reason behind his struggles to adapt to IndyCar in 2021.

McLaughlin is the IndyCar points leader

“The hardest thing for me was taking the pressure off myself,” said McLaughlin, who will carry his points lead to Long Beach on April 10.

“I put a lot of pressure on myself more than anyone on the outside.

“People at the team were like, ‘Hey man, you’ve got speed, you’ve just got to put it all together’.

“I hold myself to a high standard, and I came from a high standard where if you were off the podium, it was a bad day.

“Going from the top, where we were winning nearly every weekend to being a rookie and the aim was to finish.

“That was hard to change after four years of brutal hard, nosed championship battling.”

The 2022 Repco Bathurst 1000 is slated for October 9.

The 2022 season will resume at Albert Park on April 7-10.