Scott McLaughlin is in the best possible position for the upcoming Indy 500.
The Kiwi driver is sitting in pole position, first on the starting grid with a record-setting time.
With the race set for Monday morning New Zealand time, McLaughlin has been spending the week preparing for what’s set to be an intense race.
The Indy 500 has a unique qualifying system, with the fastest 12 drivers contesting a session to define who goes through to the Fast Six, who then race to determine who’s awarded pole.
“It’s a pressure-packed situation,” he told Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking.
“To put the laps up that we did, and you know, win the pole by sort 0.3 of a mile an hour, which is pretty big in oval racing terms over here in America is super special.”
McLaughlin is the second Kiwi to start the Indy 500 from pole position, Scott Dixon being the first.
“I’m really proud of that and yeah, trying to replicate my hero in some way.”
Much like any sport, racing takes an immense amount of mental energy, with drivers having to think and react while travelling at incredibly high speeds.
“You’re travelling at, you know, three or four rugby fields a second,” McLaughlin explained.
“There’s so many things happening that you’ve gotta be ahead of, you’ve gotta understand, you know, because if you make a mistake at one point, the mistake doesn’t catch up with you until, you know, two or three hundred meters, four hundred meters down the track.”
McLaughlin averaged just over 234mph (377kph) in his final qualifier, and although those are insane speeds for any normal person, he said that it begins to feel normal when out among the other cars.
“It’s not until you’re either trying to pit, come into pit lane or something goes wrong where you realise, oh wow, we actually... we’re actually ticking along here.”
“It’s an incredible feeling for sure,” he laughed.
“it’s probably the closest I’ll ever feel to being a superhero.”
McLaughlin competed in the Supercars Championships up until 2020, making the switch to IndyCar for the 2021 season.
He told Hosking that the two types of racing are different worlds and encouraged any sports race fan in Australia and New Zealand who’s never been to the Indy 500 to give it a try.
“It’s an incredible spectacle,” McLaughlin said.
“They call it ‘the greatest spectacle in racing’ for a reason.”
Thousands of people show up to the race, and the 108-year history of the Indy 500 has resulted in quite the experience.
“It's a typical American experience, big and loud and but it's very cool to be a part of and, and yeah, it, it's, it's definitely the big leagues for sure.”
The sheer extent of the race would leave anyone nervous and excited in equal measure, but McLaughlin told Mike Hosking that you can’t let the pressure get to you.
“You’ve gotta act like it’s another race, unfortunately,”
“But it is, it is a lot more on offer.”
“I’m just really excited for the opportunity and hopefully we can deliver when it comes to, you know, race day.”
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