Scott McLaughlin has admitted he has unfinished business in New Zealand; he wants to compete in the New Zealand Grand Prix.
VelocityNews understands that McLaughlin was in discussions to take part in the 2021 NZ Grand Prix as part of his IndyCar preparation, but travel restrictions and his IndyCar test schedule prevented it.
In a recent interview with Stuff, McLaughlin spoke about his hope to compete in the New Zealand Grand Prix
“I’d love to race in the New Zealand Grand Prix,” McLaughlin said.
“I was talking about potentially doing it last time and the same sort of thing happened, with where I was and what we had to do with Covid.”
The 2021 event had an impressive lineup with Greg Murphy, Andre Heimgartner, Ken Smith, and Shane van Gisbergen among the field after the usual lineup of international drivers were unable to enter New Zealand.
“I could see myself doing something like Shane did last year. I thought that was really cool, to be able to grow that race.”
The New Zealand Grand Prix will be the only event for the Castrol Toyota Racing Series in the 2022 season.
McLaughlin didn’t get to race in New Zealand in his final Supercars season before heading to America, with the kiwi round being cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The three-time Supercars championship winner recently confirmed he won’t compete in this seasons Bathurst 1000, quarantine requirements and travel uncertainty making the trip high risk given his IndyCar testing schedule.
“I would love to race at home again. My nanna, she can’t travel, so she would really love to watch me race live again.
“But at the same time, I’ll race anything down under. I’ll probably do a go-kart race or whatever as well.
Not having seen his parents in almost 2 years, McLaughlin wants to get home to see them, something that isn’t possible with the current requirements and his schedule.
“But even mum and dad are saying don’t risk not being able to come back [to America], or jeopardise what you’re doing here with testing.
“I’d love to be able to come home and things seem to be changing a lot back home in New Zealand and Australia, so who knows? Maybe in a month’s time I might be able to book flights and get going.”
“I never got to finish how I wanted to in New Zealand. I sort of finished in 2019 and 2020 was a bit of a fold,” McLaughlin added.
Given McLaughlin won’t make it to the 2021 Bathurst 1000 due to travel requirements, it is unlikely he will make it back to New Zealand this summer either.
Main Image: Chris Jones