The IndyCar rookie has had an on-again, off-again settlement to return to Supercars for this 12 months’s Bathurst 1000 ever since he headed Stateside on the finish of 2020.
The preliminary plans for him to compete within the Nice Race with Dick Johnson Racing have been scuppered by a tweak to the IndyCar calendar, nevertheless one other schedule change, this time for Supercars, has re-opened the door for a Bathurst cameo for McLaughlin.
However whereas the new November date for the Bathurst 1000 is obvious of the IndyCar season itself, McLaughlin admits a return nonetheless is not totally simple.
With a two-week supervised quarantine required to enter Australia, plus time to organize for the race after which the race week itself, McLaughlin says he must assess how spending greater than a month away from the US will have an effect on his low season testing programme.
“I’ve nonetheless set to work out just a few issues,” McLaughlin advised the Parked Up podcast.
“For certain, it’s all going forward. [The date change] actually has helped me and I could make the race now, which is unquestionably an excellent factor.
“However the place it has been put now could be doubtlessly the place we’re going to be testing within the low season as properly. So I’ve simply set to work out… clearly, to get down beneath you’ve received to do two weeks [of] quarantine, so there’s two weeks gone. And that’s a very long time, to be trustworthy.
Scott McLaughlin Staff Penske Chevrolet
Picture by: Chris Owens
“Then by the point I get my seat match achieved, I’d like to be there a few weeks earlier than the race, so I’m doubtlessly taking a look at a month and a half out, or within the nation, in Australia.
“So it’s a lot when it comes to my low season, my winter testing schedule for IndyCar.
“Hopefully we are able to make it work. I’m certain we are able to. It’s all agreed upon between us, me and Ryan [Story, Dick Johnson Racing CEO] means again when. So we’d like to get it achieved. Yeah, it’d be good.”
Alex Davison has already be named as McLaughlin’s stand-in ought to the formidable plan not come collectively. He would nearly positively be paired with brother Will within the #17 Mustang, which might put DJR’s different co-driver Tony D’Alberto in with Anton De Pasquale.
Nonetheless if McLaughlin does make the journey there partnerships are nonetheless open, McLaughlin thought-about an excellent probability to companion De Pasquale with D’Alberto paired with Davison.