Captain's Corner: Australian Supercars' Scott McLaughlin

I am so excited about going racing this weekend as a driver for DJR Team Penske in the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship.

Becoming a part of the Penske family is a dream come true, and something I’ve been working towards for a very long time.

Rolling out of pit lane for practice on Friday is going to be surreal. Knowing that Roger and the team in the US are watching and are behind me is an incredible feeling. In Supercars racing, you’re always part of a team, but knowing I’m part of Team Penske still makes my head spin a little. Not to mention having Australian racing legend Dick Johnson in the garage as well. What an awesome team!

We had an excellent test at Sydney Motorsport Park last week, where I got to really drive the #17 Ford for the first time. It was a great run, working with my engineer Ludo Lacroix and the team for a full day. We learned a lot about the car and the package we have, and now it’s up to me to make the most of it this weekend.

Getting ready for Adelaide

I love the Adelaide street circuit; it is always entertaining. It has 14 corners over 3.22km (2 miles) and is lined by concrete walls all the way around. One mistake can spell disaster, with the high-speed turn eight claiming many top level racers. Those walls come up mighty fast when you’re doing over 250km/h (156 mph)!

The track is a shortened version of the one that hosted the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix before it moved to Melbourne in 1996, and the city still has such a great vibe to it during race week.

Weather always plays a major part in this race, with temperatures often around 40 degrees Celsius across the weekend.

When ambient temperatures are that high, the inside of our cars get incredibly hot. As a general rule, inside our cabin is about 25 to 30 degrees Celsius higher than the ambient temp. On a hot summer day in Adelaide, where the ambient is 40, it could be as high as 70 inside the car. And we race in these conditions for two hours and 250km!

To deal with the heat, we train hard to ensure that we are conditioned as best as possible. There are also a variety of systems in the car to try to keep us as comfortable as possible over the distance.

We have a carbon fiber chest on the ‘passenger’ side – the left down under! – of our cars which the team fills with dry ice on the grid just before we go racing.

Water is pumped through pipes inside this box until it is just above freezing, and through a special vest that we wear under our race suits. This helps keep our core temperature from reaching meltdown!

Air also travels through the ice chest, and is pumped into our helmets like our own mini air-conditioning system. These things combined make it bearable, and give us the best shot to maintain the concentration we need to get the job done.

It’s not just about us, though. Our teams have to deal with the heat too, with fast and accurate pit stops being critical to getting great on-track results. Our guys have been practicing all through the off-season and I know they will be sharp this weekend.

I hope you’ll be watching, from wherever in the world you might be. I can’t wait!

Scott McLaughlin