THREE-TIME Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin is preparing for his fourth full year in the NTT IndyCar Series that kicks off this weekend in St. Petersburg, Florida.
While American open-wheeler racing is now his focus with Team Penske, McLaughlin retains a huge fan base in Australia and New Zealand from his time in Supercars.
He made a name for himself in the category, making his debut in the feeder Fujitsu Series (now Super2) in 2010.
However, the Kiwi’s first taste of a V8 Supercar came at the end of 2009 in a test at Queensland Raceway at the wheel of one of Stone Brothers Racing’s older model BF Falcons, which is now listed for sale in the V8 Sleuth Online Showroom here.
The blue Falcon even had an ‘L’ stuck to its rear bumped to indicate the ‘Learner’ driver who was at the wheel, then aged just 16.
“That day was so cool, I’ll never forget it,” McLaughlin told the V8 Sleuth Podcast in August 2020.
“The time I had to do was a 1m13.8s. I was meant to hit the time and then Ross and Jimmy (Stone) would be able to offer the Fujitsu Series program.
“We had to bring budget and that’s where Fujitsu (as a sponsor) came in. The car I drove was the BF that Brighty (Jason Bright) ran at the start of 2009 before he went to an FG.
“I always remember turning the pit speed limiter off, and getting to quarter throttle, thinking ‘wow this is fast’. I got out of T2 and just had to hold it flat, it just blew me away, how cool it was, flat shifting.”
The car McLaughlin drove was raced by James Courtney for SBR in Corinthian Doors livery in 2008 with which he took his first V8 Supercar race win at Queensland Raceway that year.
Courtney and David Besnard used it to finish third in that year’s Bathurst 1000.
It was used by Jason Bright for the first part of the 2009 season in green Fujitsu livery (though still run from the SBR workshop) before finding a home with Chris Smerdon from 2010 onwards and being raced in the Kumho V8 Touring Car Series.
McLaughlin made his debut in the Fujitsu Series at Queensland Raceway in 2010, though driving a different SBR Falcon. He raced chassis BF05, the same car that Courtney had raced in 2007.
There’s more information on the car listed here in the V8 Sleuth Online Showroom.
