Shane van Gisbergen on working with Scott McLaughlin

Shane van Gisbergen and Scott McLaughlin have quite a bit in common: The New Zealanders, who won multiple Supercars championships in Australia (often fighting one another), have gone on to American racing careers – SVG in NASCAR and McLaughlin in IndyCar. However, their profession paths briefly overlap this weekend because the duo turn out to be teammates on this 12 months's Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona with Trackhouse Racing.

This weekend, the duo – together with NASCAR driver Connor Zilisch and sports automotive driver Ben Keating – will push the No. 91 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R within the GTD Pro class as a part of the three way partnership between Trackhouse Racing and TF Sport. And for the primary time, other Kiwis are working together. Which wasn't at all times the case

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“It's completely different to what we've grown up and done over the last ten years,” Van Gisbergen told Motorsport.com. “Since Scott and I left Supercars now we have had an incredible relationship. When you're racing for a championship, you're focused in your world. Even though we had difficult times, we were still friends and had a beer afterwards. But now it's completely different – we cooperate and it's nice to ride together.”

Supercar race winner Scott McLaughlin (center) and Shane van Gisbergen (left) through the 2020 race at The Bend

Photo: Dirk Klynsmith / Motorsport Images

Both New Zealanders boast three Supercars championship titles: Van Gisbergen won all of them in 2016, 2021 and 2022, while McLaughlin won three in a row from 2018-2020. (In two of them, SVG was the runner-up of the season). As an IndyCar driver, McLaughlin won the primary round at St. Pete in his second full season. He finally found Victory Lane on the oval last 12 months and enters 2025 with seven profession wins.

“It's an amazing story of what he did in the Supercar championship and now doing so well in IndyCar,” Van Gisbergen said. “He just kept saying, 'I have to come here, I have to have a drink.' I'm definitely glad I did it. It was an amazing career change for me.”

Although McLaughlin's IndyCar adventure was fastidiously planned, SVG's entry into NASCAR was sudden and spectacular. He won a NASCAR Cup race in his 2023 debut on the inaugural Chicago Street Course, driving the experimental Trackhouse 91 project – the primary time in over 60 years that a driver won in his first Cup start. Then a plan was quickly hatched to maneuver van Gisbergen to the United States full-time. After a 2024 debut season within the NASCAR Xfinity Series wherein he won three races and reached the playoffs, van Gisbergen moved as much as the Cup Series full-time with Trackhouse.

TF Sport's No. 91 Trackhouse Corvette Z06 GT3.R driven by team members Scott McLaughlin and Shane van Gisbergen at this 12 months's Rolex 24

Photo: James Gilbert – Motorsport Images

It was Trackhouse that reunited SVG and McLaughlin, bringing the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 to the GTD Pro class this weekend. Van Gisbergen was looking forward to this moment: “We always wanted to ride together.” And not for lack of trying. Van Gisbergen tried to rent McLaughlin as his co-driver at Bathurst and still desires to run him within the Bathurst 12 Hours or Bathurst 1000 someday.

Neither of them is a Rolex 24 debutant, but unlike Bathurst, they’re still in search of their first victory in the distinguished enduro. After so a few years of winning one another, the 2 New Zealanders have a likelihood to have a good time together.