McLaughlin hints at Daytona 24 start

Scott McLaughlin has hinted that he will make a start in next year’s 24 Hours of Daytona.

The Team Penske IndyCar driver tweeted a track map of the Daytona International Speedway layout which is used for its early year sportscar/GT race with the caption, “New track map dropped on my desk today,” and hashtag #Daytona24, within the last hour.

That communication comes off the back of comments to selected media, including Speedcafe.com, in recent days about the potential for additional racing activities.

Penske will field 963 LMDh cars as a factory-backed Porsche effort in both the FIA World Endurance Championship and IMSA SportsCar Championship in 2023, including at Le Mans and Daytona.

McLaughlin affirmed that he is indeed interested in those races, but would not be tackling them in one of the Porsche Penske Motorsport entries at least in the near future.

“No, not this year [presumably the next season] at least,” he said.

“I’m sort of working on a few other things in the pipeline about hopefully trying to do those races.

“I’ve sort of got a few things in the works, but it won’t be with Porsche.”

New track map dropped on my desk today 😎👀⌚️ #Daytona24 pic.twitter.com/g7GnsMkcRC

— Scott McLaughlin (@smclaughlin93) November 16, 2022

It would now seem that the remark about having “a few things in the works” was more than a mere throwaway line, although who McLaughlin might be planning on driving for is unclear.

Logically, though, one could rule out competing directly against Penske and hence the New Zealander would not be competing in the GTP class which is the domain of Hypercars and LMDh vehicles.

Conceivably, then, that leaves anything in LMP2, LMP3, GTD Pro, or GTD.

While McLaughlin made his name in Supercars, where he is a three-time champion, and has quickly established himself as one of the front-runners in IndyCar, he is not entirely without experience in GT vehicles.

He contested the Bathurst 12 Hour as recently as 2018, in a Pro-Am class McLaren 650S GT3 which finished 11th outright (fifth in class) after being hamstrung by communications issues in the early stages of the race.

Two years later, Chaz Mostert won the 24 Hours of Daytona in the GTLM class, driving a BMW M8 GTE.

Next year’s Roar Before the 24 takes place on the weekend of Sunday, January 22 and the race itself a week later.