Motorsport: Scott McLaughlin on Bathurst - 'It's the race we love to hate'

Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin is fired up for a crack at the Bathurst endurance title this weekend. Photo / Edge Photographics

Runaway Supercars championship leader Scott McLaughlin is dead keen to get a Bathurst 1000 title to go with his 2018 series win.

The Weekend Herald spoke to the Kiwi and asked him whether it's harder to win a championship, or a Bathurst 1000.

"Ah, gee that's a tough question," he said.

"In a championship, you can make up ground if you make a mistake. At Bathurst it's much harder, it's a race we love to hate and you can certainly ruin it pretty easily. But then again it is possible to throw away a championship, so that's a hard one to answer."

There are probably more variables over tomorrow afternoon's endurance race than there are in an entire season.

The obvious ones are having to hand the keys over to a co-driver, the sheer distance involved, the physicality of throwing nearly a tonne and a half of car around the most demanding and longest circuit in the series, the weather and every other car on the track wanting to win as much as you do.

"There's all sorts of things that can happen like the weather, lapped cars, pit stops and a whole host of other things.

"We try and max the fuel out and then there are different strategies and you've got the pit crews as well as the co-driver so it's full on. It's a bloody tough race that's for sure.

"We're confident this year and we have a fast car. I'm feeling pretty relaxed this year and I don't have to worry about the championship [big point's buffer] too much so we can have a really good go at this [winning].

"It's probably the most relaxed I've ever been for this race and we'll just have to see how it all works out. We've got a great car and great team and hopefully we can make it happen," he said.

McLaughlin is no stranger to the Mt Panorama circuit, having thundered around there for the past seven years, and his co-driver Alex Premat has experience in Supercars and is having his sixth dig at trying to win.

The Kiwi has a best finish of third in 2018 and his results before that aren't really indicative of how good he is around the iconic track.

"Alex is all good and chilled out. He doesn't really stress about anything. He's the best guy to have in my corner and I have the utmost trust in him with my race car. It's a weird concept [handing your car to someone else] but that's why you have a lot of trust in who you have as a co-driver.

"I think this is our sixth Bathurst together and we want to make sure we get it done this time. We've been close before and having Alex in my corner is great as he calms things down," said McLaughlin.

Mt Panorama has broken many dreams and many a driver.

It is a brutally unforgiving track and the smallest of errors can destroy a car and a body. Drivers love the place and anyone worth their salt as a race car driver anywhere in the world wants to have a crack at this place and this race.

"As we've seen many times in the past, if you don't come here and don't respect it enough the track will bite you. It takes a long time to build up to this place.

''I've done a few races now so I'm sort of feeling comfortable, but it's certainly a track you have to be wary of as you have to do with the other drivers.

"There's a few blind corners and if you see a yellow flag you really have dial back and be careful. It's all about getting the balance between risk and reward," he said.