Motorsport: Fifa battles keep Kiwi's mind off the track

Kiwi driver Scott McLaughlin. Photo / Getty Images

When Scott McLaughlin wants to take a break from thinking about taking his Volvo around another hairpin turn at breakneck speed, he turns on his PlayStation 4.

Perhaps surprisingly, the Kiwi V8 Supercar driver's favourite game isn't a motorsport-themed one but rather Fifa, where he's learning to master playing as German club Borussia Dortmund.

"Sometimes you want to zone off racing," McLaughlin said. "You don't want to completely focus on it. Sometimes you can go mad thinking about it too much."

With the V8 Supercars series on a break this weekend, McLaughlin had a few friends around at his place on Friday night when they partnered up to battle for Fifa bragging rights on the PlayStation.

Living in Melbourne, where he has been based since the start of last year, means McLaughlin doesn't have to look too far for one of his other distractions - AFL.

"It's a bit of a conversation starter in some ways, so I get right into it," the Western Bulldogs fan says.

Luckily for McLaughlin, he has been more successful on the tarmac in 2014 than the Bulldogs have been in the AFL.

The 21-year-old believes he made the right call to switch from Tekno Autosports to Garry Rogers Motorsport this year and is in seventh place on the V8 Supercars Championship standings with six events left.

McLaughlin is closing in on fellow Kiwis Fabian Coulthard (fifth) and Shane van Gisbergen (sixth).

Australian Jamie Whincup leads the drivers' championship.

Following next week's Sydney Motorsport Park 400, the series moves to the endurance aspect of the season with the Sandown 500, Bathurst and the Gold Coast 600.

"We are a lot faster than we thought we would be," McLaughlin said. "We thought being in the top 10 would be great for our first season but to be smashing out podiums and contesting for wins is fantastic."

The three endurance events provide points towards the overall standings and also have their own cup.

"We can sort of make it our championship in some ways," McLaughlin said. "I think we've got a very good chance in the enduros to go well. The car is on the pace, for one, and it's also reliable."

Despite having some mechanical issues earlier in the season, McLaughlin clocked up 400km in his latest testing session and was confident his car would be reliable for the rest of the year.

McLaughlin recently spent time in the United States and has made little secret of the fact he wants to have a crack at the big-budget Nascar circuit in the future.

But he won't leave Australia until he has claimed a Bathurst and V8 Supercars title.

"If I tick those goals off, I would love to try something overseas like Nascar or something in Europe," he said. "But at this point in time, I'm 100 per cent focused on V8 Supercars."