OPEN-WHEELERS

1992 – 1997 + 2000

My father and I bought a Formula Ford from Matthew Howard in 1992 and were preparing it out of our own garage. At the time it was a bit overwhelming because I knew nothing about preparing a race car and wasn’t happy putting my career in my own hands but that’s how a lot of people did it back then.

My first and second years in the state series and the races we did at national level surprised a few people, even though we probably let ourselves down mechanically a little bit because we didn’t know what we were doing. That drew some interest.

Up until then we’d been self-funded but in 1994 we only had enough to do the first three races: Amaroo Park, Phillip Island and Gold Coast Indy, which was going to be my last race. I qualified on pole and was approached by two businessmen, Paul Mulhearn and David Ratcliffe, who helped me get through that season.

In 1995 I picked up the factory Van Dieman Formula Ford drive in Australia along with Webber. I put a proposal to Skilled Engineering, who I was working for as a machinist, and Valvoline approached me because of the Van Dieman link, so for the first time I was able to race full-time.

I won the championship that year, which is one of the most satisfying years of my career. I was still running out of my dad’s little workshop with him, my uncle and one of my mates helping on race weekends whereas Mark Webber had a full-time mechanic and Mark Noske was part of a four-car team run by Alan Jones.

In 1996 I took off to America to compete in Formula Ford 2000. The calendar there suited me coming back to Australia, where it was easier to find sponsorship, so I was racing Formula Holden at home and then using leftover money to race overseas.

I was driving for the factory Van Dieman team Primus Racing in the US and I won the second round at St Petersburg. I led the Championship pretty much the whole way up until the last race, when I was pipped by four points racing against Buddy Rice, Steve Knapp, Sam Schmitt, Robbie McGee, Sam Hornish Jr. I got second place in the Formula Holden as well.

In 1997 I didn’t have the budget to stay in America so decided to come back to Australia and race in Formula Holden, again preparing my own car out of a workshop in Adelaide. I won the championship, which led to plenty of opportunities in V8 Supercars but I still had ambitions to race overseas in open-wheelers so I kept communication lines open with teams in America.

In 1999 I managed to organise a test in an Indy Lights car in October. My employer at the time, Stone Brothers Racing, cornered me in October to make a decision on whether I was here or there. That’s when I chose to give open wheelers one last crack but it was a gamble because at that stage I didn’t even know I had a drive; I hadn’t even gone over for the first test.

Fortunately the test went very well and opened the door to a test with Dorricott Racing and a position in that team for 2000.

My rookie season went very well and I was leading the championship by round six and already had a round win under my belt. Unfortunately I had a big crash at Chicago, which obviously cost me points because I didn’t compete in that round. Then there were also some changes in the team that led to some components being assembled badly for the car. This went undiscovered for three rounds and created some lack-luster results relegating me to sixth in the championship.

I did the Indy race on the Gold Coast that year, which was obviously very satisfying because that is what I was doing it for. I qualified 25^th but was up to fifth before Max Papis and I collided as a result of Roberto Moreno hitting the wall in front of us.

At the time Champ Car was going through a changing phase, having lost the Indy500, and there tended to be more drivers than teams going into 2001, which ended my open-wheeler career.