Most Australian motorsports scribes have got it all wrong. When looking for Aussies who are making it in motorsport, we are looking in the wrong direction.
Instead of talking about drivers who actually aren’t behind the wheel – hello, Marcos Ambrose – or races that were more like parades at speed – hello, the Australian Formula One Grand Prix – we should be shining a light on the Australians who are leading our charge on the global motorsport stage.
The last calendar year has been very good to Australians overseas, and, if early season form is anything to go by, that trend looks set to continue in 2015. At the moment, there’s no hotter tin top driver in the world than Ryan Briscoe. The Sydney native has raced twice with the factory Corvette Racing squad in America, and has picked up two GT-E class victories, one at the famed 24 Hours of Daytona and, this weekend, at the similarly-prestigious 12 Hours of Sebring.
Not only did the Corvette squad outlast a fleet of Porsches, they did it in sweltering heat on a track that is notoriously murderous on driver and car. It’s bumpy, fast, unforgiving, and you need to be very good to survive twelve hours of racing there, let alone to stand on the top step of the podium.
To most sports car fans, the 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring are right up in the top five as far as endurance classics are concerned, sitting comfortably alongside the 24 Hours of Spa and the most famous of them all, the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Briscoe, driving for a powerhouse squad whose professionalism has seen them atop North American and international sports car racing for more than a decade, has silverware from arguably the two of the most important North American racing events that will be run this year. The Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500 are the only others that draw such worldwide interest – yet Briscoe’s feats have largely gone unnoticed, because column inches are filled with political entanglements in Formula One or rumours about a driver who may or may not make a return to V8 Supercar racing.
Even Will Power, Australia’s first ever IndyCar Series champion, barely rates a mention after topping the timesheets at the pre-season test for the IndyCar teams at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama. It’s the best possible way for Power, who has been fast for years and only needed to get the monkey off his back to win a championship, to begin his pursuit for two series championships in a row.
That’s not to mention a tilt at the Indianapolis 500 in May, with the winningest team in the history of the Memorial Day Classic.
After May, of course, comes June, and Briscoe will again be behind the wheel of a Corvette, this time at Circuit de la Sarthe, for the 2015 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Judging by the way things have been going, you wouldn’t want to bet on that seemingly-bulletproof yellow C7.R, which is shared among Briscoe, Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia, taking the checkers after a day’s worth of racing in France.
Across in Europe, the World Endurance Championship opens in less than three weeks, with the now-tradition opener, the six Hours of Silverstone. Australian Mark Webber, who impressed at Le Mans and was involved in a horrific accident at the last race of 2014 in Sao Paolo, Brazil, returns as lead driver for the factory Porsche 919 Hybrid prototype. With one year of development under their belt, the German squad has high hopes of challenging Toyota and Audi for the championship. With a new Nissan prototype set to debut at Le Mans, the WEC has never been stronger.
Then there’s Jack Miller, who will make his debut on a MotoGP bike this year. Us Aussies are used to success in the premier motorcycling category in the world, from Wayne Gardner through Michael Doohan and on to Casey Stoner, so seeing Jack up towards the pointy end of the field would be great.
Former World Superbike champion Troy Bayliss is temporarily back on pit lane, riding a Ducati again, filling in for injured rider David Giugliano, is another story that barely rates a mention. Had the Superbike series not had it’s season opener in Australia, we might never have heard about Bayliss, a guy old enough to be the father of most of his competitors, returning for spot duty.
So, come on motor racing journalists, let’s see less stories from unnamed sources analysing Marcos Ambrose’s state of mind or whether Red Bull will pull out of Formula One – I doubt they will, it’s all sabre rattling, something not uncommon in the Formula One paddock.
Let’s see more about our best and brightest overseas doing us proud. There’s plenty of good news to fill column inches! We should be shouting news of Aussie winners at the world’s biggest races from the rooftops!
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