Speedway is one of the most popular motorsport categories in the country; the racing is fast, the competition is fierce and the guys behind the steering wheel are as serious about their racing as V8 Supercar drivers. This week we introduce Brad Heywood, winner of the 1991/1992 World Series Sprintcars Championship. He was a privateer that beat the factory teams and was one of the characters of the sport. Speedcafe.com.au chased him down to look back at his career and find out what he is up to now. Read More
This week’s ‘Where are they Now?’ focus turns to Europe. Armin Hahne is not a big name in Australia but he certainly is in Europe. The Monaco based driver has been racing for forty years and made his name here when he won Bathurst in 1985 with John Goss. Speedcafe.com.au spoke to Hahne to find out what he’s been doing since his last Australian outing in 1988. Read More
Wayne Cattach was one of V8 Supercars' most impressive administrators. After a long and distinguished career with Shell, he worked closely with Dick Johnson Racing and held the role as V8’s CEO for almost 10 years. He led the sport into and through its most prosperous times before his retirement in late 2008. What does someone who lived the 'glitz and glamour' of the sport for so long do in his retirement? SpeedCafe.com.au found out for you Read More
In this week’s ‘Where are they now?’ we return to the ‘good old days’ of the Australian Touring Car Championship. In an era when the privateer competition was just as highly sought after as the overall championship, drivers like Terry Finnigan put their heart and soul into their racing and had a blast doing it. What is Finnigan doing to keep busy now he is no longer racing? Speedcafe.com.au found out. Read More
Mark Stacey will go down as one of the greats of the Australian Rally Championship. Stacey, one of the most successful co-drivers in the sport, has raced in and won literally dozens of championships, both here and overseas. In a career spanning over 30 years he has raced with some of the best, including the late great Possum Bourne. What is he doing now? Speedcafe.com.au found out. Read More
In this week’s ‘Where are they Now?’ we introduce a man that will one day surely be recognised with an Order of Australia medal for services to motorsport. For 40 years David Harding was the man behind the famous Lakeside and Surfers Paradise race tracks, he even played a hand in the creation of Lakeside. Long out of the sport, Speedcafe.com.au tracked down Harding to talk about his career and to find out what he is doing. Read More
Rodney Forbes last raced V8 Supercars in 2002. He was part of the super team of Craig Lowndes and Neil Crompton at 00 Motorsport. He career was short and he sure left a mark, perhaps for the wrong reasons, but having raced in other categories since then he has proved that he is a talented driver and can more than hold his own when given the right equipment. What is he doing now? Speedcafe.com.au got together with him for a D&M. Read More
Ivan Stibbard was once one of the country’s most powerful motorsport administrators. As head of the Australian Racing Drivers Club (ARDC) he ran events at Amaroo Park Raceway and Bathurst. Highly respected by drivers and fellow motorsport employees alike, Stibbard was involved in the sport for 30 years. Moving on in the late 1990s, Speedcafe.com.au got him on the phone to find out what he is doing now? Read More
This week Speedcafe.com.au returns to the world of rally and for the first time introduces a woman to the ‘Where are they Now?’ honor board. Penny Swan was one of the first women to race rally cars and paved the way for young guns like Molly Taylor to try their hand. Swan competed in the Australian Rally Championship and the Australian Safari. What’s she up to now? Read on … Read More
Mark Oastler was one of Australia’s most popular motorsport commentators. Working at Channels Seven and 10 in a broadcasting career that totalled 13 years, Oastler was one of the voices of the sport and worked alongside some of the greats, men like Neil Crompton, Mike Raymond, Gary Wilkinson, Barry Sheene and many others. Deciding to hang up the microphone in 2002, Oastler hasn’t been seen on television since. What is he doing now? Speedcafe.com.au found out Read More
Most Australian drivers start out in Formula Ford and progress to touring cars, Bruce Allison only ever had an eye on open wheelers and carved out an impressive career, albeit a short one. Allison raced Formula Ford, Formula 5000, F2 and the Tasman and Pacific series’, he even had the chance to test a Formula 1 car. Speedcafe caught up with one of the genuine nice guys of Australian open-wheeler racing to find out what he’s been up to Read More
George Fury started out as a champion rally driver and progressed to be a champion touring car driver. He twice won the Australian Rally Championship and was a Nissan stalwart. He was recently voted as one of the Australia’s top 50 touring car drivers of the last 50 years. Speedcafe.com.au spoke to the Talmalmo farmer, one of the sport’s nice guys, to find out what fills in his days Read More
All of the big teams in the V8 paddock have their own public relations or media departments. The PR manager’s role is to create ways in which to get the team front and centre before the media and deliver for the team’s sponsors. Paul Weissel used to be one of the best in the business and ran the show at HRT during its most successful and turbulent times. What is Weissel doing now? Speedcafe.com.au found out.
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Tim Leahey didn’t have a long career, but he sure made an impact on the Australian motorsport scene. The former open wheeler specialist will forever hold the outright lap record at the now defunct Oran Park Raceway and he was an endurance race specialist. What’s Leahey doing now? Speedcafe.com.au caught up with him as the V8s gridded up at the Sydney Telstra 500 recently Read More
When you mention some of the great Australian motorcycle riders most will talk about Mick Doohan, Wayne Gardner and Kevin Magee – and you can add to that list Robbie Phillis. Phillis has won a massive number of titles and made a name for himself as one of our first World Superbike riders. What’s he doing now? Speedcafe.com.au caught up with the 54 year old at the recent MotoGP at Phillip Island Read More
Andrew Miedecke has enjoyed a prolific motorsport career. Growing up in Tasmania, he is one of the state’s great exports. He’s raced in a number of open wheeler categories, he’s driven with Peter Brock and he’s been on the Bathurst podium. 35 years after starting in the sport, he’s still racing. What is he up to now? Speedcafe.com.au spoke to him recently to get the low down Read More
At Oran Park in 2000 Paul Morris and Mark Larkham were involved in one of the most terrifying accidents to be seen in V8 Supercars. The accident on the start line saw a ball of flame engulf Larkham’s Ford while a trail of fire made its way to the Big Kev Commodore as Morris struggled to get out. What became of Morris’s Commodore? Speedcafe.com.au spoke to ‘the dude’ to find out Read More
With Australia’s most recent Formula One driver, Mark Webber, in contention to win the drivers’ world championship in Abu Dhabi this weekend and during Remembrance Day week, Speedcafe.com.au decided to wind back the clock and speak to our very first F1 driver. Tony Gaze raced in the 1952 championship; he was a decorated World War Two fighter ‘ace’ and is step-grandfather to Alex and Will Davison. At 90 years young, we spoke to Gaze about his career and asked whether he thinks Webber can win the title Read More
Kevin Magee raced 500cc bikes during the golden age of Australian motorcycle history. A supremely talented rider, Magee raced with fellow Australian’s Wayne Gardner and Mick Doohan and against some of the greats of the sport. Plagued with accidents and injuries Magee never showed the world what he was truly capable of. At Queensland Raceway for a recent V8 Supercar test day, Speedcafe.com.au spent a few minutes with the man they call ‘Magoo’ to find out what he’s being doing since retiring from racing Read More
During the 1970s through to the late 1990s Garry Wilkinson was one of ‘the’ voices of Australian motorsport. Teaming up with Mike Raymond at the track, Wilkinson was a sports commentator with Channel Seven and was a regular on the network’s tennis coverage. Wilkinson hasn’t been involved in motorsport for over a decade, so Speedcafe.com.au chased him down after he returned from the Delhi Commonwealth Games to find out what he does to fill in a day and how he pays the bills.
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In this week’s ‘Where are they now?’ Speedcafe.com.au chats to one of the V8 Supercar championship’s greatest names, Tony Longhurst. A former champion water skier, Longhurst is a two time Bathurst winner, a feat that he did in a Ford and a Holden. Involved in motorsport for over 25 years, Longhurst has driven for some of the series’ best teams and has won several championship titles Read More
The ‘Lanky Texan’ was one of the biggest personalities of 500cc racing in the 1980s and 1990s and still has a fan base that many top line riders would be envious of. On the eve of the Australian MotoGP, Speedcafe.com.au contacted the 1993 500cc World Champion Kevin Schwantz. He used to thrill race goers with his late braking and aggressive style and the famous #34 Lucky Strike Suzuki was one of the best known bikes in the world. What is he up to now? Read on ... Read More
Fred Gibson has won Bathurst as a driver, he’s managed team’s that have won Touring Car Championships and he was at the helm of 00 Motorsport when Craig Lowndes spectacularly jumped ship from Holden to Ford. Speedcafe.com.au caught up with Gibson on the eve of Bathurst to look back at his career and find out what he is doing now Read More
If you’re in the school of Australian motorsport and you mention the brands Akubra, Craven Mild and Fosters, there’s only one man that springs to mind – Allan Grice. Speedcafe.com.au's Grant Rowley caught up with 'Gricey' on the 20th anniversary of his last Bathurst 1000 victory Read More
The Seton’s have been involved in Australian motorsport for 50 years. The focus in recent years has been Glenn Seton’s inability to win Bathurst; however the Seton name is already etched into Bathurst folklore with his dad, Barry Seton, winning the ‘Great Race’ way back in 1965. That was 45 years ago, what is he up to now? Speedcafe.com.au found out Read More
This week Speedcafe turns its attention to one of the Australian Rally Championship’s most popular drivers, Ed Ordynski. In the 1990’s he established himself as the ‘Group N’ King and drove for the country’s highest profile outfit - Team Mitsubishi Ralliart. Ordynski has been very quiet of late so Speedcafe.com.au tracked him down to find out what he’s up to now.
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With David Brabham in the country about to put his helmet on for IRWIN Racing in the endurance events we thought it would be good to see what the elder son of Sir Jack Brabham was up to now. You will have heard his voice on the latest BMW television commercial, but what else does he do? Speedcafe.com.au spoke to Geoff Brabham about his career and what fills in his day Read More
Charlie O’Brien once held the record for being the youngest driver to win an Australian Touring Car race; it was a record that he held from 1976 through to 2003. O’Brien has raced across six decades and still gets behind the wheel on occasions now. Speedcafe.com.au contacted the former Holden Dealer Team driver to find out what he is up to these days Read More
Over the last fortnight Speedcafe has spoken to John Faulkner and John Briggs about their careers. This week we give the ‘Johns’ a break and turn to someone who drove for both Faulkner and Briggs and won an enduro with Stone Brothers Racing. Speedcafe.com.au spoke to former Team Dynamik racer Simon Wills to find out what he’s doing to fill in his days Read More
You can thank the current success of the mighty TeamVodafone to this man. John Briggs sold his level one franchise licences to Roland Dane and his Triple Eight business and the rest is history. Briggs was involved in motor racing for years and once ran a three car V8 team. What else has he done and what is he doing now? Speedcafe.com.au found out. Read More
