On track for success -Brock Gilchrist
Words Luke Williamson
Toyota 86 Champion and Matakana resident, Brock Gilchrist, has been driving since he was four. Hoping to race next in Australia and move onto Porsches, he’d happily drive any race car, as long as he was getting paid to do it.
Matakana resident, Brock Gilchrist, won nine races out of 18 starts this season and, despite nursing a struggling car to 17th place in the final race, he was still crowned Toyota 86 Champion for 2023. “I’m stoked!” he says. “I had a big confidence boost after the first round when I got the first pole position and won two races.”
The prize for the Toyota 86 Champion is an all-expenses-paid trip to race in Germany at the iconic Nürburgring track. “We’ve got two one-hour races over there in a full Supra GT4 field. It's going to be heaps of fun. Hopefully we’re fast,” he laughs. He will only be in Germany for a week, with two practise days and a weekend of racing. A new car, a new track, and his first time in Europe should all add to the challenge for Brock. “From what I’ve seen, they’re also a bit rougher than we are here so it should be pretty interesting.”
Like most race drivers, Brock got his start in go-karts and worked his way up. “I started at about four-years-old, and learned racing in the karts, and then I stepped up to a car when I was about 14 or 15 years old. I was very lucky to be able to get into a race car at such a young age – I didn’t even have my driver’s licence!”
His outstanding season also resulted in Brock being selected by the Tony Quinn Foundation as winner of the Ampol Red Bull Racing Gen 3 Camaro Supercar test. He’ll travel to Brisbane for a trial drive in the Camaro Supercar and meet a hero of his, Shane van Gisbergen. “It’s a test in the car to see what it’s like to drive. It’s one of the top levels of motorsport in Australia so you don’t get an opportunity like that very often.” Driving Supercars would be a dream destination for Brock, but, he says, “If I could be paid to drive any race car, I wouldn’t complain.”
Motor racing in New Zealand is said to be very competitive and Brock agrees. “In the Toyota 86 Championship, the times were all so close. In qualifying, the top 10 drivers were within about a half-second of each other. Making up one-tenth of a second can get you into P1,” (first place on the starting pole).
The motivation to keep turning up to race day for Brock is a mixture of emotion and technical approach. “I just love the atmosphere, the feel of speed, and you can’t beat that winning feeling. When you’ve done it once, you want to do it again.” To keep improving, however, Brock and his team have to put in some time analysing the data from the cars’ onboard computers. “We can see where I was turning, braking, accelerating, and things like that, but we can see what the other cars were doing too, so I can work out how to take a corner better and get around the track faster.”
Next season’s racing plans are uncertain for Brock at this stage. “I’d like to try and race in Aussie. The Porsche series is where I would like to get to, but finding the funding to get over and do it is quite challenging.” Brock is planning on applying for the Team Porsche New Zealand scholarship, and winning that would be a huge boost to his dream. The scholarship has previously included a ‘shoot out’ where the top candidates each try and post their best lap time, and that is a consideration in the selection of the winning candidate.
Should Brock get to race in the Porsche series in Australia next year, there is then the prospect of racing Porsches in Europe and from there... who knows? For now, he’s just looking forward to making the most of the opportunity to race in Germany and trying out the Supercar in Brisbane. Next year is further down the track.