Rachael Brown has been a member of the Motorsport Australia Technical team for just over a year, but her relationship with motorsport has existed for much longer.
Introduced to motorsport at the age of six, thanks to her father Andrew and her late-grandfather, Rachael is a passionate competitor within Victoria’s historics community.
Most recently, Brown, now 21, competed at Historic Sandown, as a driver in the Group K class, driving a 1930s Morris Special, made up of Morris Minor parts, as well as Morris 8 mechanical components.
Despite battling with challenging and wet conditions on track, Rachael enjoyed a fun weekend on Sandown’s International Raceway, which was made possible by the friendly and supportive historics community and Motorsport Australia’s officials.
“Everybody’s there to be friendly and enthusiastic about the sport, as well as being helpful and happy to talk about their vehicles and what they’ve done to them,” Brown said.
“I don’t go to many of the other contemporary events, but compared to other events, you can talk to the drivers and the mechanics and just learn a whole lot about the driver and their vehicles and get up close with the vehicle.
“It’s just being able to talk with people, interacting with them, and they’re all happy to help no matter what you’re up to or who you are. It’s quite amazing, really.”
In addition to being affiliated with both the Victorian Historic Racing Register and the Vintage Sports Car Club of Victoria, Rachael spends her work week at Motorsport Australia’s Victoria office assisting the Technical Department with its historics documentation.
From day-to-day, Rachael processes log books and Certificates of Description for any vehicle dated prior to 1992 under the mentorship of Motorsport Historics Technical Executive, Frank Adamson.
Brown outlined she is grateful to be in a unique position where she can understand viewpoints on motorsport as both a staff member of Australia’s governing body of motorsport and as a competitor.
“As being a competitor who races probably close to a dozen times a year and working at Motorsport Australia, I understand both sides of the equation so to speak,” Brown said.
“Understanding the rules, the regulations, and how things run out there, in the competitor’s world, it’s important to understand those processes and how to interpret multiple viewpoints.
“You might be able to understand what a fellow competitor is thinking about a certain thing, but also translating that over to the governance side of things is quite unique.”
For more on Motorsport Australia’s Historic Groups, head to the Motorsport Australia website.
