YOUNG GUNS: CODY BURCHER

Young Guns: Cody Burcher – Photos: InSyde Media

Porsche fanatic Cody Burcher has shot into prominence after finishing the 2019 Australian Formula Ford Championship strongly.

By DAN McCARTHY

During the season Burcher collected a race win and six podiums earning himself sixth in the final standings’ and is looking to build on that in 2020 when the season gets underway.

Burcher’s career goal is to race overseas, in legendary endurance races such as the Le Mans 24 Hours, but the level headed New South Welshman explained that he would be lucky to drive any race car as a career.

“I love endurance racing, it’s something I’ve always been interested in, the Nurburgring 24 Hours, Spa 24 Hours, Le Mans 24 Hours and Bathurst 12 Hour, it would be a dream to race in those,” Burcher told Auto Action.

“That is what I would like to do, but you have to look at the best opportunity and capitalise on it. Realistically if you can race a car for a job you are doing pretty well and I don’t think you’d mind what you drove.”

Burcher has grown up in a family of passionate motor racing fans and drivers. His father Shane was the Grand Champion of Summernats in 2000 and has owned a mechanical business for a number of decades, so it was no surprise that Cody became a petrol head.

“My love of Motorsport started when I was seven, my family bought me a go-kart for Christmas and it all took off from there,” Burcher recalled.

“The main reason he (Shane) wanted to get me into karts was to help me drive on the road, it took off and ended up being a lot more.”

By 2017 Burcher was a national karting front runner, finishing third in the Australian KA2 Championship as well as winning the NSW series that year.

“It was a big year for us, we’ve never had the biggest budget, we are not millionaires,” Burcher told AA.

“It is a negative in the sense of opportunities but at the same time when you do get given an opportunity, you make the most of it.

“That year was an icebreaker, I found a lot in myself. I started training and looking after myself with fitness, the pace was there beforehand but it was that little bit of self-confidence that grew.

“We were a family team on a third of the budget of some, it was a very special year, a lot of work went into it and to come out with something like that we were pretty proud.”

For performing in the Australian Championship Burcher got to test a Formula 4 machine with former Supercars driver Cameron McConville acting as a mentor for the day.

However, F4 was not the next step as prior to the test the Burcher family made the purchase of a Formula Ford to compete in the Victorian Championship for 2018.

“The cars move around, the power, you have a H-pattern gearbox and heel and toeing for downshifts along with the towing aspect,” he explained.

You look at everyone that has come through Formula Ford, all the high profile drivers would say it’s where they learnt their race craft, it’s the best category for that, so it was a pretty obvious step for us to make.

Burcher felt he got up to speed quite quickly ahead of his debut season in the Spectrum 012b machine.

“My first time in the car I wasn’t even changing at the gear lights because I was like ‘holy crap’ this is so quick and when you start to do that, it is just hair raising,” he recalled.

“Once you get used to that it is the most fun I’ve ever had, it was absolutely mental, so much fun.”

Driving for Borland Racing Developments Burcher finished fourth in the Victorian series and dipped his toe in the water of national racing competition.

During the offseason the Orange born driver made the switch to Justin Cotter’s Synergy Motorsport to embark on his first full campaign in the Australian Championship.

“Justin has been absolutely fantastic, he’s one of the best in the business on the coaching side,” Burcher explained.

“He is straight down the line you know where you stand, but he definitely knows what he is doing and he is a really good driver trainer as it has proved, he has trained Matt Campbell, John Martin and Chaz Mostert, so some pretty big names.”

As the year progressed Burcher found himself improving round upon round, by the fifth event at Sandown Raceway Burcher was contending for race wins.

He did not break through in Victoria, but when popping back over the border to Wakefield Park in New South Wales Burcher scored his maiden victory.

“In Race 1 I made a good start and then made my way past Angelo Mouzouris and Callum Hedge to get my maiden victory in Formula Ford which was absolutely crazy, it meant a lot to everyone all the hard work was starting to pay off,” he recalled.

Burcher felt himself grow throughout the championship and when the 2020 season begins will have his sights firmly fixated on the title.

“At the end of the year I was at a stage where I was really happy with my race craft, you never know everything and there is always things to learn but I made a huge step forward in pretty much all areas compared with previous years,” Burcher confessed.

“We want to go for the championship this year and hopefully if all goes well we can make the step up to another category for 2021.

As a passionate Porsche man seeking a career in endurance racing Burcher looks to follow in the footsteps of Matt Campbell. Burcher targets the Porsche Sprint Challenge as the first step in that direction but is keeping his options open.

“I am a Porsche fanatic and always have been, so for me it would be nice to step up to the Porsche Sprint Challenge next year, but I have to make a few things go right to make that happen,” he explained.

“If an opportunity pops up in anything we will definitely take a look at it, you aren’t going to put all your eggs in one basket, you take a look at everything and look at what is best.”

As previously reported by Auto Action Burcher drove a V8 powered S5000 monster earlier this year and has left the door open to a number of races in the new championship.

“The S5000 was really, really cool, a real eye-opener, the amount of power it has, it is an absolute beast,” he told AA.

“If the right opportunity came up, once again we would have a look and it would be cool to do something this year, if the right change popped up it is a possibility.”

This web edition of Young Guns aims to highlight some of the talent from within the junior ranks. If, like Cody, you fit the criteria please email [email protected] with a blurb about yourself, the categories you’ve competed in, some imagery to go with the story and contact details.

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