YOUNG GUN – LACHLAN MINEEFF

New South Welshman Lachlan Mineeff scored a top 10 on debut in TCR Australia at Phillip Island last month, then followed it up with Class D victory at last weekend’s Bathurst 6 Hour, but his success could have been on dirt.

Mineeff’s father and uncle were successful in Speedway competition, but it was watching circuit racing on television, which fuelled his ambition to race.

“My dad raced dirt track speedway; my uncle was quite good at it in the mid-1990s,” explained the 18-year-old.

“From there, I watched Supercars and Formula 1 during my younger years, then when I was seven, I got a kart for the first time and did some practice in that, but from then on, I was hooked.

“We moved into club level karting when I was 10 and from there progressed through the ranks into state series. I won the NSW Junior State Championships in karting before moving into Formula Ford.

“It’s very hard to make a career in circuit racing, but it is especially harder in speedway and there’s probably a bit more of a future potential in circuit racing. I still remain interested in Speedway to this day; I have intentions to go and compete when the circuit racing is a little bit less busy.”

Linking up with current Carrera Cup racer Cameron Hill for his next step into Formula Ford, Mineeff was a frontrunner almost immediately in the national series.

“We did a couple of rounds of the NSW State Series, walking away with a race and round win, which was a fantastic way to end the year,” he explained.

“For 2018, we decided to make the step up to the National Formula Ford Series and I had quite a good learning year there, a consistent season meant I finished fifth in the title.

“From there, we did another year in the national series and if I was completely honest it would have been nicer to be a couple more spots up in the title, during the midway of the season we were second or third.

“We finished fifth again that season with a few race wins and a couple of round wins, which was good.

“We had the same equal level of round wins in the category so can’t be unhappy with that.”

Teaming with Formula Ford rival Tom Sargent, the pair created history at The Mountain in 2019, despite overcoming a hardship early on in the race.

“We had to overcome adversity early on in the Bathurst 6 Hour, which included an engine failure just 40-minutes into the race,” he said. “We replaced the engine to get back out and we became the youngest finishers of an endurance race at The Mountain.”

Young Gun – Lachlan Mineeff – Images: InSyde Media

The duo returned to The Mountain last weekend, winning Class D in a Toyota 86 run by CHE Racing and finishing an impressive 15th outright.

Before this, Mineeff made his TCR Australia debut in tough conditions at Phillip Island, recording a top 10 in his maiden race start and will continue his campaign at Sydney Motorsport Park driving his privateer Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR.

“We’re really looking forward to TCR this year after not racing in 2020,” Mineeff enthused. “TCR we’re really happy with, running our own team is good and I aim to get experience this year to see where it takes us.

This web edition of Young Guns aims to highlight some of the talents from within the junior ranks. If, like Lachlan, 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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