Who is Chris Stuckey?

Chris Stuckey is coming into his own as a Supercars engineer, and with Thomas Randle as his charger, he is preparing for a serious tilt at the title in 2025.

Not that he will say that outright, mind you, but if Randle takes another step, he is right in the mix. 

Stuckey’s journey to engineer the #55 Castrol Mustang out of Tickford Racing, has been interesting and could so easily have just followed an easy path with the family business, Stuckey Tyre Service which has been supplying racing tyres since 1972 – one year less than us – and was at one stage running the Dunlop program in the Australian Touring Car Championship. 

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His father, Russell, is probably worth a feature story in himself, and it would have been easy just to keep heading down the linear succession path and work the tyres. But he wanted more than that, and he embarked on an engineering career. 

“I’ve always enjoyed going to the track,’ Stuckey says. “Dad used to take me to the track, the earliest memories I have are riding my bike around Winton when I was in primary school, he always got to go. 

Thomas Randle and Chris Stuckey in the Tickford garage at SMP. Image: Mark Horsburgh

“He took me to all the Australian Grands Prix, showing my age a little, but that was from primary school because he knew I was a full-blown race fan. I’ve always been attracted to the sport and enjoyed being at the track. So, that was pretty good upbringing, I guess, getting to go to the track quite a lot.

“To be honest, I probably took it for granted because growing up we did the Supercars tyres as a representative for Dunlop.

“I was always nearby with Dick Johnson Racing and Perkins Engineering, I guess they were the two main teams that come to mind. 

“They had Dunlop contracts and back then being a tyre development, it all seemed very interesting and just not being able to get a close-up look at that kind of aspect of the sport was exciting. 

“Then it went to a Control Tyre, and I think Bridgestone might’ve been the first recipient of the Control Tyre. So, obviously, we were effectively out of that and more so looking at some of the state race series and some of the other events and not having the Supercars there, I think I stayed working for Dad for another couple of years, but I’d always missed the cut and thrust of the Supercars. 

Chris Stuckey with Thomas Randle and Tyler Everingham ahead of the 2024 Great Race.

“So, I went back to uni to do engineering, just wanting to get more involved back in the Supercars. I guess it came to a crossroads effectively whether you want to continue with a family business doing that level of motor racing or get involved full-on at the top level in Australia, and I wanted to have a go at that and have enjoyed it.”

There is a chance he will return to the family business one day, but he’s still got a bit to do in Supercars first.

“Dad has still got a lot of drive for it, which I admire. I feel like a lot of people would be retired at his age, but he’s still really got the drive and the passion for work. I wouldn’t want to rule it out (going back the family business) because I feel it’d be such a pity to not have it continue all the work that he’s done. 

“It’d be great to do, but at the same time I’m right in the thick of it and in a really good position in Supercars and my focus is on that and what we’re doing at the moment. When I did work for him, it was effectively grooming me to take over the business and it was probably 20 years ago that I’d left.”

Thomas Randle on the Streets of Surfers Paradise. Photo by Mark Horsburgh / LAT Images

Working up the ranks, he had a few jobs on his way to Tickford Racing and Thomas Randle. 

“I’ve been to quite a few Supercars teams and that’s a bit of a story on its own, I guess. 

“I had been contracting a bit, I did Super Two with Triple Eight for 2020 and ’21 and obviously, that was COVID-interrupted. In 2022, I was working with MSR (Matt Stone Racing) but based in Melbourne. 

“I was doing MSR, and I was still doing a lot of GT stuff with MPC (Melbourne Performance Centre). My last full-time job in Supercars was at Nissan, but they went from four cars to two and I was out of a role there. 

“So, I was effectively doing T8, Super2 part-time along with GT and TCR. But then there was an opportunity at Tickford and I ended up working with Declan Fraser.”

And then Fraser morphed into the role with Randle contracted and this time he stayed, and he’s enjoying that new connection. 

“He’s a force of nature really, isn’t he?” he says of Randle. “He’s well-natured, he’s always up and about, which is good because I think he just really likes being in the track. 

Tickford team embraces Thomas Randle. Image: Mark Horsburgh

“He really likes a lot of the people at the track, whether it’s the fans or the team and it seems quite genuine. It’s not just putting the effort into the partners and the fans just because you’re taught that’s what you needed to do.

“He’s genuinely happy to see people that are happy to watch the racing and he’s good with the partners and he’s always up and about. 

“Obviously, it’s a pretty tough sport and if you have a tough session, it knocks you around a bit, but he always bounces back quite well. Symmons Plains was a good example of a bounce back where he came out at the next round and had but that behind him. 

“Bathurst qualifying too, we didn’t do a really good job with the car going into quali. We had a few mechanical issues and then we scrambled a bit for quali and we didn’t do a very good job with the car.

“So that was a really tough session, it’s a 40-minute session and you’re battling with the car the whole time and we qualified 19th, which was a real blow. 

“I knew we had better form than that. But come the next day, he’s like, ‘Right, let’s go’. It was just what we needed.”

Randle is famous for his ability to talk, he’s the chattiest bloke in pitlane for sure, and dead easy to interview, there’s no pulling teeth like some. But what’s he like in a debrief? 

Thomas Randle leads the field at The Bend in 2023.

“He’s quite well known for wanting a chat in a debrief. Sometimes, he’s probably on the limit of what everyone else can cope in the A-trailer but in a good-natured way, I think we all have a bit of a joke about it and it’s quite a good thing. 

“Sometimes, eventually you might need a bit of a break from just looking at data and considering strategy options and to have a bit of a laugh… it’s not a bad thing sometimes. He’s quite good with switching off and you end up having a laugh and there’s a bit of a banter from him sometimes and some back and forth, he cops it a bit and he gives it back. 

“We’ve developed quite a good culture in the A trailer, we obviously work quite hard and quite focused, but we can have a bit of a laugh at each other’s expense and there’s a fair bit of banter.

“I enjoy working with him, he’s got to know my family and vice versa. So, I feel he’s quite a genuine guy and I hope I can be part of success with him in the future. I think he’s quite capable of taking the next step and hopefully, we can make that happen.”

So, Bathurst, the championship or both? 

“It’s a tricky one. I think the sentimental one is Bathurst. I think the championship is being there for the whole year even through the format’s changing for next year.

“It will be a little bit different, but what Will Brown did this year, being so strong at every race weekend, is really admirable.

“Obviously, your heart says, “Bathurst.” It’s a tricky one to split. But I think the championship is the ultimate goal.”

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