Back at the beginning of 2020, Motor Trader interviewed Gabrielle Clift, then a third-year light vehicle apprentice at Highfields Mechanical and Offroad at Highfields, near Toowoomba. Gabrielle had just been presented with the Apprentice of the Month award, and it would kick off an incredible prize-winning few months for the then 21-year-old, who would go on to pick up the Capricorn Rising Stars Apprentice of the Year award and, to cap off an amazing year, the 2020 MTA Queensland Apprentice of the Year award.

Part of the prize for winning that MTA Queensland award was the opportunity – thanks to Spirit Super and Triple Eight Race Engineering – to enjoy two weeks of work experience with the legendary, Supercar championship-winning Triple Eight team (also known as Red Bull Ampol Racing) and be part of the crew at the Gold Coast 500 Supercars event.

Unable to live any of that experience last year thanks to COVID-19, it was in September this year that Gabrielle was finally able to step into the team’s workshop at Banyo on the eastern fringe of Brisbane and spend a fortnight learning just what it takes to be part of a top-class racing outfit.

Triple Eight/Red Bull Ampol is, of course, the home to a few of Australian motorsports most famous drivers – Jamie Whincup, Broc Feeney, Shane Van Gisbergen, Garth Tander, Craig Lowndes and Declan Fraser are driving for the outfit this year – and being a part of the workshop team that has been a dominant force in the Supercars series for so long was, said Gabrielle, a very special experience. Especially so as her time at the team’s Banyo HQ coincided with preparations for the biggest race of the year, the Bathurst 1000.

“I got a very good look around at what goes on behind the scenes and what it takes to get a race car ready,” said Gabrielle. “I saw the new Gen3 Camaro and got to do a little bit of work on it as well, which was very exciting.

“A lot of the time I was watching what was going on, but I was able to help in the preparations for Bathurst,” she added. “I assisted on the service of their rattle guns, for example, getting their air-lines ready and testing them, making sure that they were good to go.

“I’ve also gained quite a lot of experience in sticker work! You might think stickers are nothing important, but when you know the sponsors are paying lots of money for them, the sticker work becomes just as important as anything else!

“I also got to spend a bit of time with the mechanics for Broc Feeney and Jamie Whincup and got to do a little bit of work on their car and ask a lot of questions.

I definitely got a very good insight into what it takes to be a motorsport mechanic. It was very interesting because while we all enjoy Bathurst and watching the race, I don’t think anyone realises how much work is involved.”

Which brings us to the Mount Panorama race circuit and the real ‘race that stops a nation.’

Working with Triple Eight/Red Bull Ampol for the Bathurst 1000 was not part of the original work experience plan, but on the advice of Craig Baills, her boss at Highfields Mechanical, Gabrielle approached the Supercars team to see if there might be a spot available for her to join them at the big weekend of racing.

“The team seemed quite happy with the work I was doing – even Roland Dane had something to say about my performance! – and my boss said to me that I should ask if they would be willing to have me at Bathurst,” said Gabrielle. “So, that’s what I did. And they said they’d love to have me along. You can imagine how stoked I was to be there!”

Being part of a top team at the nation’s most prestigious race meeting meant that this was no ordinary assignment, and while it may have been tempting to take a peek at what was happening on the track, Gabrielle’s attention, along with everyone else’s on the team, was put into making sure the pit garage ran smoothly and efficiently.

For Gabrielle, this meant making sure everything was neat and tidy, tools were where they should be and in fine working order, and new, fresh tyres were always on hand. To work on the Red Bull Ampol race cars themselves was more than she could have expected, but Gabrielle even got a chance to do that too.

“I was there to help where needed, so a lot of it was to do with the presentation of the garage,” she said. “Red Bull is obviously a major sponsor of the team so even the fridges had to be stacked perfectly. And I don’t say it had to be done perfectly for just any reason. If the TV cameras were there, they had to be perfect.

“I did know the guys working on Car 88, and they asked if I would like to give them a hand when prepping for practice and qualifying. The fact they let me do a couple of little mechanical things, along with making sure that the car was squeaky clean, was fantastic. I was very lucky and stoked with that.”

As one might expect, during the heat of the main race everyone was busy and always on edge, ready to leap into action when required. Despite the pressure, however, Gabrielle said that the professionalism of the team meant everything worked like a well-oiled machine.

“It was busy, and I didn’t really get to see a lot of the race because I was one of the people doing tyre runs down to the Dunlop tent,” she said.

“Doing that was probably the most exercise I have done in a long time because the tent was located more than halfway down pit lane and there was a slight climb. You really felt that when pushing tyres!

“Red Bull Ampol have such a good system that they have everything ready to go. Everything is prepped and everyone in the pit crew is very calm. In fact, it’s amazing how calm they are,” she added. “They’ve been doing this for years and they know what to do and what to expect. It was cool to watch.”

The icing on the cake of Gabrielle’s Bathurst experience was, of course, to be part of the winning team. The driver pairing of Shane van Gisbergen and Garth Tander took the chequered flag after completing 161 laps of the Mount Panorama circuit, with the Car 88 duo of Broc Feeney and Jamie Whincup finishing fifth. Craig Lowndes and Declan Fraser also finished in the top ten, claiming 8th spot.

A brilliant result for the Triple Eight team, it was, said Gabrielle, an amazing feeling to play even a relatively minor role in such a result.

“I didn’t think I would be full of emotion, but I thought I was going to cry for a minute!” she said. “I’d never been to Bathurst, even as a spectator, and that atmosphere, that joy, that feeling to be a part of it was pretty surreal. There is no feeling like it.

“At first, I thought I really didn’t do much, but then I realised that while preparing their rattle guns and air-lines and doing the sticker work may not seem like much, it took the pressure off someone else. And at such a big race, with so much riding on it and where so much needs to be done, the fact that I could be there assisting them makes me feel great and makes me feel like I really accomplished something.”

Gabrielle’s amazing month didn’t finish with Bathurst. On the weekend of October 28-30, she was back in action at the Gold Coast 500. The result? Another brilliant weekend, with Red Bull Ampol clinching the teams’ championship title and Shane van Gisbergen notching two race wins and securing the driver’s championship. It was another golden moment for Gabrielle and a grand finale to her time embedded in the world of top-flight Australian motorsport.

All in all, she said, it had been a brilliant experience.

“It has been an adrenaline rush and the experience of a lifetime, and I am so grateful and so blessed to have had the opportunity. The guys at Triple Eight are lovely, brilliant to work with, and were more than happy to answer my questions and involve me where they could. It was a very worthwhile experience,” said Gabrielle.

“I was thinking the other day about how I was just some country bumpkin kid from Moree who became a mechanic because my dad was a truck driver, and who had no real lofty expectations as to where I was going to go. Then I moved to Highfields Mechanical and they showed me a pathway, told me I had potential, and gave me great opportunities. And then I trained with the MTA Institute, who not only guided me through my apprenticeship, but considered me for apprentice of the month and then apprentice of the year – something I am still as excited about now as I was two years ago. To journey from where I started to where I am now – I can’t thank everyone enough!”

Source: Motor Trader e-Magazine (November 2022)

14 November 2022