Ex-Carrera Cup Racer performs minor miracle in Mexico - 28th of March 2007
Something very special happened in Australian sport on Monday. Anyone involved in professional Motorsport knows how ruthless it can be, and without (lots of) money, skill and natural ability will generally not be enough to see you rise to the top.
But every now and then, a very special person will rise above all the adversity and achieve their dream to drive competitively on the world stage, despite conservative advice from those in the industry that it is just too cut-throat and financially demanding.
On Monday at the A1 Grand Prix at Mexico City, Ian Dyk placed 3rd in the Sprint Race, and despite nursing badly torn ligaments in his right ankle after ingloriously tripping over when exiting the race car at race end, he earned a hard fought 8th place in the feature race. This effort earned Team Australia valuable competition points and US$30,000 in prizemoney.
What makes this effort so special is that “Dyky” has next to no budget for Motorsport. His Dad had to pass around the hat around to family friends and some loyal sponsors just to get him on the plane to Mexico. This was Ian’s first opportunity to have valuable track time in the Team Australia 550 horsepower open wheeler as the #1 driver. Ian had not raced competitively since last years Carrera Cup and was competing against full-time sponsored drivers, some of who had even raced in F1. He had never “raced” these cars before, and had never had to perform a pitstop. Yet this young Australian was able to step up to the mark in his very first race and achieve a podium finish. Typically, in true unselfish form, Ian attributed all the credit to the performance of the team engineers.
Last year 21 year old Ian was washing Porsches and delivering spare parts for Porsche Centre Gold Coast, one of several part-time jobs he was keeping in an effort to raise enough money to continue racing in the 2006 Carrera Cup in the Juniper Developments 997 GT3. Ian also works as an Instructor at Porsche’s Mt Cotton Driving Centre, and anyone who comes in contact with this impressive young man will tell you what an infectious, friendly personality he has as well as a maturity far beyond his years.
Ian’s performance in Mexico City has all but assured him of the #1 driver position for Team Australia’s campaign at the next A1GP event in Shanghai, China on April 14th and 15th.
Ian’s friends at Porsche Centre Gold Coast are very proud of him and we will be cheering him on in front of Fox Sport TV in April and hope you will too. Go Dyky!!!!