McElrea Racing

McElrea Racing Team #1
Porsche Carrera Cup Championship Dinner 2018

Meet our past drivers
Matt Campbell

At just 20 years of age Matt Campbell already has an impressive list of Motorsport achievements.

He has a strong background in Formula Ford and surprised the entire Porsche community in 2014 when he won the GT3 Cup Challenge ‘B Class’ Championship in his rookie season after only five of the six rounds. He then went-on to break the outright A Class record by nearly 2.5 seconds in the final round at Phillip Island in a borrowed MY11 Porsche GT3 Cup Car winning one of the races by nearly 13 seconds against competitors in identical cars.

Matt is looking forward to the biggest season of his career contesting the 2015 Australian Porsche Carrera Cup in the MR Works car. He will also compete in the Australian GT 101 long distance events with his MR team-mate Michael Hovey.

Jaxon Evans

Jaxon has a strong background in top-level Karting in Australia and New Zealand and joined MR in 2015 to compete in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge. In his rookie season, Jaxon came second in B class.

In 2016 he upgraded to a faster 'A Class' Cup Challenge car where despite winning twice as many races as any other competitor Jaxon finished second in the championship after a costly DNF at Winton as a result of a clash with his championship rival.

For 2017 Jaxon took over the 2016 Championship winning MR Works car #7 and won five races in his first crack at Porsche Carrera Cup.

2018 was a watershed year for Jaxon where he lead the Carrera Cup championship from lights to flag and then won the coveted worldwide Porsche junior scholarship for 2019. The second young MR driver to do so in three years! Good luck in Europe mate.

Harri Jones

Having never raced Go Karts, Harri raced Downhill Mountain Bikes at an International level before turning to 4 wheels.

He started his career in the Queensland Formula Ford Series in 2015. He then raced FF at national level in 2016/17 and moved up to 'wings and slicks' in 2018, campaigning in the MRF Challenge in Asia and Australian Formula 3, where he won the 2018 Australian F3 championship.

2019 was Harri's first season campaigning a 'tin top' with MR which culminated in him becoming the Porsche Michelin GT3 Cup Challenge (and Endurance series) champion, in his debut season. 2020 was his debut Porsche Carrera Cup season and after finishing 3rd in 2021, the second Covid-affected season, he will certainly be a championship favourite for 2022.

When Harri is not racing, he is studying a Bachelor of Civil Engineering and Mathematics at the University of Queensland (Brisbane).

Cooper Murray

Cooper raced karts from 2010 till 2015 where his talent soon became obvious with two Australasian championship titles in cadet class. He went on to follow that up with six state championship titles and ten podiums.

He achieved many national Formula Ford podiums in 2016 and 2017 and in 2018 Cooper progressed to the Porsche Michelin GT3 Cup Challenge where he was a standout.

In mid-2019 he joined MR to take the next step in his Porsche career and took a clean sweep at Townsville in only his second race with us. He also clean-swept round 1 of the 2020 championship and had a healthy lead when COVID caused the cancellation of the 2020 championship.

Cooper is looking to continue 2021 with his winning form from 2020.

Tim Miles

Tim started his career back in the eighties when he competed in the NZ Formula Ford and South Island Sports Car championships.

He then moved to the UK where he worked with teams competing in Formula 3, Formula Renault and the BTCC. In the five years he was in the UK, the teams Tim worked for secured three championship victories.

Since moving away from motorsport Tim has held a variety of executive positions specialising in merger and acquisition transactions and is the founder and Principal of successful corporate advisory practice. www.miles.com.au

Tim was 2016 GT3CC Elite champion and runner-up in the 2017 AGT Endurance championship. Tim joined Carrera Cup in 2018 for his first Pro Am campaign. 2023 will be Tim's tenth season with MR.

Anthony Gilbertson

Anthony started his racing started at the tender age of 35 in the QLD Improved Production Championship in 2011 and won the category in his first year.

He has competed in the Production Sports category at the Bathurst 12 Hour where he won his class in 2013. Anthony turned his attention to the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge in 2016 and after securing third in the Pro-Am Championship he went on to wrap-up the title for MR in 2017.

In 2018 he graduated to the Carrera Cup championship and despite taking Pro Am poles, race and round wins, a ridiculous amount of bad luck early in the season saw ‘Gilbo’ end the season 4th in Pro Am.

Despite his blistering speed, in 2019 his intention is to capitalise on the lessons learned in 2018, (and looking forward to a change in luck) to have a calculated crack at the Pro-Am Championship.

Christian Pancione

Christian started racing karts in 2012 till 2017, winning numerous Regional and State championships and Australian championship rounds. He went on to race in two international championship racing events in Daniel Ricciardo's race team.

He progressed to Michelin Sprint Challenge in 2018, where he won the class B championship. In 2019 Christian stepped up to Sprint Challenge Pro class, where he earned a pole position, two podiums and a lap record.

In 2020 he joined MR for a partial Sprint Challenge season, then another disrupted 2021 in Carrera Cup before his first full season with MR 2022 in the 992 Cup Car.

In 2023 he will certainly be a race and championship contender.

David Ryan

David has competed in production car racing and Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge before stepping up to the PAYCE Porsche Carrera Cup Australia series for 2020.

During his motorsport career, David has won numerous races and championships, most notably the Australian Production Car Championship in 2006 in a Ford Falcon XR6 Turbo.

In 2015 and 2016, David competed successfully in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Series taking a number of pole positions and podiums. He hopes to enjoy similar success in 2020 as he embarks on his first full year in the PAYCE Carrera Cup Australia series with McElrea Racing.

When David is not racing, he can be found leading a team of corporate lawyers negotiating billion-dollar deals in his role as a mergers and acquisitions Partner and Head of Corporate at DLA Piper in Sydney, the largest law firm in the world.

David is married to Allison and has three children – Rachel-Marie (28 years), Chelsea (13 years) and Sebastian (9 years) - and a German Shepherd named Maybach!

Tom Sargent

Tom commenced his motor racing career in 2009 at Grenfell Kart Club in regional NSW at the age of 7 before moving to State and National Level. Tom even competed Internationally at the British Kart Grand Prix.

In 2018 he moved from Karting into Formula Ford where he went on to win the NSW and Victorian Championships and the 2021 Australian Formula Ford Championship. Tom won his Class in a Toyota 86 at the 2021 Bathurst 6 Hour, then went on to outright victory in 2022 driving a self-built BMW M2 at the famed Bathurst circuit.

Tom won the 2022 Porsche Michelin Sprint Series on debut, as well as taking out the Jim Richards Endurance Trophy which lead to the announcement that Tom would be the first driver to sign with MR’s North American Carrera Cup team.

Thomas Nepveu

Thomas is a young gun that freshly graduated from Road to Indy’s USF2000 after two seasons.

The Canadian driver, from Oka (Québec), will be making the switch to sports cars this season and competing for MR in the famed Porsche Deluxe Carrera Cup North America at the helm of the #24 Evirum | Richelieu Porsche 992 GT3.

Aside from his campaign in USF2000, Thomas continues to race in professional karting whenever he can, with the support of Kart Republic.

Back home in Canada, he also coached the next generation of karting talents and works in the family business. Thomas is looking forward to his PCCNA debut and hopes to score a few podiums this season.

Ryan Suhle

Ryan started out karting in the 'cadet' class at just 7 years of age. At 13 years old, he began racing in Australia's most competitive classes, KF3 and Junior Max. His performances gained him the support of V8 Supercars Champion, James Courtney. He also competed in KF2 in the 2014 Karting World Cup in Italy.

In 2015 and 2016 Ryan made the jump into Formula Ford, a series that has been the breeding ground for some of Australia's greatest drivers. As a CAMS Rising Star, he won the Rookie award, and finished 4th overall in the 2017 Australian F4 Championship. Throughout 2018, Ryan continued his success in Formula 4 claiming multiple race wins, 3 poles, 15 podiums, 3 fastest laps and a round win on his way to 2nd in the 2018 Australian F4 Championship.

In 2019 Ryan switched to MR for his first season of the Porsche Sprint Challenge and finished 4th outright. In 2021 he is determined to deliver a second consecutive title to MR.

Michael Hovey

Michael, or Hoves as he is most widely known is a great competitor and thoroughly enjoys his racing. He started in the little Aussie race cars a few years back with none other than fellow MR Carrera Cup pilot, Tim Miles.

For 2014, he decided to race Porsche's and made the smart decision to come to MR 'to do it properly'. He raced in a selection of AGT races in Trophy class and a few rounds of the GT3 Cup Challenge. For 2015 Hoves ran Gerald the naughty Ginetta in AGT Champ class but was dogged by terrible reliability.

After a couple of seasons tending to work Hoves re-joined MR for the 2018 GT3 Cup Challenge championship. He chalked up 7 podiums finishes on his way to 4th place in the Pro Am championship.

In 2021 Hoves is looking forward to plenty of fun and continued Pro-Am success.

Richard Cowen

While new to racing, the MR crew has been working with Richard for over five years while running the two Cup Cars for the Porsche Sport Driving School, where he has been a regular customer.

Richard has extensive experience driving a wide range of cars on tracks all over the world. In 2021 he decided to take up racing here in Australia and 2023 will be his second full year racing in the Michelin Sprint Challenge championship.

Professionally Richard practices law in his own firm, Tucker & Cowen, practicing extensively in Commercial litigation and insolvency law, leading a large team in some of the most significant litigation in Queensland and throughout Australia.

When not working or racing he would prefer to be freediving, skiing or spearfishing. His wife would prefer he gave up most or all of the above pursuits (except ski-ing).

Tony Walls

Tony is a fierce and focused competitor who has an impressive list of achievements in various sporting disciplines. He went from landlubber to One Design Australian Sailing Champion in 4 years and in 3 years from rookie to winning a number of club Karting Championships in a TAG 125.

Tony's ambition has always been to always race GT cars and after completing his apprenticeship in two seasons of the highly competitive Porsche Carrera Cup in 2013 and 2014 he stepped-up to his mighty McLaren 650S for the 2015 Australian GT championship.

In the 2018 Bathurst 12 hour, Wallsy and team mates Luffy, Slade and Evans were on for an outright podium finish until a failed starter motor kicked them out of the race with 30 mins remaining. Business commitments meant that Wallsy only got to do two other races for the year.

Shane Smollen

Following a relatively late start to racing at the age of 41 Shane has quickly moved through the amateur motorsport ranks.

After taking the Australian GT Challenge title and rookie of the year award in 2010, Shane moved to the Porsche Carrera Cup where he has now completed over 100 races including a wide range of class and outright race wins.

Shane has finished in the top 3 in the Elite Championship on 2 separate occasions and after joining MR in 2015 went one better and won the 'Tag Heuer Challenge' Championship, the category for semi-professional competitors.

With his increased consistency has come great pace which has earned him the Tag Heuer award for the driver with the highest number of 'fastest race laps' for the previous two years running.

Stay tuned for Shanes' 2017 plans.

Simon Ellingham

Simon is a NZ Endurance Series Champion and 3 time race winner in the South Island Endurance series.

Simon is joining the MR team for his fourth consecutive season and for the first time will compete in the Porsche Carrera Cup.

His first few seasons with MR were a combination of GT3 Cup Challenge and Australian GT in Fastway Porsches while in 2016 he ran the fearsome Audi R8 LMS Ultra in the Australian GT Sprint and Endurance Championships.

2017 will be an opportunity for Simon to draw on his experience from the past few years with MR and take his driving to the next level in the ultra-competitive Porsche Carrera Cup.

Simons' aspirations are a little more humble than his team-mates in that he is looking for consistent top-5 finishes this season on his journey to becoming a full-time professional race driver.

Adam Garwood

Starting on two-wheels at the tender age of 4, Adam transitioned to cars at 14 and competed in club events and hill-climbs in his home state of Tasmania.

After winning the Sports GT championship in 2015 in a Porsche GT3 Cup, Adam switched to the Touring Car Masters racing Holden Toranas and the baby blue Ford Capri he quickly became known for following his unstoppable success at the Bathurst 1000 in 2016.

In 2017, Garwood Motorsport built a Holden Torana, which Adam raced at the front of the field against legends such as John Bowe and Steve Johnson.

For 2018 the small-Tasmanian family team will pursue the long-time dream of joining Porsche Carrera Cup, and after doing the first three rounds solo, Adam joins the MR driver line-up, as part of the Michelin Junior Driver Program.

Fraser Ross

We first started competing against Fraser in 2012 in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge. He went on to win the 2014 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge 'A Class' championship in the same year that we won the 'B Class' championship with Matt Campbell.

Fraser competed the following two years in the Porsche Carrera Cup. He scored some notable results but was always up against the might of the MR Carrera Cup machine :)

Fraser and car owner Alex Franes joined MR before the first round of the 2017 AGT Endurance championship. The collaboration started well, with Luffy and Fraser finishing on the podium at Phillip Island.

We look forward to welcoming Fraser back in 2018 for a full assault on the AGT championship.

Jimmy Vernon

Jimmy has been addicted to the rush of motorsport from the age of 7. He started his motorsport journey on two wheels, competing in Motocross up until the age of 13 before doing 12 months in a go-kart, then historic Formula Ford at just 14 years of age.

In 2015 he raced in the Australian Formula 4 Championship, showing strong pace and producing strong podium finishes leading to a start in the 2016 Bathurst 12-hour for MARC Cars.

He also has notable experience and success in production car endurance racing.

In 2017 Jimmy had an opportunity to compete in the highly competitive Australian Toyota 86 Racing Series in 2017, which he won at Bathurst with a round to spare!

Aron Shields

Having grown up around cars in his dad's workshop, Aron developed a strong passion for racing. His parents surprised him with a go kart for his 12th birthday which led him to start his racing journey.

Aron's commitment to the sport for years, being at the race track most weekends, led him to build his skill and progress up classes with the assistance of successful karter Troy Hunt and his team Top Gun Racing.

Aron has been able to travel around Australia racing karts, most recently competing in KZ2 shifter karts since 2018. He is now excited to move up to the big tracks and start his journey up the 'Porsche Pyramid' with MR.

Tom McLennan

At the age of thirteen, Tom’s father Grant introduced him into Go karting. Tom continued Go karting with his father as his mechanic until 2020 when he joined a professional karting Team. In 2021, Tom started racing Formula Fords finishing 3rd overall in the Qld Formula Ford series despite a scary incident which lead to a concussion and missing two rounds of the series. In early 2022 Tom took part in three rounds of the Australian Formula Ford Championship with a best result of 7th and a top qualifying result of 4th. Tom and his family concluded that Formula Ford was a great learning experience but the time had come for Tom to continue onto Porsche racing.

In July 2022, Tom joined McElrea Racing to start his journey on the Porsche Pyramid to a professional career in Europe or the US. In his first event at a Porsche Club race weekend at Queensland Raceway, Tom took pole position and 2 race wins. He is now competing in the 2022 Michelin Sprint Challenge, racing the number 81 Porsche 991:2 GT3 cup car for MacPro Properties.

Join the #1 Porsche Carrera Cup Championship team

"McElrea Racing has been like a second family to me over my 3 years with them, going above and beyond with every aspect. MR has been the back bone to my professional racing career teaching me everything I know so far in and outside the car!"

Matt Campbell - 2016 Porsche Carrera Cup Champion

"Thanks again for everything you have done for me over the past four years. I have really transformed as a driver under your guidance and expertise. Winning two championships together is a dream come true and I think we achieved every goal we set when we first sat down together."

Harri Jones - 2022 Australian Porsche Carrera Cup Champion

"The MR outfit is the premier Carrera Cup team in Australia and I consider myself very lucky to have aligned ourselves with such a professional (and fun) team..!!"

David Calvert-Jones - Bathurst 12 Hr

"It was a privilege to be part of your team, you guys are certainly the best prepared in pitlane"

Geoff Emery - V8 Supercar (DVS Series) race winner

"Thank you for another great opportunity with you guys and all your help over the weekend, it's always highly enjoyable working with MR. It is the best all around team I have driven for"

James Davison - Indycar driver

"I was so impressed today (and proud) to be a part of your team. Even during the most high pressure times during the weekend all of the team maintained composure and worked well together, always joking, always with a smile. When they need to be serious - it's on, but when it's time to have some fun, there's no better place to be. To all of the Barry's - thank you for a fantastic weekend."

Jim Campbell - GT3 Cup Challenge Elite Race Winner

"Thank you guys for a great year. You run a fantastic team and it was a pleasure to drive for you!"

Jonny Reid - Carrera Cup race winner

"You guys are on it and a really good bunch. I just emailed Shane saying how good you and the boys are for him and getting the most out of him"

Nick Percat - Bathurst 1000 winner

"The team worked their tails off and just put in an outstanding effort all day – and all weekend long"

Patrick Long - Porsche Factory Driver

"A huge thank you to the best team in Porsche Carrera Cup for everything you have done for me over the past two seasons. I still have a long way to go on this journey but I would not have learnt half of what I now know as a driver, or achieved any of the cool things we have together without your support and guidance."

Renee Gracie - Former Pro Driver, current Adult Entertainer

"Andy and the team at McElrea Racing taught me a huge amount of my knowledge about racing which I use in my racing still today, a great team with a great passion for race cars and motorsport"

Scott McLaughlin - Indycar driver and 3-time V8 Supercar champion

"Boys, congratulations on a mega successful weekend for your team. The way your young talent is performing is a credit to your professionalism and passion. Great to see Matt, Jaxon, Jake all do so well this weekend not to mention the old blokes!"

Shane Smollen - Carrera Cup Elite Champion

"In both testing and racing the MR crew made me welcome and took a very hands on approach to bringing me up to speed. In one word... fantastic!"

Tim Miles - 2016 GT3 Cup Challenge Champion

"McElrea Racing rates up there with the best teams I have raced with around the world. True professionals who have the people and know how to win"

Warren Luff - V8 Supercar Endurance Champion

"Being part of the McElrea Racing family has been fantastic. They've been the guys responsible behind my improvements and success in the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia and over 100 race starts later, are still the team I'm running with!"

Yuey Tan - Current Carrera Cup Asia Champion