Rylan Gray was a rookie on the rise during 2024, and he will be taking it to the next level when he contests three Supercar rounds as a wildcard.
The Denman driver is embarking on his second year with Tickford Autosport in the Super2 category and has been proving why he got offered a three-year contract to join their junior program.
In 2024 he was Rookie of the Round on debut at Mount Panorama for the Bathurst 500, and upon returning to the famous circuit in October his consistent performance throughout the event saw him come away as the youngest Super2 round winner in the category’s history.
“It’s pretty cool to be associated with a with a main game team in supercars, it’s a thing you dream of. Especially being from a little country town like Denman and Muswellbrook, you wouldn’t think you’d be signed with a big national team, so that was surreal to me. I was pretty happy that day,” Rylan recalled when discussing his signing.
“I’d say it’s probably the best learning year by far, just having that support. If you have any questions you want to know or if you’re a bit stuck on something, you can go to either Cam (Waters) or Thomas (Randle), they’ll give you answers straight away.”
Rylan also etched his name into the Ford Performance and GT4 record books last year, getting the first pole position for the GT4 Mustang at Philip Island in the Monochrome GT4 Australia competition where he raced alongside George Miedecke with Miedecke Motorsport. The pairing went on to finish the series in second and have already announced they will be stepping up to the plate again this year with hopes to improve their ranking.
Stepping back another calendar year, in 2023 Rylan was racing a Toyota 86 and contested the New Zealand title where he earned the title of Rookie of the Year that came with a drive at Nürburgring in Germany as his reward.
In what is often viewed as an unusual path for a Supercar driver, Rylan grew up riding and racing motorbikes until he was 14 and able to jump behind the wheel of an Excel to race.
“I did motocross pretty much from four until I was 14, I got a lot of coaching from dad, and it was a good way to learn to be disciplined. Being yelled at quite a bit when you are young sort of toughens you up for when you’re a bit older,” Rylan shared with a laugh.
“I progressed through all the ranks there, 50s, 65s, 85s, 125s, 250s, I got pretty high in the ranks and got pretty decent at it. We went to Australian titles all around Australia, did Western Australia, South Australia, quite a lot of travel.”
The transition to a car was inevitable when Rylan recalls bugging his mum for toy cars to play with while his dad raced, and as soon as he was able to he started helping in the pits while his older brother drove to learn the ropes leading up to his 14th birthday when he could get in the hot seat himself.
“I got into Hyundai Excels myself and we were nearly in the top 10 first event out. I got the hang of that pretty quickly and the second ever event I was podiums. I was racing Brock Feeny and Nash Morris, Brock’s now a factory Red Bull driver, and Nash is my teammate, so it’s surreal to think where we are today.”
When he isn’t on track or in the Tickford workshop, Rylan is at work as a trade qualified boilermaker in Muswellbrook which he balances with a rigorous fitness regime that includes swimming, running and strength training.
