CAMERON Crick has warmed up for his rookie Dunlop Super2 Series campaign with a drive of a very special V8 Supercar.
The 24-year-old last week stepped behind the wheel of the VS Commodore that his late father Rodney drove in the FAI 1000 in 1998 and ’99.
Rodney, who passed away in 2013, is best remembered as a six-time Australian Truck Racing champion, but also made five Bathurst 1000 starts between 1994 and 2000.
The Commodore that Crick co-drove with Mike Imrie in two Bathursts is now owned by Sydney-based enthusiasts Darren Freeman and George Appleby, presented in its 1998 Armor All colours.
Cameron Crick met Freeman at a previous track day and invited him to bring the car to Wakefield Park last Thursday, where the young racer was holding a corporate drive day for his sponsors.
Freeman drove the Commodore throughout the day and then handed the controls to Crick in the late afternoon.
“The day was super busy, and I had a lot of sponsors around, so at the time I didn’t get a chance to think too much about it,” Crick told V8 Sleuth of the experience.
“But looking back and going through it in your head as to what you just did, it was pretty special, especially as my family were there.
“It was very different to a modern race car, just in how it handles and the heavy steering, you had to muscle it around.
“But to drive the actual car that Dad raced at Bathurst was very, very special.”
As Cameron was born in 1997, he has only vague memories of the latter years of his father’s driving career, while Rodney passed away just as his son was making his way in karting.
“I was a bit of a late starter in karting, I was maybe 14 or 15,” explained Crick.
“I raced BMX as a kid, he probably pushed me into that more so because it was a form of racing but not so expensive!
“Then we were into footy for a long time, I reckon in his later years he was into the rugby league more than what he even followed the car racing.
“But it was always somewhere there inside me I guess, (being a racing driver) was something I wanted to do.
“Once I got going with it, I just kept chasing it.”
Since graduating from karts Crick has raced mainly in the Toyota 86 and SuperUte classes but has also made limited starts in GT3 Cup Challenge and Trans Am, and briefly sampled a Super3 car.
Crick will have his first drive of the ex-Triple Eight VF Commodore he’ll race for Eggleston Motorsport in this year’s Super2 Series during testing at Winton in a fortnight.
The full history of the Imrie/Crick Armor All Commodore is documented in V8 Sleuth’s recent publication, Perkins Engineering: The Cars, 1986-2008.
While sold out in the V8 Sleuth Bookshop, limited copies remain at the National Motor Racing Museum. Contact them on (02) 6332 1872 to secure a copy.
