Junior rugby injury sends Will Brown on path to Red Bull Ampol Racing

As a child, Will Brown took up rugby like several of his other Toowoomba Grammar School students, but a season-ending injury changed his trajectory and pushed him towards motor racing. Now he is set to take to the grid for Red Bull Ampol Racing.

Will Brown of Red Bull Ampol Racing. Picture: Edge Photographics/Red Bull Ampol Racing.

As a 13-year-old Toowoomba’s Will Brown was devoted to playing rugby union until a season-ending injury put him on a path that has led to a career defining spot with Supercars Championship team Red Bull Ampol Racing.

“I was just a small, young Toowoomba kid playing rugby, I went to Toowoomba Prep and then Grammar,” Brown said.

However, this all changed when he suffered a hematoma on his leg which “blew up like a balloon”.

“I got an injury playing rugby at Grammar so I couldn’t play rugby for the season so I got a go-kart and never looked back from there,” Brown said.

“I was racing go-karts flat out and all the teachers were wondering why I was having so much time off school and probably thought I was a little bit crazy, that I should have gone to school and studied a bit harder for uni or something like that.

“It was sort of something I took up out of nowhere, my family are into used car yards and Mum and Dad used to do a bit of car racing, so I was interested in the car racing but the go-karting came out of nowhere.

“I knew a friend that was doing it and I thought it would be an awesome sport to get into.”

The snap decision has ultimately paid dividends for the 25-year-old as he is now set for one of his biggest years of his driving career, having joined Triple Eight to replace three-time V8 Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen.

The switch has been made all the more sweeter as he the team is set to hold its season launch in Brown’s hometown of Toowoomba on February 3.

“To be doing the season launch at Wellcamp Airport is awesome,” he said.

“Joining Red Bull Ampol Racing was a dream come true and to be able to launch that in my backyard out at Wellcamp will be an awesome day.”

Brown is hopeful his presence in the Garden City will be a catalyst for young aspiring drivers to follow in his footsteps to race in the Supercars series.

“To be joining the biggest team in Australian motorsport and then also being from Toowoomba, a smaller country town, hopefully that is inspirational for a few young drivers to take the path I did,” he said.

Will Brown of Red Bull Ampol Racing. Picture: Edge Photographics/Red Bull Ampol Racing.

Driving for Red Bull Ampol Racing provides Brown with the unique opportunity to work under and learn from one of the greatest supercar drivers of all time in Jamie Whincup - who has been the Team Principal for the last two years following his retirement from the sport as a full-time driver in 2021.

“I have only been here for two or three weeks so far but to have Jamie as my team boss is fantastic,” Brown said.

“He has obviously been there and done it all as a driver so he understands the situation that we are in.

“Just to be able to pick his brain and learn from the experience and the knowledge he has is second to none, so I am looking forward to doing that this year and hopefully it will better me as a driver.”

Through his parents’ interest in cars, whether it be with their car yard or racing historic cars, Brown always had his sights set on following in their footsteps and being involved in the industry in one way or another.

“Obviously they supported me the whole way, they weren’t any sort of Peter Brock or anything like that, they just did a bit of local historic car racing but it was cool to watch them do that,” he said.

“It was probably what pushed me to think I want to do it and follow in their footsteps and do something in the car industry, which was selling and racing cars but I never thought it would get to this stage where I’m racing for Red Bull and I am very lucky to be where I am.”

However, despite his incredible rise from rugby player turned kart-racer to now driving with the biggest team in the country, Brown’s career hasn’t been short of setbacks.

“When I started to get co-drives from Erebus when I was racing in Super2 in 2018, I thought maybe I’ll make it into the main game but there were so many setbacks,” he said.

“Occasionally in Super2 you would have a good year, then a main game team would ring you and say ‘we’re interested in you for next year to race in the Supercars’ and then something in the deal wouldn’t work out and they’d choose someone else whether it was for more money or a different reason.

“So it was a setback but I always knew that one day I’d get there and the setbacks are all part of it, I didn’t really think about it and it didn’t really affect me too much, it just made you work harder the following year.”

Now entering his fourth full-time season on the grid, the magnitude of his achievements has not been lost on him as he still takes time to reflect on everything he has accomplished to date.

“You do have to pinch yourself every now and then because you do get caught up in the moment trying to win and all that,” Brown said.

“But to be on the grid a couple years ago with Jamie Whincup, SVG (Shane van Gisbergen), Dave Reynolds, Craig Lowndes, all the guys that you looked up to and then to be racing against them and actually beat them every now and then was just phenomenal.

“So you do have to pinch yourself every now and then say ‘this is really true now’ and I am really lucky to do what I do.”

As for this season, the crew at Red Bull Ampol Racing are determined to bounce back after being defeated to the Team’s Championship by Erebus in 2023 - who Brown was driving for.

“I definitely think you can feel it in the team after losing the championship and being so close last year,” he said.

“I think they are hungrier than ever, it is my first year in the team but I can see how much they want to get that Team’s Championship but also that Driver’s Championship, so we will be working really hard towards that.”

On a personal level, Brown hopes to take a step further from last season where he remained in the title fight until late in the campaign.

“Last year we felt like we were in the contention for the title until the last few rounds so this year we would love to clinch the championship,” he said.

“Obviously every driver wants to win at Bathurst so that is among the goals for the year but we will just go round by round and work at it and see where we end up by the end year.”