HE might be 42 years of age, but David Russell’s stocks have never been higher.
A product of Casino in northern New South Wales, Russell has hovered on the fringe of the Supercars Championship for much of his career.
He made his Bathurst 1000 debut in 2003 co-driving with Jose Fernandez.
After placing third overall in Carrera Cup (2008) and Super2 (2009), he finally returned to the main game to partner Jonathon Webb in the enduros in the Dick Johnson Racing-affiliated Tekno Autosports entry.
The highs of a second-place finish at the 2015 Gold Coast 600 with Rick Kelly were followed by the lows of missing out on a seat altogether four years later.
The chance to team up with Erebus Motorsport rookie Brodie Kostecki in 2021 proved a gamechanger.
Russell thrived alongside ‘Bush’, as they placed third, fourth and second in three Bathurst 1000s together, as well as second in last year’s Sandown 500.
From being an outcast in 2019, Russell is now highly sought after – as evidenced by PremiAir’s push to pinch him from Erebus.
He also happens to be fighting for a Carrera Cup title, sitting a narrow second in the standings after a breakthrough round win at Taupō.
“I remember the year I drove with Jonathon Webb, I think at Bathurst I was third or fourth in the co-driver session or something like that. In 2010, 14 years ago now, so it seems a while ago. I certainly thought I knew how to do it back then too,” Russell told V8 Sleuth.
“There’s so many circumstances around Supercars and having co-drives at certain times with certain teams as well.
“There’s always those waves where driver combinations aren’t often broken up and I had some great pairings at different times and potential results.
“Obviously I’d had podiums before with Rick Kelly, but to on the back end of things have such a strong run, it’s been fantastic, and from my perspective I guess you do get reward for the hard work and perseverance.
“You want to be as competitive as you can and get the results, and when they’re not coming, it’s very easy to question yourself.
“It has been great to have some of the results that we’ve had in the past couple of years.”
Russell will co-drive with James Golding this season. PremiAir is yet to announce Tim Slade’s co-driver.
