TICKFORD Racing young gun Lochie Dalton’s path to a Supercars Championship debut might never have eventuated without the family of a previous Tasmanian wildcard.
Former Super2 stalwart Sam Walter was a wildcard entrant in the 2009 Phillip Island 500 and Bathurst 1000, sharing a Greg Murphy Racing Commodore with Taz Douglas.
Sam’s father Andrew has since played a significant role in helping Dalton reach the point where he’ll make a main game cameo next month at the Sydney SuperNight.
“Basically I was just racing karts with Dad for the fun of it on weekends and then it got a little bit more serious where we’d do some trips to the mainland, as we’d call it,” Dalton told V8 Sleuth.
“But it was always a big cost for a Tasmanian to get their karts and everything across the water to be able to race in the Australian Kart Championship.
“So Andrew invested and created a team called the AWC Motorsport Academy and it was just for Tasmanian drivers and giving them an opportunity to compete at the national level of karting.
“It was supplying all the gear, so karts, motors and even a transporter, mechanic, and some really good engineers for karting.
“So it was giving Tasmanians a really good shot. He is just super, super generous and loves to see Tasmanians doing well.”
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That connection was forged in the mid-2010s, with Walkinshaw Andretti United protégé Campbell Logan another member of the academy. AWC branding continues to feature on Dalton’s car and helmet.
Dalton moved to Sydney in 2021 and made the transition to cars, initially racing in Toyota 86s before stepping up to the National Trans Am Series and Super2.
It was in Trans Am that he crossed paths with a couple of the Apple Isle’s top products, Marcos Ambrose and Owen Kelly.
“It is funny, like as soon as someone from Tassie is racing in the higher levels, you’re bound to run into someone else,” said Dalton.
“I was lucky enough to have Marcos managing us at GRM and I was also teammates with Owen. They’ve got a very rich knowledge base with all their NASCAR and Supercar experience.”
Dalton admits he was too young at the time to appreciate Walter Jr’s Supercars exploits, but always enjoyed tapping into his experience – including an infamous moment.
“When I was younger especially I loved asking Sam and Andrew stories about their racing, and one that was quite popular was the Mark Winterbottom incident which I believe happened in practice where they had a fair old crash,” he laughed.
It was at a practice session for the 2009 Great Race that Walter crashed after swerving to dodge a weaving Winterbottom, leaving him with a broken toe. ‘Frosty’ was fined for his role in the incident.
Dalton and Walter very nearly did get the chance to race together at Bathurst earlier this year.
“We actually tried to tee up a Class X production car to race in the 6 Hour, but unfortunately we couldn’t get it over the line. That would have been great,” Dalton added.
The 22-year-old’s Tickford wildcard at Sydney Motorsport Park (July 19-21) will come in an ex-Cam Waters Gen3 Mustang, donning the #5 and under the guidance of race-winning engineer Dilan Talabani.
