REMEMBER the name Jaxon Evans.
The 21-year-old from New Zealand was crowned champion of the Porsche Wilson Security Carrera Cup Australia Championship on the Gold Coast at the weekend and will be a name to know as he hopefully switches his attention to an international career.
Evans’ is one of those Kiwi oddities in that he’s arguably better known in Australian motorsport circles than he is at home.
With his family based on the Gold Coast since 2005, much of Evans’ career has been staged in Australia rather than on the land of the Long White Cloud.
It’s in Australia where he has truly established his credentials and created an opportunity to show his wares on an even broader stage internationally.
He burst onto the scene in 2015 racing in the second-tier Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge where, driving an older model car, he challenged for and narrowly finished second in the Class B championship.
Stepping up to the outright class the following year, he battled closely with fellow young-gun Hamish Hardeman for the championship with only a mid-season non-finish costing him a real shot at winning a year where finishing was a priority.
From there he progressed into Carrera Cup and after offering up his title credentials in his rookie season, returned this year battle hardened and ready to contend for a the championship – which he has done.
This year he beat former Supercars racers and a host of young rising stars in the most competitive season Carrera Cup has yet seen. In a season where seven different drivers won the eight rounds, Evans was the only one to win more than once.He’s also a race winner in GT racing, impressed in the Bathurst 12 Hour this year driving a McLaren and has shown his adaptability by jumping from one car to another and being quick in everything.
But it is in the Porsche where perhaps his best chance at a career rests.
Soon he will represent Carrera Cup Australia in the Porsche Motorsport International Shootout later this year – one of just a handful of young-guns hand picked by the top Carrera Cup championships around the world to fight for a substantial prize.
Go well there and get the nod from the Porsche head-honchoes and a funded drive in the Porsche Supercup awaits.
It’s the prize that Earl Bamber and more lately Australian Matt Campbell won and as recent history suggests both have grabbed the opportunity with both hands.
Though it’s not a sure thing, if you’re a young driver racing at the front of the Supercup field – and you’ve come through the one-make Porsche ranks – the brand is likely to give you a chance in the bigger leagues of GT3 racing or even their GTE endurance program.
And when you delve into the racing history of this quietly spoken young bloke from the South Island town of Ashburton, it doesn’t take long to work out why he’s a handy driver.
Team boss and former racer, Andy McElrea, hails from the same part of the world. So too does his current Carrera Cup teammate, Tim Miles – a former co-owner of Tasman Motorsport and now Triple Eight.
His mum, Deb, dad, John and even his Grandfather raced with the sport running deep in the Evans’ family blood.
Grandad Rob Lester was a New Zealand champion several times and was also involved in the formation of the Manfield circuit near Fielding. Jaxon’s progression through the ranks with McElrea Racing is no shock either; the families are longstanding friends with John having twirled spanners for Andy in Formula Ford after having grown up together on the South Island.
What’s more impressive is that it’s all been done without significant family backing.
Instead, Evans’ is a rare example of a driver gathering the support of sponsors and backers to fund his racing rather than relying on a deep family war chest.
It’s a fantastic story that proves that though success in the sport often seems more unobtainable than ever before, it can still be done if you’re good enough, fast enough and affable enough to get out and sell yourself to brands and to people.
All these are things that Jaxon Evans has done, positioning himself to become yet another Kiwi driver to kick on to a waiting world of motorsport success.
It’s another great success story of New Zealand talent and another name to watch.
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