Features 15 Jan 2015

Profiled: Brayden Carr

Fastway Couriers-backed Formula Oz front-runner's career so far.

Fastway Couriers-backed Kawasaki rider Brayden Carr has a long and successful history in motorcycle racing, featuring as a regular at the pointy-end of Australian road racing in a variety of categories during his career.

The 30-year-old has been competing on two wheels for over 20 years alongside younger brother Mitchell ‘Middy’ Carr, who has established himself as an Australian champion and one of the many Aussies racing internationally during the past two seasons.

Brayden has fond memories of his career on dirt bikes before taking up road racing in 2006 and 2007, which happened following a chance opportunity to try out Middy’s spare Superstock 600 at a track day. From there, he’s never looked back.

“We started out in motocross and supercross racing, since around seven years old,” Carr reflects. “Mitchell then started out road racing on the Moriwaki 80 and then ended up on a 600 eventually. He had a spare bike and I thought I’d have a crack and jumped on it. At the time I couldn’t really see myself liking it, because I always preferred motocross, but once I rode I was hooked.”

That was in 2006 and by 2007 Carr was a factor in the Australian Superstock 600 Championship, finishing close second behind Ben Henry on board a GSX-R600. The following year in 2008 he made the transition to a GSX-R1000 and won the Australian Formula Xtreme (Superstock 1000) Championship, which was run alongside the Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) at the time.

Image: Keith Muir.

Image: Keith Muir.

A major crash in 2009 at Queensland Raceway ruined Carr’s plans to contest a full season in the premier Superbike ranks, which saw him unfortunately sidelined for 2010 as well in a bid to regain full fitness.

“I had a pretty big crash and broke my shoulder, punctured my lung and had to sit out for quite a long time,” he explains. “I was out for 2010 as well, getting my shoulder fixed up and really getting ready for 2011 when we switched to BMW in FX.”

Once he returned for 2011, Carr was instantly back at the front of the field, winning an Australian FX-Superbike Championship (AFX-SBK) round at Wakefield Park and going on to finish a fine fourth in the series. The year after was also a strong one, claiming sixth in the standings despite what he calls an “up and down season”.

The 2013 season saw Carr make a mid-season switch to Kawasaki’s ZX-10R, splitting his time between the ASBK and AFX-SBK in selected races rather than campaigning a full season in either national series.

Last year Carr had planned to compete in both the Australasian Superbike Championship (ASC) and its Formula Oz category, however a technical problem at round one forced him to reassess his options and instead concentrate on the Formula Oz ranks.

“Our plan at the start of the year was, because we had a couple of bikes, we wanted to enter both Superbike and Formula Oz,” Carr says. “Electrical gremlins on the Superbike ruled us out of the first round at Wakefield Park, so after that we put everything into Formula Oz.

“We were able to use the Pirelli tyres in Formula Oz as well, which was good, and we went down that road. I won some races, had some quickest lap times at some tracks and it was really good racing.

“We were right on for the championship, but when the second race of the final round got scrapped while I was leading at the time, that hurt us – we had to make up too many points in the final race and unfortunately weren’t able to.

“But it was a good season, I enjoyed racing all of the guys and Chris Trounson did a great job to win the title. Paul Byrne as well was really competitive, so it was a good year.”

Image: Keith Muir.

Image: Keith Muir.

Carr picked up title sponsorship from Fastway Couriers following the first round, which was a successful combination that saw the Albion Park-based racer also feature as one of the best presented in the series.

“After the first round we got hooked up with Fastway Couriers and it has been a great sponsor of ours throughout the year,” Carr adds. “Hopefully we can carry it onto 2015, because it really helps us go racing and it’s great to be association with such a great company. Hopefully we’ve been able to pay them back with some good results and exposure into the future.”

With 2012 Australian Supersport Champion Mitchell contesting the British Superbike Championship for TAG Racing – albeit hampered by injury throughout 2014 – on a Kawasaki, the opportunity to share notes when applicable was a good one for Brayden’s privately-run effort.

“We’re best of mates and have always been teamed up together and train together,” he says. “Mitchell spent time on my bike before he went to England just to familiarise himself with the ZX-10, even though the specification is a lot different.

“His team helped us out with info throughout the year, which helped steer us in the right direction, and Mitchell ended up testing my bike as well – always helping eachother out. It was good to gave him there helping out at the last round, for sure.”

For this year Carr is hoping to pull double duty in ASC Superbike and Formula Oz again pending funding, and judging by his form throughout his career, he’ll be a contender wherever he decides to line up in 2015.

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