Last week we lost Campbell Little to cancer. He fought it hard and lived way past expectations. Huge respect and credit are due to him for his bravery and fortitude as he carried on working at Supercars and living life to the full until very recently.
I’d like to share some of my thoughts about Campbell as I sit here in the days following this sad news and contemplate a life well lived.
We first met over 30 years ago when I was still living in the UK. A Toyota dealer in Christchurch, New Zealand, by the name of Bruce Miles had bought a Toyota Carina two-litre Super Touring car from me in late 1993 with the aim of running the car in the newly-established Australian Super Touring Car Championship, with a young Greg Murphy at the wheel.
Bruce had managed to persuade Campbell that he should engineer and run the car for him. Hence Campbell appeared on my radar.
Over the next few years, we met several times and corresponded by fax (!) regularly. And so, it came to pass that, when Triple Eight UK received an invitation to compete in the 1997 edition of the Bathurst 1000, we called Campbell and asked him if he could assist us.
By that stage, Campbell was working for Stone Brothers full-time, so he had to ask Ross for permission to assist Triple Eight. That was duly given and he was a pivotal part of the T8 crew on both the two-litre visits to Australia in 1997 and again in 1998. He engineered the car that Murph and Russell Ingall were driving in 1998, when GM put the car on provisional pole and Russell lobbed it into the wall at Skyline halfway through the race!
His presence in the team at those events was massively important for us visitors to the Mountain. There were so many nuances between racing in Europe and Australia that he was able to explain and to help us navigate through those race weeks.
And in between those two races, Campbell actually spent some time in the UK working for Triple Eight over there, along with another young Aussie by the name of James Brock.
Over the next few years, I visited the V8 Supercars paddock several times as I explored the potential for setting up a team in Australia and spoke to Campbell on each occasion. We kept in touch.
Then, when I took the plunge into V8-land in late 2003, I rang Campbell and asked him if he’d come and work for the newly-formed Triple Eight Race Engineering Australia. I must have caught him at a good moment (for me) as he was pretty quick to agree.
I knew that I needed him. His experience of the championship, of not only the way the cars themselves worked, but the paddock environment as well, made it much easier than it otherwise would have been to establish T8 over here.
I’m in no doubt that without Campbell alongside me, I’d never have managed to convince Craig Lowndes to drive for Triple Eight. He and I sat down with Craig at his home in Queensland mid-way through 2004 and chatted for some hours about our vision for the future. The planets aligned and the other CL joined the team at the end of the year.
Campbell took on race engineering duties for Craig and continued to work with him until 2008. This period was one of the most exciting times of my career, as, with the help of Stone Brothers power under the hood, we started to run at the front from the start of 2005.
And then the breakthrough came at Eastern Creek in May with not only a race win but also the round win as well for Lowndsey. It was only fitting that the two CLs were at the helm of the car that day.
Later that year, in December, another very special moment occurred. We were testing at Queensland Raceway with a young Jamie Whincup, who had just joined the team in time for the 2006 season. After only a handful of laps, Campbell called me over to look at the brake traces for this kid on the telemetry. He said, “we’ve got something special here”.
Never a truer word was said, as time has proven.
And then on to Bathurst in 2006. With Craig bearing the weight of the recent death of Peter Brock on his mind, Campbell became not only the race engineer for the #888 car that day, but also the chief psychologist. He coached Craig through the weekend and then the race.
The outpouring of emotion as Craig took the flag to win was enormous and Campbell struggled to contain his own emotions as much as anyone else, as he congratulated Craig on the radio. It was such a huge moment for us all.
At the end of 2008, Campbell left Triple Eight to work for Supercars, a relationship that was less than successful. However, his later return to that fold proved to be much more harmonious and enjoyable for him, it’s pleasing to say.
I always enjoyed the titbits from Campbell about his motorcycle racing past as that’s a passion for me. Stories of the Isle of Man, of working with Joey Dunlop and of the Honda factory team testing at the old Surfers Paradise circuit in the off season, were music to my ears.
But what made him special, professionally, was the fact that, for the most part, he was a self-taught engineer. He, like me, grew up in an analogue age but he, unlike me, adapted fast to the age of ever present and changing electronic technology in motorsport. He was computer savvy, loved data and was able to translate it for any number of drivers over the years.
I remember one of the young mechanics at Triple Eight back in the day, Ty Freele, being truly star struck when Campbell became a part of the team, such was his standing in pit lane.
He retained many friendships from his time at T8 right up to his passing, as he did across the paddock.
We did have our share of run-ins though, over the years! But that’s only normal in any sport when passion and the competitive urges are running flat out.
The last one of those was at the Bathurst 12 Hour in 2023 when Campbell was working with the SRO technical team, and I was team managing the T8 Pro entry. When the tyre pressure rules were changed eight hours before the race start I, and others, remonstrated hard with SRO, including CL, about the late change. Campbell was very dismissive of our complaints, and we exchanged words!
However, a few days later, he sent me a text: “RD I need to apologise for last week. I was getting rather tired and short by Saturday night. Liked your column today.”
And that said everything about our working relationship over 30 years – mutual respect. As the Poms like to say, with reference to an old beer commercial, he was a Gentleman and a Scholar.
I was privileged to be able to spend several hours with Campbell a few days before he died. He was still very lucid, despite the pain, and, in the company of the aforementioned Bruce Miles and Campbell’s lovely daughter Georgia, we reflected on our experiences and laughed heartily as we remembered all the special moments we’d shared.
Whilst I will be travelling overseas at the time of the funeral next week, I’m greatly looking forward to seeing pictures of a mass of old race kit on show at the service. To my fellow racers in the paddock who are able to attend, please dig out those old Honda, Frank Gardner, Stone Brothers, Triple Eight, FPR and Tekno race shirts plus all the others that played a part in this life well lived.
My condolences go to Clare and the girls, plus all of Campbell’s mates, and my eternal thanks go to Campbell for his essential part in the growth and success of Triple Eight Race Engineering Australia. RIP mate.
Discussion about this post