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From the comparatively sleepy streets of Gosford on the New South Wales Central Coast, Josh Evans has launched a successful international motorsport career.
Evans is the man behind Evans GP, a junior formulae team campaigning successfully in Asia.
His operation goes toe-to-toe with powerhouses like Prema and Hitech Grand Prix, squads which are active in a multitude of categories globally, including the Formula 2 Championship.
There is, however, an important point of difference with Evans GP in that it’s independent.
Where others have direct links to academy programmes with Red Bull, Ferrari, or others, Evans’ squad affords youngsters a means to prove their worth outside of that framework.
“Exactly,” says the eponymous team boss at the suggestion that his team is a good proving ground for youngsters looking to make their mark.
“Isack Hadjar, he drove for us last season, he wasn’t aligned to any F1 programmes, but he did a good job, got a few podiums, and now he’s been picked up by Red Bull.
“So, if you don’t have an alliance with any programme, we can be a good place to start and show what you can do.”
Evans has a proved track record of success, dating back to his formative years fielding a Formula Ford for David Reynolds.
“I did the motorsport course at Wodonga TAFE, then ran David Reynolds in Formula Ford when he first started out of go-karting,” he explained.
“From there, I went to Sonic Racing – actually the same time that David went to Sonic, which went well. He won the championship that year.
“Learning from Michael Ritter, I did a few years there and then went to the UK and worked for Allan Docking.”
That said Evans working in A1GP, and then the Superleague Formula which followed before heading back home to found his own Formula Ford operation.
He fielded the likes of Nick Cassidy, Andre Heimgartner, Thomas Randle, and Chelsea Angelo before closing the team following the emergence of Formula 4 on the national scene.
“With the changing of Formula Ford/F4, that sort of made it a bit difficult to know what direction that was all going,” Evans admitted.
Then came the opportunity to manage BlackArts Racing Team in China, a role which laid the groundwork for the founding of Evans GP.
“I feel like we achieved what they could do; we’d won the China F4, Asian Formula Renault, and then in 2019/20 we won the Asian F3 Championship,” he said.
“So I felt like if I want I want to take the next step, and I wanted to put it in the direction that I wanted to, the next step is to go into ownership where I have complete control.
“It was a big jump, but it’s the same championship, the same cars, I know the organisers as well.”
Having taken the leap into team ownership, Evans is now eying future growth for the operation, currently based in Asia.
He hopes in time to head into Europe as his time climbs up the ladder of junior formulae.
“Just like drivers that want to go as far as they possibly can, I want to push this team as far as I can,” Evans reasoned.
“We want to make sure we tick the boxes in Asian F3 first – we want to go and win the championship, as Evans GP.
“After that we’re going to look at what other opportunities are.
“Probably the next logical step is doing something in Europe, so I’m doing my homework on that at the moment.
“When we’re ready we’ll look at making the next step, and that’s F4 in Europe, F3, F2.”
It’s a far cry from his hometown of Gosford, where the nearest racetrack is Sydney Motorsport Park, the better part of 100km away.
“Australians, New Zealanders, that part of the world, it’s quite competitive racing there, and there’s no reason why we can’t do that in other parts of the world.”
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