Third-generation racer Sam Brabham says his racing career has been reinvigorated by his recent taste of Supercars and has set a target on the Dunlop Super2 Series.
Brabham, who is the son of David, was invited to a Triple Eight Race Engineering evaluation day at Queensland Raceway last week.
It offered the 27-year-old his first laps in Supercar machinery, having largely been out of a race seat the last three years.
Since moving to Australia, Brabham’s only race experience has been in a Mercedes-AMG GT4 at select Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia Powered by AWS rounds.
However, the recent run in a Holden VF Commodore at QR has reorientated his goals.
“I’ll get in anything I can drive. Super2 is the start; I think it’s important to do that grounding before you get to Supercars and before you get to main game,” Brabham told Speedcafe.com.
“The GT4 is amazing, I’ve not raced in three years and even then this might be the first year ever I do a full season of racing, I’ve always missed rounds for lack of budget, that sort of thing.
“Still not there completely, but [Super2] is the target.”
During his time in Europe Brabham competed in Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain, but his programme was held down by budget issues.
Now that he is even further separated from his UK-based father, Sam has had to adapt his style and latch onto opportunities.
“You’ve just got to keep hustling. Before I moved here it’s not something I was particularly good at, I just didn’t really get it,” he explained.
“Now I’ve moved here, I’m here on my own and my dad is not here to introduce me to people and help make those connections.
“It’s up to me to make that happen and I actually think I’m thriving off that.
“[The Brabham name] definitely means more over here and I felt that even on a daily basis.
“Driver coaching or whatever it may be, people do recognise the name and want to see it out there.
“If I can try achieve that and go and get good results and perform, that’s the game. Supercars is where we want to go but a lot needs to happen to get to that point.
“I think I’ve got the opportunity to do something really cool and the infrastructure is here to have a good career.”
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