Small began working at Garry Rogers Motorsport in 2007 and moved his way through various Supercars teams before moving to the United States to pursue a career in NASCAR.
Now he works for stock car heavyweights Joe Gibbs Racing, and will have a shot to win the NASCAR Cup Series with Chase Briscoe at Phoenix this year.
To honour Rogers, Briscoe’s Toyota Camry will carry the Garry Rogers Motorsport logo at the upcoming Cup Series race at Martinsville in tribute to the Australian racing icon.
In a rare social media post, Small revealed the tribute to Rogers, who passed away at the age of 80 on Wednesday.
“Gaz is riding with the 19 this weekend,” he wrote.
“If it weren’t for you Garry I wouldn’t sit here with a chance to win a Championship next week.
Click here to find out how.
“You did so much for so many drivers, engineers and mechanics by giving them their first shot and believing in them.
“You told me to never lose my passion for winning and trying to be the best every single day.
“There will never be another one quite like you. RIP GR.”
Gaz is riding with the 19 this weekend 💔
If it weren’t for you Garry I wouldn’t sit here with a chance to win a Championship next week. You did so much for so many drivers, engineers and mechanics by giving them their first shot and believing in them. You told me to never lose… pic.twitter.com/ucM4rfCzdX
— James Small (@james_small) October 23, 2025
In September, Small appeared on the Apex Hunters United podcast where he spoke about how he transitioned from racing cars to working on them – and how he turned Rogers down, initially.
“I rang Garry Rogers and there were two jobs advertised at that time. I think one at Britek as a race engineer and one at GRM,” he explained.
“And I’m like straight out of school. The year before I had been doing data engineering at [Paul] Morris’ just on the weekends, so I went and saw Garry and everything went okay.
“I went out to lunch with Steve Kramer and Garry rang me and offered me a job. I initially denied him, because he was going to pay me like thirty grand or something.
“So that was to engineer Lee Holdsworth’s car. Straight out of school, first year.
“He eventually rang me back and he was like ‘I’ll pay you 10 grand more’ or whatever and it started from there.”
Small was a proficient racer in his own right, racing in Formula Ford, V8 Utes, and the Aussie Racing Cars.
His race car know-how behind the wheel wound up with him testing a Garry Rogers Motorsport Holden VE Commodore at Winton Motor Raceway alongside Lee Holdsworth.
After the evaluation day, Small recounted what he said was a bizarre offer to race for GRM and retain his role as an engineer.
“After that, Garry asked me, he was like, ‘I want to give you a drive next year. For you to stay here, I want to give you an endurance drive and three development series races’,” said Small.
“He was like ‘But I still want you to engineer the car on the weekends’,” Small laughed.
“I was like, man, that sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. I turned him down in the end. I can’t imagine how different my life may have been if I had not said no.”
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