The 17-year-old Gold Coaster sensationally scored a pole position and two wins on debut in the V8 muscle car class last weekend under the guidance of Supercars veteran Tim Slade.
It was a remarkable step up for the Toyota GR Cup driver that has earned public praise from the likes of Slade, Bathurst legend Craig Lowndes and driver coach Paul Morris.
While it’s still relatively early days in her development, the GM-backed Buckley makes no secret of her ambition to be a trailblazer in the modern Supercars era.
“Supercars is where I want to go,” Buckley told Speedcafe.
“Obviously there hasn’t been an [Australian] female in a full-time seat ever in Supercars, so that’s 100 percent the goal for myself.
“At the moment Supercars seems a little bit impossible [due to budget]. TA2 is really amazing and will open the doors for me to go overseas if we can’t get an opportunity in Australia.
“But the goal is 100 percent Supercars.”
Buckley hopes to use the TA2/Trans Am classes as a bridge between the Toyota GR Cup that kicks off next weekend in Townsville and the Supercars leagues.
The teen moved into the Toyota ranks in 2023 and has this year been fighting it out for the title in the second-tier Scholarship Series, which concludes at The Bend next month.
Buckley will also be back in TA2 for the two-driver event at Ipswich in August, paired with Supercars race winner turned mentor Slade.
“I think next year we’ll go full-time TA2 and Trans Am,” she said.
“It just depends though on how we go in the 86 category (GR Cup). I’m a big believer that you don’t move on until you’ve won.
“We’ve proven ourselves in the 86 category before, it’s just about having a bit more luck in the season and having at least one championship under our belt.”
Buckley makes clear that the first-up win in TA2 was just as big a shock to her as it was to everyone else.
She entered the event with just half a day of testing to her name and beat a field that included Super2 drivers.
“I was really nervous going into the weekend because I felt so underprepared,” she said.
“Obviously the [Toyota] 86 is right-hand-drive and has ABS, so getting in something that’s twice as fast, it has insane acceleration compared to an 86, was very daunting.
“The fact that my brain could even function at the different pace straight away was impressive, let alone do a good lap time and put it all together.
“We were all kind of shocked and it definitely exceeded my expectations. If you expect that going into your rookie round you’re not racing a competitive category.”
Buckley’s TA2 win was a classic case of ‘overnight success, 10 years in the making’, having started racing karts from the age of seven.
“Dad was a national champion,” she said.
“He very briefly moved to Formula Ford and cars for a few years, but long story short, ran out of money and couldn’t afford to do it. Basically dad has given me the opportunity he never got.
“Once my little brother was born it was, ‘we’ve got a boy, let’s go racing’. And my mum, being the person she is, insisted I had to be given the same opportunity.
“I fell in love with it straight away.”
Buckley progressed through karts and was selected to compete at an FIA/Ferrari Driver Academy camp in Italy in 2022.
While that involved sampling Formula 4 machinery, she missed out on a place in the academy and returned home with a focus on tin-tops.
That has taken her through Hyundai Excels, into Toyotas and now TA2.
The Buckleys go racing as a family and run a tight-knit team from the back of their sizeable construction business, which employs over 100 staff.
Buckley left school at the end of Year 11 and is undertaking a mechanical apprenticeship through the business, working on her own cars away from the track.
“I don’t touch any car on a race weekend, that’s what we’ve got the boys for. I don’t have to think, ‘did I remember this, this and this’ when I’m going out on track,” she said.
“Obviously if racing doesn’t work out it’s good to have something like that to fall back on in motorsport as well. It’s just good to know a little bit more about the cars and what everything does.”
Buckley has already managed to attract an impressive array of blue chip sponsors including GMSV, AC Delco and Castrol.
She hopes that her point of difference as a female in the sport will help her find the all-important funding required to continue towards Supercars.
The only woman to race full-time in the Supercars Championship during its modern era, Swiss Simona De Silvestro, did so with backing arranged by the category.
“I’ve been super lucky as a junior driver to have such large support from such credible brands,” she said.
“Not many people get that so hopefully being a female does benefit me to get to where I’d like to go.
“I think long-term there will be a lot of people push my name forward purely for the female factor, which I think is why I’m so hard on myself when it comes to results.
“I don’t want to just be another female, I want to be competitive.”
She hopes to reach Supercars and inspire other young girls to aim for it too. The debut TA2 win provided a snapshot of what success can mean for others.
“I have had a lot of young females message me from karting, which has been really exciting. Hopefully it’s a little bit of inspiration for them that there is a female doing it,” she said.
“I’ve never really had anyone to look up to in circuit racing as a female who’s been there, done that, so hopefully I can one day be that for the younger generation.”
While her association with GMSV is a strong link to have, Buckley acknowledges there’s no guaranteed path to the top and that continued results will be critical.
“My deal with GMSV ends at the end of this year,” she revealed.
“It’s been a two-year deal at the moment, but obviously with results and that side of things it’s looking promising to continue and extend that partnership.
“If I can get to Supercars with GMSV and Chevrolet that will be an absolute dream. Motorsport is very cut-throat and brutal so if I could have long-term support with them it would be a fairytale.”
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