Dr Carl has been the permanent medical delegate for the Supercars Championship since 2008 and will reach race number 500 in Friday’s Townsville 500 opener.
His job includes following the Supercars field aboard the Porsche Cayenne medical car on the first lap of each race, where the risk of an accident is at its highest.
While most often in the passenger seat, Dr Carl has also taken the start of Supercars races from the driver’s seat of the medical machine.
“One of my favourite memories is me lining up behind Mark Skaife at Symmons Plains in 2008,” he reflected.
“It was surreal to be on the grid behind one of my racetrack heroes! I drove the formation and first laps with a huge smile on my face.”
Famous opening lap incidents attended to by Dr Carl include the startline crash at Wanneroo in 2011 involving Steve Owen and Karl Reindler.
Reindler now shares the medical car driver role in Formula 1.
Dr Carl was also involved in an incident of his own a year later, when Shane van Gisbergen – limping with damaged steering – clouted the medical car at Sydney Olympic Park.
The 500-race milestone would have been reached earlier except border closures during the COVID pandemic in 2020 and 2021 meant he was unable to leave Victoria.
Dr Carl was recognised with a Medal of the Order of Australia in the 2024 King’s Birthday Honours list for his service to medicine in the motorsports industry.
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