Before The Bend 500, Tracey had been a run-of-the-mill top 10 finisher in Trans Am. He hadn’t won a race nor had he been a regular on the podium.

Then came The Bend, where he defeated last year’s Bathurst 1000 winner Todd Hazelwood with three defensive masterclasses.

So who is Blake Tracey?

The little-known 18-year-old is a boiler maker in the third year of his apprenticeship, working with his father.

Growing up, Tracey spent as much time driving or riding whatever he could. He raced motorbikes but one too many injuries meant he had to pivot.

“It all really started at probably about age five. We had an AU Falcon paddock basher, and every single night after school I’d just be cutting laps of our farm,” Tracey told Speedcafe.

“That was literally where it all started.

“I originally wanted to be the next Toby Price and race motorbikes, but after a few broken arms and ribs, Dad was like ‘We need to throw you in a go kart. That’s a bit safer’.”

At just 10 years old, Tracey raced karts, but with limited success. He ran around the top five but will happily admit he wasn’t winning.

Tracey eventually decided to get himself a race car, starting out in a Hyundai Excel.

“I found an Excel on some bloke’s front lawn that had grass going through it and knocked on his door and bought that off him,” Tracey explained.

“We raced Excel from 2022 to 2024. That was pretty cool. We won the New South Wales championship and the Australian championship in Hyundai Excels.”

After getting the major Excel gongs, Tracey mulled his next move.

He wondered about the Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia GR Cup, but a drive of his father’s LS-powered BMW E46 had him bitten by the V8 bug.

“Dad was like, ‘We’re throwing you straight in the deep end. If you want to be the best, you’ve got to beat the best’. So that’s just how we thought about it,” he said.

“Really, if we didn’t finish top five in the championship, or we didn’t have any wins this year, we were just going to pull the pin out of the whole motorsport thing.

“There’s no point if you can’t be very fast and up the front in Trans Am. There’s no point trying to go to Super2 and thinking you’re going to go better there.”

Before the latest round, Tracey had been learning most circuits upon arrivals. The Bend, however, was the first he had tested at.

That changed the tide in being able to contend for wins.

“It was the first time I’ve actually not had to learn the track. Normally, every single round I’ve been to, I’ve had to learn a new track and I’ve had to learn that car around the track,” he said.

“I went in not as worried about trying to learn the car on the track and set it up. I already knew what I needed to do and just did it.

“I just wanted to make the top four in qualifying and I believed that if I made the top four I’d have a crack at having a go for second.

“I didn’t think I’d catch Todd (Hazelwood), but I reckoned I was gonna have a go at second or first at the start.

“When I had that good run in qualifying and we got second, I just said, ‘hold on, I’ve actually got a chance to win in this thing’. I just had to get a good start.

“As soon as I got in front of Todd, I was a bit like, ‘holy, this doesn’t feel right.’ I just tried to put my head down.”

Tracey said he felt like he was suffering from imposter syndrome, having gone from a relative nobody to being at the front of the field.

“The thing that I struggled with the most is when you have Todd Hazelwood, Nathan Herne, James Moffat and all of them behind you, it’s like you don’t feel like you belong with them,” Tracey explained.

“I’m young and I don’t have a name and all this, you go, ‘I don’t feel like I belong racing these guys’.

“But then also just in the back of your head, you’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain. So I just went full send.”

Tracey left the weekend with the most points of any driver, clean sweeping the weekend.

In the wake of his success, Tracey said his phone has been blowing up with support.

That included some of Supercars’ biggest names, including Tickford Racing’s Rod Nash and Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Bruce Stewart, as well as drivers Thomas Randle and Tim Slade.

It’s been a shot in the arm for Tracey, who has bought Josh Haynes’ Ford Mustang to continue racing in Trans Am in 2026 where he hopes to be a title contender.

“What it’s really done is it has made me feel like I belong in that top five pack,” he said.

“I feel like each weekend I’m going to go into the rest of the year knowing that I need to be in that top three, top five pack. That’s where my expectations are at and that’s what I want to do.

“We’re going to do Trans Am again next year. It’s eyes forward on trying to win that championship.

“I’m not here to be a participant. I’m here to try and win everything. This year was a big learning curve, and we realised, we can do it, we’re not just wasting our money.”

The Trans Am Series continues at Mallala Motorsport Park on November 21-22 before the season finale at the Adelaide Street Circuit on November 27-30.