Motorsport: Back in the driving seat

Lucas Dumbrell (right). Photo / Supplied

There's an old saying: Every cloud has a silver lining. When Lucas Dumbrell was lying on a hospital bed, unable to move from the neck down, he could see no cloud anywhere with even the smallest hint of a lining, let alone silver.

An 18-year-old on the road to making a name as a race car driver can feel immortal. Until the various gods decide it's not his time, or place, to go racing. It takes a hell of a lot of fortitude to believe you can still contribute to motorsport from a wheelchair and Dumbrell is a shining example.

Before the crash which consigned him to a wheelchair, he had his sights on working his way through the lower formula divisions - hoping to emulate older brother, V8 Supercars driver Paul Dumbrell.

Everything changed in the blink of an eye at Sydney's Oran Park Raceway in 2008. Still a teenager, Lucas was left a quadriplegic after a monster accident while competing in the Australian Formula Ford Championship. Unable to move from the neck down, apart from some limited movement in his arms, Dumbrell spent six months in hospital before returning home to continue his recuperation.

"I broke C4 and C5 in my neck and as a result damaged the spinal cord and became a quadriplegic," Dumbrell says.

"After a lot of hard work, I now have partial movement in my shoulders and partial muscle through my forearms and biceps.

"It's pretty limited though. Some signals still get through but not all the muscles in my arms work. It's like in my neck, shoulders and arms 50 per cent of the muscles are doing 100 per cent of the work."

For a long time, Dumbrell couldn't watch the sport he had once been so passionate about. In 2009, he made the effort to get to Bathurst to watch his brother Paul race. Despite only being 20, he had something of an epiphany and decided to start his own V8 Supercars team.

The seed money came from the family-owned Autopro parts business and then Gulf Western Oil stepped in as a stand-alone sponsor. In little over 12 weeks, the fledgling team had acquired a racing franchise from Tasman Motorsport, leased a workshop, a car, equipment and organised staff.

"We had to move pretty quickly and pick up the licence when we could. They're not a high turnover item so we needed to buy in when one was available," says Dumbrell.

"It was only about three months out from the start of the season, so we had a fair bit of work to do. When we got to Abu Dhabi for the first round in 2010, it was a big achievement for all of us."

Dumbrell is fortunate enough to be part of a motor racing family that he can turn to for advice and mentoring. Brother Paul is a successful V8 Supercars driver and dad Gary had a race team back in 1999-2000.

"Having the old man and Paul around helps a lot. In 1999, they [the father] won Bathurst and in 2000 came third. They won a round at Canberra in 1999 and had a few other good results," says Dumbrell.

By comparison to many other teams, 21-year-old Dumbrell's embryonic race outfit is a low-budget affair - but that doesn't mean just turning up at a circuit is good enough.

"We're not here to make up the numbers and owning a V8 Supercar team is not just something to do to keep me busy. I'm 100 per cent committed to making this team successful.

"I've had to make some hard decisions over these first 12 months, especially regarding drivers, and I didn't take any of them lightly," he says.

In 2010, Kiwi driver Daniel Gaunt was the initial driver of Dumbrell's Gulf Western Oil-backed Holden but halfway through the season was replaced by Cameron McConville. Warren Luff took over for the final three events in 2010 and is the current 2011 pilot.

"It's not that Daniel didn't pan out, it was more it just wasn't the right time. With Daniel being a rookie in a rookie team, we were all so inexperienced. We really needed a driver with a bit of experience who could give us a little bit of direction as well," Dumbrell says.

Although there is a wealth of family experience in the young team, Dumbrell isn't afraid of seeking outside help to become more competitive. Because they are not a big budget outfit able to do their own development, Dumbrell buys information and technology from fellow V8 competitors Walkinshaw Racing.

"You pay a bit of a premium but it's worth getting information you know that works from an established team," said Dumbrell.

He already has an eye on the future.

"We're just about to pick up our new truck and we're also about to move into a brand new, purpose-built facility which will give us the scope to do a lot more things in-house. We'll also have the capacity to run another car or two, so we'd probably look at running a Fujitsu series programme in the next year or so if all goes according to plan."

For now, Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport will be crossing its collective fingers in the hope Luff keeps the car, which retired with steering problems yesterday, off the unforgiving concrete walls of the Hamilton circuit today.

The team are bereft of spare parts after major damage from both the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide and the round at Phillip Island.

"We've had some decent accidents in the first two rounds which is a bit unfortunate but we'll get on with it.

"I never once thought it was going to be easy."