South East driver Brad Gartner revved up the crowd at the VALO Adelaide 500 last weekend, making his debut in the international S5000 Tasman Series.

The 19-year-old young gun was sponsored by VALO, an Australian advanced lighting technology company based in Adelaide – and Vircura, a plant-based technology company – as he took to the field for the first time.

More than 258,000 spectators passed through the gates over the weekend in the Adelaide 500’s return, with Nathan Herne claiming the S5000 Tasman Series race 1 victory by 2.5270 seconds from Joey Mawson, while Cooper Webster came in third.

Gartner placed 13th, 9th and 11th in each of the three races, clocking his best lap time in race 3 with a 1.20.0251.

Gartner said it was an extremely tough race as his opponents were seasoned competitors.

“It was a massive thing to race against people that have been racing for five years or since the S5000 started, so they know their cars like the back of their hands,” he said.

“I was probably three and a half seconds off the front guys, but they’re in quite big teams, they do that for their job and it’s not their first time.

“It’s a lot to take in and in any class we’re racing, we seem to be pretty young compared to the people that are racing against us.

“I was the only person on the grid debuting, so it was always going to be a tough ask – but it was just incredible to be able to tack on the back of the group, get a top 10 and stay clean out of the damage.

“In one of the races I think five cars crashed and we just kept clean.”

Gartner said the weekend went extremely well and he was excited for the opportunity.

“Over the weekend I was nervous the whole time, but when you finish the weekend without crashing, you build a lot of confidence,” he said.

“It was a lot to take in because those guys were more confident, so it was hard for me to build a lot of confidence within four days.”

The young gun said there were a lot of people from the Limestone Coast watching his debut trackside.

“It was overwhelming to have so many people come to support me and not only that, but just the amount of people that were there,” he said.

“My family, a lot of cousins and just a heap of people from the Penola and Mount Gambier area came to watch.

“I think it was extremely successful, everyone from Penola was so, so proud of me and it’s a dream come true for me so just to be able to do it is successful.

“The whole VALO team has sponsored me so that was incredible to have their support as well.

“I’m obviously extremely grateful for the support and the opportunity.”

Gartner did not escape all the bingles, as he had a minor crash on Thursday in practice as the rookie came in ‘too fast and keen’ only four laps into the qualifier and hooked a curve with speed at turn one flying into the tyre barrier.

There was minimal damage from the collision to the front nose of the car which clipped back on, along with the steering rack.

“As soon as we crashed, I sort of knew, ‘hopefully that’s done, get it out of the way’, then I could learn from that and not do it again.

“We just watched the data over and over again and realised what I’d done to then analyse what not to do.

“Turn one was where I was struggling in practice even before I crashed, but it was pretty well my fastest corner at the end of the weekend.”

While the cars are usually faster in their qualifying trim, Gartner recorded his quickest time in the final race, stopping the clock ever so slightly over 1 minute 20 seconds.

“If we were to go back and have our qualifying session again now, with what we know, we would be heaps faster.

“If we’re doing the fastest times in a race, we’ll definitely be faster qualifying after learning the whole weekend.

“On the Sunday we were about four or five seconds faster than the Thursday.

“I saw a few times I was in the minute 20 seconds the whole race and I did not fall out of it which is good to see that we were consistent.”

It was a self-proclaimed dream come true for Gartner, who had been a spectator at the event as a youngster before it was cancelled in 2020.

“It’s always been a massive event and something I have dreamed of, especially being in my home state,” he said.

“It was very, very surreal to be able to race at the Adelaide 500.

“The cars were super cool, super fast but I think the coolest thing was racing at the Adelaide 500 in front of all the crowds.

“To have Adelaide set up once a year, it is pretty cool to be a part of it in that short time.

“Just to race … there and the atmosphere, I think that’s the biggest thing.”

Hailing from a farm near Penola, the rookie started racing at the Lucindale Dirt Kart Club before progressing to circuit racing via the popular Circuit Excel series.

There he became a front-runner in the competitive South Australian championship and earned his maiden victory at Tailem Bend last September.

Gartner said it had been a big jump from go karts and the Circuit Excel series to his VALO Adelaide 500 S5000 debut.

“When you’re racing go karts and even the Excel, you go there and there’s no crowds,” he said.

“There’s no people anywhere and it’s just a normal race event, but going to the Adelaide 500 steps it up.

“When you go to Tailem Bend, Mallala, Winton and stuff like that, there’s no people, there’s no pressure.

“When you have big sponsors and thousands and thousands of people rolling up when you roll out, it makes you nervous.

“It’s a lot to take in for a 19-year-old racing for the first time, concentrating on what you have got to do as well as living the dream and taking it all in.

“Debuting an S5000 and at a big event, it’s a lot to take in so just to soak it all up and taking in the car like the amount of power and open wheel is just very cool.”

Next year Gartner said he would continue to race his TA2 Mustang across the Trans Am Series, but he is not ruling out another opportunity with the open wheelers such as the S5000.

“I really love my Mustang, so we’ll stay in that and try and finish the series in that and probably some more cameo events in the S5000,” he said.

“It’s good to get it done and now we can focus on what’s next year, whatever that may be.

“I do love the open wheel, they’re extremely fast, we were doing lap times faster than the Supercars and it was my first time, so it says a lot about the cars and how fast they are. To race in an open wheeler is a whole other thing, there was nothing I could even compare it to.”

Gartner has also been racing for a cause this year, supporting two close family friends who have passed away after living with Motor Neurone Disease.

Helen Moulton was married to husband David for 21 years before she passed away from MND, with her husband tragically passing away from the disease following her death.

“It was obviously very sad for the family and us, we were very close to the Moulton family,” Gartner said.

“It was my last race in the Excel and I thought what better way to show some respect.”

Altogether with donations from the Moulton Family, Gartner’s Racing and general donations from the community, $13,000 was raised for the Motor Neuron Disease Foundation South Australia.

VALO and Vircura founder and chief executive Aaron Hickmann said motorsport was more than just Formula 1 and Grand Prix, it was also about those taking to the streets in different classes of cars and supporting grassroots racing.

“Brad is a prodigy and has a very bright future in motorsport,” Hickmann said.

“Like VALO and Vircura he’s South Australian and while others have invested in our business, we’re giving back and investing in the motorsport industry by sponsoring an up-and-coming driver with incredible potential.”