Over the Easter weekend, while most of us were lazing around munching on chocolate, Redeemer 2010 Alumnus, Daniel Clift, was out on the Mount Panorama course competing in the Bathurst 6 Hour! Daniel and his team (Clift Brothers Racing) had a successful race, finishing 18th from 59 starters and even achieving the “save of the day”. We caught up with Daniel to find out all about it!
"I got into racing following in my father's footsteps as he was a driver in the Australian touring car championship in the 1980s. We built my race car whilst I was in school and have now been racing for over 10 years.
We’ve had four attempts at the 6 hour, the first three with DNFs (Did Not Finish) after engine failure after four hours in all three races. Our latest attempt this year fixed all issues from previous years and we had a great run, finishing 18th outright and 5th in class. The big drift (the "save of the day") was a mix of a miscommunication between radio comms and myself not knowing about a huge oil slick across the track on the fastest corner in Australia. Luckily I’ve had a lot of practice with car control and understanding how a car slides through high speed situations and was able to arrest the slide and get the wheels pointing straight ahead. (Watch the footage here: https://fb.watch/4Pdi5jw823/)
Money has always been a massive challenging factor in progressing into a ‘professional career’, but that’s okay and I’m content with keeping it a hobby that I don’t have to pay for. I’ve been very lucky with sponsorship and that leads to the next point of advice with how important net working is. I met my current sponsors five years ago when I was out with some mates and we got talking, haven’t looked back since and we have a great relationships. Networking is everything. What do I love most about racing? I love how I’m able to drive fast, do it with my friends and have the ability for it not to affect me financially. I’d like to continue to develop our race car and race in next years Bathurst 12 hour and hopefully compete in the national endurance racing championships.
We’ve been racing against professional V8 Supercar drivers like Shane Van Gisbergen, Chaz Mostert and Tim Slade so it’s nice to test yourself against the best drivers in the country as well as running with them and pushing them to the limit!"
Photography: Lee Wallis Media & Gran Turrisi Photography
