The loan arranger
The 1980s weren’t a great time to be a fast young racing driver in Australia. Unless you were well connected or well financed, it was almost impossible for a young gun to forge a professional motor racing career here. Mal Rose had the ability and motivation to make it but lacked the industry connections to climb the ladder. Money? Well, he certainly put himself in plenty of debt trying to make it happen!
Sydney privateer racer Mike Burgmann had helped a young Tony Longhurst gain a foothold in the sport, and would try to do the same for Rose. But tragically the fickle hand of fate intervened.Years spent in Group E Production Cars netted a national championship but diversions into truck racing and AUSCAR didn’t help him break through, although the latter did help pay off some bills…
The 1990s was the decade where talented young drivers could make it if they excelled in the premier nursery category of Formula Ford. Rose gave that a shot, posting some creditable results amongst the future hotshots, including a young Mark Webber, but by then he was in his 30s. Rose did eventually make it into Supercars, a full 10 years after that opportunity was taken away from him in the aftermath of mentor Burgmann’s death. With meagre budgets he punched above his weight in Supercars, but such was the depth in the category that he couldn’t progress. However, it would be on the other side of the world where he would eventually make his mark – and on the wrong side of 40, too!
Buoyed by the success of operating his ‘The Supercar Experience’ ride days at Oran Park, Rose ventured to a place he hadn’t even heard of not long before – the Nurburgring and its famous 24-hour race. He would race there every year from 2004 to 2016 – 13 times in cars from the diminutive Mitsubishi Mirage to a Commodore V8 Supercar and a GT4 Aston Martin V8 Vantage. You don’t get invited back to the ‘Ring time and again unless you are a class racer, and finally he was racing on the European stage on merit. It may have taken 20-long years to get there but finally Mal Rose could call himself a professional racing driver. Read on as we take a roller-coaster ride through Rose’s career.
Early years
Mal Rose was born in 1962 and grew up in Rydalmere near Parramatta in Sydney’s west. Though his parents had no interest, both Mal and his year-older brother Geoff were obsessed with motorsport. Indeed, Geoff saw an advertisement to join the Australian Racing Driver’s Club (ARDC) and become junior members. He bought an LJ Torana that his brother would soon modify, as Mal explains:
“I was able to do a motor mechanics course at high school and ended up fixing my brother’s Torana during school time. I was only good at woodwork and mechanics at school. I failed everything else!
“I did the paper round in Rydalmere, including all of factories. I let them know I was leaving school and I asked about apprenticeships. One of my last stops was Brown’s Carburettor and Ignition Services. I always said to Brownie after I left school: would you give me a job? So he said come back when you finish and
