CHARACTERS. Every Aussie sport has them. Week after week our favourite sports personalities take to the field of play. They can be dominant, supremely talented and astute or just plain gifted.

Motor sport is no exception. The likes of Peter Brock, Dick Johnson, and Alan Moffat and, in the current era, Craig Lowndes have been the face of motor sport to the casual observer. Supremely talented and unlike many of their peers in other sports, fan friendly and media savvy.

Most of all they have not let fame change them. They are who they are. No pretence.

One of the more enduring personalities who has transitioned from successful competitor to the media world is Mark Larkham.

Unlike the various football and cricket codes who boast dozens of former players in the media broadcast ranks, Australian Motorsport has relatively few drivers that make the transition.

Neil Crompton was one who went from cutting an apprenticeship in broadcast to a successful career in a number of premier racing categories including the USA, and now is integral to the Supercars TV team. More recent recruits Mark Skaife and Russell Ingall are multiple Bathurst and Supercars champions.

Then there is ‘Larko’. Mark Larkham did not pursue a media gig once he finally left full time involvement in the Supercar Pit Lane in 2006. Media in fact came to Larkham, but more on that later.

Larkham’s motor racing story is not unique, but fascinating in the way he worked through the junior ranks and his unrelenting passion for professionalism and presentation.

Bush bashing on farm properties around property in Griffith and a run at the now defunct Village Grand Prix in outer Western Sydney was enough to give Larkham the desire to have a look at a real racing debut. Hardly the traditional role of Karting as the pre cursor to circuit racing.

“My thing wasn’t Karting. I had an old FC Holden Panel van paddock basher that I bought for $150 bucks from the local wrecker! My thing was sticking my mates in that and rallying through the paddocks. From that came a genuine love of driving and controlling the vehicle and a competitive streak while watching my heroes like Dick Johnson and Alan Moffat with a carton of beer and my mates on the couch in Griffith!” Larkham recalls.

“It was on a holiday with those same mates to Sydney that we went to the Village Grand Prix track in Western Sydney and I did well and was ’bitten’. So with the help of Auto Action I thought that I would give this racing a go. I was looking at a rally car given my paddock bashing skills but found ads for Formula Fords. I had no idea what they were. Wow they look OK, a real race car!” Larkham joked.

But he was serious about motor racing and headed from Griffith up to Sydney in his girlfriend’s, and later wife’s, 1974 Valiant Galant to Peter Finlay’s Race Driving School at Oran Park.

“It was pretty funny really. All these racing aspirants arrive at Oran Park driving 260Z’s, BMW 3 Series, and Larko arrives from Griffith in his jeans and Blundstones in the 74 Galant. That weekend went really well and with a ‘AA’ mark and the advice from Peter (Finlay) that I should go and purse a career. I stayed in Sydney and bought a trailer, and then bought an older model Formula Ford from Peter Verheyen and towed it back to Griffith. So that was essentially the start of it, a bit of an odd way in.”

Larkham then set up his first ‘race team’ with his mates on the back verandah of his mates rental house in Griffith. Remarkably he went racing for two years from this base with this same bunch of great mates.

“We had no racing experience, didn’t know anything about wheel alignment, corner weights or race car preparation. For the next two years before I moved to Sydney for the 1989 Championship winning assault, they were just magnificent years in terms of a bunch of us wet behind the ears and learning. If I could have my time again, I would not do it any other way. I made so many mistakes and we ran the car with probably the weirdest set up there was, but we learnt by it.”

After a good result at the Australian Grand Prix support in 1987, Larkham bit the bullet and ordered a new Van Diemen with the promise of payment from a sponsor. A sponsor that came and went very quickly. Larkham was at home in Griffith facing a $40,000 invoice for a car, and as a young refrigeration mechanic he could not pay for. His tenacity though got him on the grid in 1988.

So looking to raise a budget, his boss kindly gave him two weeks off where he approached almost the whole Griffith  business community on the premise of putting ‘Griffith’ on the car for the Seven Network televised Formula Ford national series, looking to leverage and reverse some of the negative publicity that had come out of the towns past.

70 local businesses stepped up, $250 here, $500 there and slowly he raised enough to go the Griffith City Council and look for the balance to support his budget. In another bizarre twist the Queen had cancelled a planned visit to the town and Larkham used this to convince the Council that things were not all that bad and he could give the town great exposure and something to cheer about after not getting to see Queen Elizabeth. It worked!

Larkham’s career moved quickly from that point and after only two years he was contesting the Formula Ford National Championship in 1989. A series he went on to win in a rather volatile battle with now commentary buddy Russel Ingall and launched him on the Australian scene. But it was another of Mark’s skills that was developing at the same time that would see him thorough his racing and TV career. Larkham had developed a keen eye for presenting himself and the team in the most professional way possible. A legacy that stayed with him from the Coffey Ford and Mitre 10 sponsorships right through to the Orccon era.

“What I quickly realised, not having any money, was the very art of survival for me in motorsport required it, and by now my real hunger to compete was cemented. I owned my tool box! We did some crazy things. Cashed in my wife’s super, took out loans to build a proper carport as a workshop, all into racing, all the things you do to get money to keep going. It became very evident that skill and desire alone was not going to allow you to survive. You had to fund yourself. And with nobody around me that I could see with any capability to do that I had to learn myself. I have always been a creative sketcher, so that gave me a leg up perhaps in the role of presentation and marketing.”

This skill served Larkham well as he continued to present both team and car livery designs to the highest level right to the end of his Supercars career. Larkham at this point spoke passionately of his continued role with younger drivers and in many cases the lack of desire or indeed lack of understanding of how the system operates by these upcoming racers. He cites his own ‘survival’ mentality that drove him to learn about marketing, presentation and having a relentless focus on raising the budgets. Put simply, Mark added: “The people who you can expect to maybe fund you are not hanging out on Social Media and texting all day, they are people who are in business offices, managing companies, services and products, looking to get a return on their investment. Think outside the square.” Larkham advised.

Formula Brabham was the next step after Mark tried to make it in Europe, but with budgets around $600k he returned with his tail between his legs and drove a few races for Tony Blanche in the Thalgo car, a Ralt RT21.

“Two weeks before the start of the 1990 season I still had nothing on the go, so I rang Peter Boylan who had Neil Crompton’s ex Ralt RT20 sitting idle. I then went to Mitre 10 as my father was managing a farmers hardware store in Griffith which was an offshoot of the Mitre 10 brand, so Dad connected me with the State Manager.”

In typical Larkham style, and knowing he was not going to get the budget he needed, he said to Mitre 10 that he would change his number to ‘10’ and put a little ‘Mitre’ above it, giving them greater value and exposure.

It got Larkham in the door with the hardware chain and a long relationship would develop.

To be continued..

WORDS: Dale Rodgers @becdalesports
IMAGES: Mark Larkham collection