The Sprague racing legacy is continuing to grow as 16-year-old Alex Sprague impresses behind the wheel.
Alex, like his older brother Corban, is a fourth-generation Timaru racing driver, following in the tracks of his great-grandfather Ernie, grandfather Wayne and dad Peter.
After starting his racing journey with grass karting, Alex then made a name for himself in the simulator racing world before jumping in to a ‘‘real car’’ last year to compete in the 2K Cup South Island.
After winning the first three rounds, he is currently leading the series heading into round four at Levels International Raceway at the end of the month.
Alex said he had been inspired by his family to begin racing.
‘‘I was always around the racetrack growing up. Dad was always working on someone’s car and I just loved being around them.
‘‘It’s great having and being able to learn from the experience my family has in motorsport, especially with me and Corban both doing it now. It’s good to kind of bounce off each other more and I’m learning quite a lot from him with the experiences that he’s had recently.’’
He said sim racing had played a big part in helping him to hit the ground running in a real car.
‘‘I started getting into sim racing when I was about 13. I started competing in some local events and then competed in a couple of national events last year like the [Toyota] 86 E Cup and then was a part of team New Zealand in the Four Nations [Esport] Cup.
‘‘The sim racing was really good for learning and practising. It’s a very good training tool for learning new tracks and cars and also learning skills that can translate into the real car, it helped me quite a bit in transitioning and getting up to speed a bit faster.
‘‘I’m loving the real racing. It’s been a very good first half of the the championship so far. I’m looking forward to trying to keep doing the best job possible and win as many races and score as many points as I can.’’
His immediate goal in racing is to win the current series.
‘‘That’s my mentality, try to win. It’s been a very good start for my career, and I’m looking forward to trying to progress further.
‘‘The ultimate goal would be to get into a Supercar Championship in Australia or some sort of factory drive for a GT team.’’
He was very thankful to everyone that had helped him in his career so far.
‘‘I appreciate all my sponsors and supporters’ help.’’
