The one-time Schumacher rival rebooting his career Down Under

As far as daunting corners in Australian motor racing go, Turn 1 at Sydney Motorsport Park is right up there. In anything with a bit of downforce it’s flat on entry, followed by a little lift to make sure the front end is going where you want it to and the back end is behaving itself. Then it’s straight back on the gas. Go too slow and you’ll be swallowed up into the braking zone for left-hand hairpin at Turn 2. Go too fast and run wide, well, you’re in for a wild ride.

In other words, it’s one of the very last places in the country that you want something to go wrong. So you can imagine how Joey Mawson’s heart rate was looking when his car unexpectedly pitched into a tank-slapper right at the apex of that very corner on the first lap of last Sunday’s S5000 finale.

All the 25-year-old needed to seal the title was to make it to the end. Starting on the front row, that seemed like a given. And yet there he was, elbows ablaze as he bounced over the grass and gravel desperately trying to keep the V8-powered beast out of the wall.

“Mate, it was the feeling of... 'Oh shit, this has all gone wrong,'” Mawson says on reflection of the hair-raising moment. “This is about to be taken out of my hands.”

Somehow, just, Mawson clung onto it. He missed the wall and avoided getting bogged. It did give him a bit of traffic to deal with, something that provided a second heart-stopper late in the race when he nearly collided with a spinning Ricky Capo on the exit of Turn 1.

But he got there. He eventually made the finish and became the first driver to add his name to the list of winners of Australia’s Gold Star since 2014. It was the fitting end to whirlwind journey from depression and loneliness in Europe to one of the top prizes in Aussie motor racing.

You may be familiar with the name Joey Mawson. The kid from Sydney has a few runs on the European board. After a hugely successful karting career, he opted to jump in the deep end of Europe’s open-wheeler ranks. That basically took him straight to German F4 where in 2016, he came up against a hell of a field that included the likes of Mick Schumacher, Juri Vips and Richard Verschoor. And he beat the lot of them to the title.

Mick Schumacher, Joey Mawson 2016 ADAC F4

Photo by: ADAC

But that proved to be the high point of his European sojourn. Mawson moved on to European Formula 3 and then GP3, but failed to make an impact. As the open-wheeler avenues began to close, he moved to one-make Porsche racing with stints in Supercup and German Carrera Cup. He finished eighth in the latter in 2020, but there was a sense his career was stalling. He was out of the Formula 1 system and not necessarily on a clear path to anywhere else.

There was also the global health crisis to deal with, which provided Mawson with his sternest test. The test had nothing to do with motorsport. It was about life. His was heavily restricted in Europe while, back in Australia where the virus was largely contained, his friends and family were living in a way that was as close to normal as you can get in the COVID era.

“I felt very homesick last year. I fell into a depression. I had anxiety,” Mawson says. “It was very restrictive [in Europe]. And being away from family and friends, while being restricted, was no fun at all for me.”

At the end of 2020 he made a big decision. He was going to jump through the hoops needed to get back into Australia. He was going home and wasn’t coming back.

"It's such a unique car; all of the engineers at Team BRM were telling me that it's not a typical single-seater. It's kind of half way to a touring car, particularly with the weight and the fact that it's low-grip and it moves around a lot" Joey Mawson

Pre-pandemic, travel between Europe and Australia was relatively cheap and easy (as long as you can stomach 20 hours on a plane). But Australia’s no-nonsense response to COVID-19 has included closed international borders since last April. To get home, Mawson had to first apply to the Australian government for an exemption. Then fight like hell for a seat on a plane, which are in rare supply given the caps on international arrivals down under. Then there was the two weeks in hotel quarantine.

The first priority was to get home. The second was to find something to race when he got there and given his open-wheeler background, S5000 was the obvious choice. The V8-powered series was preparing for its first season as the Australian Drivers’ Championship, otherwise known as the Gold Star, so there was something to race for.

But time wasn’t on Mawson’s side. S5000 promoter Australian Racing Group was keen to get things moving after a stalled 2020 and decided to open the 2021 season at Symmons Plains in Tasmania on the last weekend in January. Mawson finished his hotel quarantine on 19 January. The race meeting started on 22 January.

Joey Mawson, Team BRM

Photo by: Daniel Kalisz

He actually signed his deal to join Adelaide-based Team BRM while serving the mandatory detention in the Rydges hotel in Perth. He got out on the Tuesday and flew straight to the South Australian capital for a seat fitting. Then it was straight off to Tasmania for Round 1 without having turned a wheel.

“I was quarantining in Perth and we did the deal right at the end, right before the Tasmania race weekend,” explains Mawson. “The timing was just right to do that race.

“Initially it was just a one-off to see how I would go. I didn't have much in the way of expectations because I came in with no prep, no testing. I wanted to do well but I had no idea how I would go.”

Turns out it went well. He won the first race at Symmons Plains and finished fourth in the feature. Given he hadn’t driven an S5000, and was two years out of single-seaters, Mawson admits he was surprised at how quickly he gelled with the big-horsepower, low-aero car.

“It’s funny, I thought it would take me longer to transition back into open-wheelers,” he says. “It's such a unique car; all of the engineers at Team BRM were telling me that it's not a typical single-seater. It's kind of half way to a touring car, particularly with the weight and the fact that it's low-grip and it moves around a lot.

“So I was kind of surprised that I felt right at home when I jumped in the car for the first time in Tasmania, it was a good feeling straight away.”

A fast start was critical for anybody that fancied themselves as a Gold Star contender in 2021. ARG decided to limit the campaign to four rounds, starting with the January opener at Symmons Plains followed by back-to-back events at Phillip Island and Sandown in March and then finishing at SMP in early May.

S5000 Sandown Race 1 start

Photo by: S5000

The series will then start a new season back at Sandown this September as it moves to a split-year format that favours the warmer months in Australia and, potentially in the future, New Zealand. That will give it clear point of difference to Supercars, for example, which is traditionally a winter sport.

Anyway, the rapid-fire format put a premium on consistency which played in Mawson’s hands. He managed to avoid any major disasters, which proved to be the key difference to team-mate and chief title rival Thomas Randle - whose form dipped from Phillip Island onwards.

He was obviously quick too, with feature race wins at the Island and Sandown. That gave him that huge advantage heading into the final race at SMP, where he then almost threw it all away with that first-lap excursion.

"This championship means more to me than it did when I won the German F4 title, because I have my name in history. This is a prestigious title" Joey Mawson

“On reflection, to be honest, [the drama] made the victory sweeter,” he says. “I had two moments where I really felt like I'd lost it. Going into the race it was pretty straightforward – I just had to finish. I was starting from the front row so it felt like a podium was possible. For everyone – myself, the team, the spectators – it all looked pretty straightforward, pretty easy.

“And it didn't out to be the case. It gave it a bit of drama and made for a good show. It gave me a real sense of relief when the race was over and I knew that I still won the championship.”

The drama certainly helped mark the return of the Gold Star with a bang. Recognising the top open-wheeler driver in Australia, the Gold Star was once as prestigious as it got, on equal footing at least to the Australian Touring Car Championship. In its heyday it was won by the likes of Lex Davison, Frank Matich and Alfie Costanzo in a variety of Formula 1 and Formula 5000 hardware.

Joey Mawson

Photo by: S5000

But over the years, as Australia’s love of touring car racing flourished, the Gold Star lost its lustre. It was always something nice to win, right through the Formula Brabham/Formula Holden era when the likes of Mark Skaife, Scott Dixon and Will Power added their names to the trophy. But it was no longer a ticket to becoming a household name. You needed to either win the ATCC or the Bathurst 1000 for that.

Eventually the Gold Star was moved down to Australian Formula 3, a series that – in all brutal honesty – never had a heyday. After 2014, the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (now known as Motorsport Australia) made the understandable decision to park its once prestigious prize.

Then along came S5000, full of bluster that a modern version of the once-popular Formula 5000 series could revive Australia’s love of single-seater racing. That ambition was backed by Motorsport Australia, which, impressed by the pair exhibition races in 2019, decided to dust off the Australian Drivers’ Championship and Gold Star titles.

With 2020 a write-off due to the pandemic, the Gold Star finally returned in 2021. And so did the 64-year-old perpetual trophy… which promptly parted ways with its brittle wooden base during the celebrations at Sydney Motorsport Park.

It’s way too early to say there’s a new golden era for the Gold Star. For one, it would be nice to see another five or six cars on the S5000 grid next season. But there are enough signs of life to give Aussie open-wheel purists some hope. And whatever happens, the list of names on that broken old trophy is truly remarkable, something that wasn’t lost on Mawson when he earned the right to add his own to it.

“When I was growing up Mark Skaife was a hero of mine,” he says.“To have my name alongside his in history means a lot to me. This championship means more to me than it did when I won the German F4 title, because I have my name in history. This is a prestigious title. And I also had all my family and friends there to celebrate, which amplified the sensation of the victory. It's something I'll never forget.”

Joey Mawson

Photo by: Daniel Kalisz

With a Gold Star in his back pocket Mawson now has to consider his future. He may love open-wheeler racing, but knows that if he really is to stay in Australia there’s only one way to make a living pushing pedals – Supercars.

“I do enjoy single-seaters, that's where my heart is at,” he says. “But if you want to earn a proper wage and have a proper professional career in motorsport in Australia, Supercars is the way to go.”

Timing is on his side though. The radically-different Gen3 rules will surely act as a field-leveller for newcomers against the old guard of career Supercars racers.

“[The current car] is such a unique car, I've heard it’s not easy to just jump in one,” he adds. “Particularly when you're up against guys like Shane van Gisbergen who are so used to the car.

"It would be amazing to try and do the back-to-back and join people like Skaifey that have done that in the Gold Star" Joey Mawson

“Anyway, I'd love to drive one. The closest thing I’ve driven is a [Porsche Carrera] Cup car. I haven't had any offers yet…”

He’s also got a taste of Gold Star success and wants more next summer.

“At this stage Plan A is to return for a second season in S5000,” he says. “We’re interested in going again for Season 2 so in the next months we’ll be going into negotiations to make that all happen.

“It would be amazing to try and do the back-to-back and join people like Skaifey that have done that in the Gold Star.”

The one thing not on the cards right now – a return to Europe.

“At this stage of my career I'm happy to be staying in Australia,” he says.“I've really enjoyed racing back home and I'm really enjoying the lifestyle back here. I really don't have any interest in going back overseas, particularly while COVID is going on.”

Joey Mawson

Photo by: S5000