Pit Crew Profile: BJR 14

There have been plenty of firsts for the crew on Lockwood Racing #14, with driver Fabian Coulthard having achieved his first Championship ARMOR ALL Pole Position and win. In fact, it’s been more than just a win, with the kiwi achieving six wins, including the non-Championship Australian Grand Prix event – meet the crew behind one of the season’s success stories.

Phil Keed, engineer 

Keed has been involved in V8 Supercars for around 10 years, with stints at Walkinshaw Racing and Ford Performance Racing before becoming part of the Albury-based Brad Jones Racing team.

“I really enjoy the challenge at the track particularly, being part of the engineering group and hopefully contributing to some of the ‘R and D’ work of the things we do,” the 40-year old said.

Having grown up in Sydney, Keed’s path into motorsport started with rallying.

“I ran my own car for a while and moved up through – I spent about four years in England in the World Rally Championship with Subaru … back in the rally days we won the Monte Carlo rally with Tommi Makinen and that was really exciting.”

Speaking highly of Coulthard’s ability to race and qualify, Keed is glad to work with a promising driver, who he believes is continuing to develop.

Nickname: “Keedy. Phyllis…Others I don’t want to reveal.” Sweet Chilly Philly was thrown into the conversation.

Paul Scalzo, data engineer

Having grown up in Wangaratta, just down the road from Winton Motor Raceway, Scalzo grew up interested in motorsport, having also started with rallying at a club level alongside his brother.

While studying at RMIT University in Melbourne, he got involved with Formula SAE – his entry into motorsport. He followed with a role at Paul Morris Motorsport in Queensland before returning home and starting with BJR two years ago.

Scalzo’s role also entails design work, which he enjoys, and at the track extracts information from the car to support Keed’s decision making.

“I enjoy the technical aspects of it, you can get stuck into some really in-depth stuff,” the 27-year old said.

“For the long distance races I really enjoy working on the strategy. There are lots of ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ and unknowns, and I like the challenge that presents.”

He’s confident Coulthard and Luke Youlden will make a strong pairing for this season’s PIRTEK Enduro Cup. 

Nickname: “Scalzo. I think more people know me by that than my real name!”

Sam Cosgrove, number one mechanic

Having grown up in New Zealand, it’s no surprise one of Cosgrove’s career highlights was a second placing with Jason Richards and Greg Murphy in 2008. But, he added, Coulthard’s first Championship win earlier this season was special.

This year’s trip home to New Zealand was a good one too, with the team having earned the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy.

After completing his motor trade apprenticeship, Cosgrove dabbled in speedway and rallying before getting the opportunity to work with Tasman Motorsport.

He worked on Richards’ car in 2008, Jason Bargwanna’s in 2009 but when the team shut down headed to Albury to become part of BJR, running Karl Reindler’s car in ’10 and ’11. “Since then I’ve been with Fabian,” he said.

“I enjoy the racing a lot, the competitiveness and the stuff with the team – we’re so close and everyone takes the mickey out of everyone else.”

Nickname: “Swanny. There was a vicious rumour going around, I like to swan around and do nothing. It’s just a vicious rumour.”

Adam Fisher, number two mechanic

Also from New Zealand, having grown up on Waihi Beach, Fisher moved to Auckland and became a mechanic for Porsche team Triple X Motorsport, where he stayed for around six years. Fisher got the role on the Porsche through word of mouth.

“I was over in Aussie running the Porsche in Townsville and ran into (team manager) Chris Clark,” Fisher explained. “He almost gave me a job on the spot! That was good.

“A couple of weeks later I moved to Albury and I’ve been (with) this team for two years now.”

The 29-year old’s career highlight was when Coulthard joined the team, though the 2013 season has been his best.

Nickname: “Barry … in New Zealand motorsport everyone’s called Barry.”

Paul Eddy, tyre technician

Eddy fell into motorsport – it wasn’t a role he had been looking for – but six years with the team speaks for itself. 

“I heard about the job, so rang up,” he said. “I watched it (V8 Supercars) on telly, that’s about it, but had been to Bathurst a couple of times.”

Eddy has lived in Albury most of his life, but enjoys the chance to “go away” with the team. “It’s a good lot of people, especially in our team… this year we seem to being going alright.

“We’ve had a couple of good race wins, there’s definitely been some good times – doing a good pit stop, when you’re involved in that too.”

Nickname: “Everyone calls me Pauly.”