Dunlop Young Guns – Richard Muscat

Twenty-four-year-old talent Richard Muscat has made his debut in the Supercars Dunlop Series this year, proving he is not afraid to fight at the front.

The Dunlop Series rookie has joined Garry Rogers Motorsport with James Golding, sitting behind the wheel of a NewGen Holden Commodore VF on-track. 2016 marks the first year GRM has run a two car team in the second tier development category.

Muscat sits 10th in the Dunlop Series points standings in the lead up to the weekend's Coates Hire Sydney 500 finale. The top placed rookie is just 178 points behind fifth placed teammate Golding.

The Melbourne native is no stranger to racing, having demonstrated he is adaptable across a range of motorsport categories.

“Since I’ve been in cars I’ve only done one year in each category. I’ve come from Porsche, then went to Australian GT, Mercedes and here we are now in the V8 Supercars,” Muscat told Supercars.com.

2012 saw Muscat step out of karts and become the first rookie to ever win the Porsche 944 Challenge Series title. The accomplished racer continued on strong, taking the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge title in 2013, before claiming his third series title in 2014 in the Australian GT Championship.

Muscat joined the Porsche International Cup Scholarship before making the transition to a Supercar at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide, qualifying tenth and finishing race one fifth on debut.

After a promising start on debut in Adelaide, he has since demonstrated he is not intimidated to mix it with the top contenders on-track, taking his first podium finish at the Wilson Security Sandown 500.

“When you are racing at the front it’s pretty cool; racing with Andy Jones, Paul Dumbrell and guys like that who have a lot of experience in these cars,” Muscat said.

“If the pass is there I would definitely take it and if there is a gap, I’ll go for it no doubt about that.

“I’m never going to back down, I’ve done this for too long and I’m not a rookie as such, I’m a rookie in these cars but not in racing."

Muscat emphasised that his podium finish in Sandown showed good progress from the beginning of the year and was a big “boost” coming in to the back half of the season.

“Hopefully we can carry this into the rest of the year, to Sydney and I hope to start next year up the front."

The Dunlop Young Guns segment profiles up-and-coming Supercars racers – stay tuned to Inside Supercars on Tuesday at 7.30pm AEST on FOX SPORTS 506 for more.