For someone who spends his time driving fast, Kade Davey takes things one step at a time. Yes, his goal is to go as fast as possible, but it is also about going as far as possible and that will take time, patience and work.
The journey has already taken him a long way. A “proud Martu Manjiljarra man from Western Australia”—as he introduces himself—17-year-old Davey lives on Queensland’s Gold Coast after his family moved across the country to follow his motor-
racing dreams.
His talent was identified early. After a “come and try” day at his local go-kart club when he was only eight years old, Kade says he was hooked on racing. He bought his first kart on Facebook Marketplace and begun racing at his local club, eventually getting sponsored to compete at the state level and then the Australian Karting Championships in 2022 and 2023.
It was in 2023 that he came across the Racing Together program, an Indigenous racing team based in Queensland. “The idea behind Racing Together is to give Indigenous young people an opportunity in motorsport,” Davey explains. “So whether that’s driving or being a mechanic or engineer, there’s a lot of opportunities in motorsport, but Gary and Monique Connolly, who founded that program, recognised that there was very little involvement from the Indigenous population.”
On hearing of this program, Davey sent an email—co-written with his mum—introducing himself and sharing his dream of where he would like to go with racing. He was invited to do a test day with the Racing Together crew, then attended a couple of race meetings with the team. “And I went pretty good at that,” Davey says, perhaps with some understatement.
By Christmas 2023, Davey had been offered a place on the team and his family was considering moving from Perth to “the East”.
“For myself and for my family, it was an opportunity that probably was not going to come around again, so we snatched it up while it was there,” Kade recalls. His family lived in a caravan park in Ipswich for the first few months in Queensland as Davey began Year 10 and also began working weekends with the Racing Together team, based at the Norwell Motorplex on the Gold Coast.
Before long, he began a mechanical apprenticeship with the team. “It was more to learn more about the cars, considering as I’m racing them,” he explains. “It’s one thing driving it, but it’s another thing knowing what you’re driving as well—and I enjoy doing that hands-on stuff anyway, working on cars and race cars.”
In 2024, Davey was racing in the Hyundai Excel series, mostly based in Queensland but with one race meeting in Darwin. Last year, he stepped up to the Toyota Gazoo Racing (TGR) 86 Scholarship Series, but after a couple of podium finishes—finishing in the top three—he was elevated to also racing in the TGR 86 Cup Series. With eight podium finishes, he was third in the Scholarship Series and sixth in the TGR Cup Series last year, despite crashing at the Gold Coast 500 and missing the final race of the season.
“It was a little bit of a setback for sure,” he reflects. “I didn’t make the last round last year, but I think in every sport, not just motorsport, you have those setbacks and how you overcome them and move on is what makes you better.”
His achievement, attitude and effort were recognised at the end of last season with the TGR Kaizen Award, which emphasises striving for excellence and continuing improvement. Sponsor Toyota Australia’s Sean Hanley described Davey as “an impressive young man” with great potential, but that the award “also reflects how you conduct yourself and treat others, especially when things don’t go as planned and how you respond to adversity”.
Davey was the first Indigenous driver to receive this award and is already creating more firsts in his young career.
“I have a passion for racing and I also have a passion for my culture, so being able to represent my culture is a big part of who I am,” he says. “There’s not a lot of Indigenous involvement in motorsport, and I want to be a person who changes that. I wouldn’t say I’m looking to inspire people, but I hope to be someone who is potentially achieving things that might open avenues to other people.”
Davey says that many people in the Indigenous population enjoy watching motor sport and that for them to be represented in this way “is pretty cool”. He was featured as part of SBS’s Dreaming Big documentary series profiling young and aspiring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders sportspeople last year.
For Kade, the foundation is his family. “I love spending time with my family,” he says. “I love getting over to Perth and try to get up to Wiluna whenever I can, which is where my mum’s from. I know how important it is to connect with family and learn culture, then I try to represent that in what I do.”
Back at the racetrack, Davey is determined to establish himself primarily as a driver. “If I can put in the work, I can show that I deserve to be there.”
As he learns the sport of motor racing, Davey has come to appreciate the importance of consistency. “When I started racing in Excels, I had good pace, but we really struggled to put a race weekend together, so it’s more about being consistent,” he explains. “You know, you can win a championship by consistently finishing inside the top five and not getting a podium.
“Sometimes you might be racing in fourth and you might be able to get that third spot, but sometimes it’s just recognising that this is where I am, and this is better than making a pass, crashing and not finishing at all. To be honest, that generally just comes with more racing. The more you race, the more you understand what happens.”
Davey admits that motor racing is different to some sports, but that mental aspects of high performance are equally important. “It’s very mentally challenging, and it’s easy to get down by some results,” he reflects. “As long as you keep moving forward, you know, always looking for something to make you better. For me, it’s about being humble and recognising that obviously there’s always something to learn.”
The importance of family comes up again. Davey is grateful for the sacrifice his family has made in moving across the country, but admits that his dad is an anxious spectator when Davey is racing. On the other hand, he says, “Mum just loves to take it all in, and there have been some pretty cool times that we’ve been able to share together.”
Still a few more steps up the motor-racing ladder, his goal is to drive in the Australian Supercars Championship but Kade acknowledges that this is likely some years away and that “there are only 25 spots on the [starting] grid.
“There are a lot of people trying to get there,” he says, “and I’m just one of those many people, but hopefully, if you work harder than everyone else, it might be a career one day.
“It’s easy to get caught up in what could be next and sometimes you get sidetracked,” says Davey. “I’m really focusing on what I’m doing at the moment and trying to make sure I do that well.”
