DRIVER:
Ricky McGough: Team Owner and Driver -
Has been racing since he was 12 years old in a variety of
motorsports such as dirt track, rally sprints, drag racing and
speedway. He has an impressive haul of race and championship
trophies that fill an entire room at the race workshop
At age 7 Ricky McGough started riding motorbikes before
progressing to the farm tractor and his father's workshop push
vehicle. At age 12 he started co-driving for his father
Stuart in rally sprints and dirt track events. By age 13 he
hit the big time, dirt track at Meremere and Waikaraka Park as well
as rally sprints in the Maiora forest with the Waiuku Dirt Track
Club. At just 15 he won the junior class and repeated the
feat the following year also winning the junior driver of the year
award and finished 3rd outright in the club on points.
At age 17 he moved up to the 1600cc class and once again won the
season points He also competed in many car club events including
rally sprints, motorkanas and circuit events. In his spare time he
competed in the Drag war's series at Meremere Drag Strip where he
finished 6th out of 122 competitors in the DYO class.
At age 18 he moved up to the open 4 cylinder class but still used
the same 1600cc Honda. Once again he took out the season
trophy beating the high horsepower, High tech race cars. In
the later part of the year he bought an F2 Speedway midget and
spent the tail end of the speedway season doing some testing but
otherwise crewing for his father who raced an F2 midget at Western
Springs and finished 2nd in the class for their first speedway
season (The only team to gain podium finishes in every Feature race
they started). For the 2009/10 season Stuart stepped down and
Ricky took over as number one driver under the team banner of Ricky
McGough Racing.
In his first season running out of Huntly speedway he had his
share of ups and downs including two spectacular crashes both in
front of the cameras. Hard on the ego but great for publicity.
Ricky McGough hit the news in many speedway magazines and web sites
complete with photos and commentary. High lights for the season
were some great placing's including First placing's at western
springs, Ferndene and in a heat race at the NZ Nationals at
Stratford. Then to top it off he gained third place overall in the
Huntly Speedway season points. Not bad for his first speedway
season competing against top "A grade" midgets with twice the
horsepower of his car. Even got coverage on TV a couple of
times. The next season the team upgraded the horsepower in
the midget by fitting a factory built Gaerte A grade race engine
with around 370hp. That meant that this season would be spent
running with the big boys! The season didn't quite go to plan
when the older running gear started breaking and needed
replacement, which meant that the car spent more time on the
infield then on the track. In saying that the team still made
every race meeting and learnt a lot about chassis setup and car
maintenance. And the team also managed to impress all new
sponsors to come on board with a brand new car for the next race
season! With a brand new car rolling out of the factory and
some new sponsors on board the team started the race season very
successfully. This was a learning year with all emphasis on
learning as much as possible about the new midget to make an
all-out assault for the next season. An all new package meant
a whole lot of new learning for everyone involved, and although
this was a big learning year the team was still running with the
very best. Rebuilt and ready for the following season the
team was still learning about the whole package, but still received
very good results including 4NZ at the CTRA New Zealand
Champs. Towards the end of the season the package was really
coming together and the team very rapidly started performing better
and better. After two learning years the Ricky McGough Racing
team is now a professional race winning team within midget racing,
with a very strong package. The next season the team raced in
Australia as well as New Zealand in the international POWRi series,
and although running the lesser spare engine, still managed some
good results. The results were good enough for Ricky to be
offered a drive in an Australian team for the following year, the
only New Zealander to be offered an Australian drive.