Darren Hossack (born 1 April 1970) is a multiple-championship winning

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

n race car driver.

Early career

A long time kart racing driver, working professionally in the industry for Drew Price Engineering, he stepped into circuit racing in 1992 in state level Formula Ford, and won the Victorian championship in his debut season, a first title for emerging Formula Ford constructor,

Spectrum A spectrum (: spectra or spectrums) is a set of related ideas, objects, or properties whose features overlap such that they blend to form a continuum. The word ''spectrum'' was first used scientifically in optics to describe the rainbow of co ...

. Without the funding to progress his career stalled at this point, taking him back to kart racing, picking up the Australian Reed Light Championship in 1994, and also into dirt-track Speedway, running Super Sedans.

Touring Cars

An opportunity opened in 1997 for Hossack, driving the Wynns backed Holden Commodore in the

1997 Australian Touring Car Championship The 1997 Australian Touring Car Championship was a CAMS sanctioned Australian motor racing title open to 5.0 Litre Touring Cars''Australian Title Conditions'', 1997 CAMS Manual of Motor Sport, pages 7–9 to 7–10 complying with Group 3A''Ra ...

, and impressed in the midfield, snatching several top ten results during the season. For the final round he moved into a

Gibson Motor Sport Gibson Motorsport was an Australian motor racing team that competed in the Australian Touring Car Championship from 1985 until 2003, though the team had its roots in Gibson's "Road & Track" team which ran a series of Ford Falcon GTHOs in Series ...

run Commodore, which continued into the endurance season where on his Bathurst debut, he and co-driver

Steven Ellery Steven Bruce Ellery (born 22 August 1974 in Melbourne) is a retired Australian racing driver known from V8 Supercars. Racing history Early career Ellery started racing in karts before graduation to Formula Ford in 1992. After running near the f ...

finished in sixth position, the highest placed finish for any rookie in the race. 1998 saw a full-time drive in the Gibson Motor Sport team along with Wynns backed teammate Darren Pate, and Ellery also as teammate in a Holden Young Lions liveried Commodore. Hampered by Yokohama tyres, which were no match for Bridgestone and Dunlop shod teams, it was not a happy season and Hossack was replaced after the

Barbagallo Raceway Wanneroo Raceway, currently known as CARCO.com.au Raceway for naming rights reasons, is a motorsport circuit located in Neerabup, approximately north of Perth in Western Australia. It was built by the WA Sporting Car Club. The circuit was ...

round by experienced veteran

Tomas Mezera Tomas Mezera (born 5 November 1958 in Czechoslovakia) is a naturalised Australian racing driver. Mezera won the 1988 Bathurst 1000, and for many years was a member of the Holden Racing Team as both a driver and team manager. Mezera's sporting ...

as the team struggled for pace. Hossack returned to the team for the endurance races and paired with Pate, took eighth place at the

Sandown 500 The Sandown 500 (commercially titled Penrite, Penrite Oil Sandown 500) is an annual endurance racing (motorsport), endurance Auto racing, motor race which is staged at the Sandown Raceway, near Melbourne, Victoria, Australia from 1964. The even ...

and seventh at Bathurst. While a full-time V8 Supercar drive did not return, Hossack was a valued endurance co-driver for the next several seasons, driving for Romano Racing in 1999 and returning to Gibson Motor Sport in 2000 with a highlight of ninth position for GMS with David 'Truckie' Parsons at Bathurst in 2000. After a few seasons away from V8 Supercars, Hossack returned in

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

, driving a third

Ford Performance Racing Tickford Racing (formerly known as Prodrive Racing Australia and Ford Performance Racing) is an Australian motor racing team which competes in the Supercars Championship. The team currently campaigns two Ford Mustangs, with their current driv ...

Falcon with

Adam Macrow Adam Macrow (born 23 November 1978, in Victoria) is a professional race car driver. In 1985, he started his motorsports career in karting. Over his time spent in karts, he won two national titles and ten Victorian titles. In 1995, he moved out o ...

Australian Champion

Hossack became involved in John Gourlay's Sports Sedan team, driving a Chevrolet V8 powered

Saab 900 The Saab 900 is a mid-sized automobile produced by Swedish manufacturer Saab from 1978 until 1998 in two generations: the first from 1978 to 1994, and the second from 1994 to 1998. The first-generation car was based on the Saab 99 chassis, ...

. He finished runner up to Tony Ricciardello in the 2002

Australian Sports Sedan Championship The National Sports Sedans Series, formerly the Australian Sports Sedan Championship, is a Motorsport Australia-sanctioned national motor racing title for drivers of cars complying with Australian Sports Sedan regulations. This class, essential ...

, and fourth in 2003 behind Kerry Baily, Dean Randle and Ricciardello, before claiming a hard-fought win in the 2004 Tranzam Sports Sedan Series. After placing third in the 2005 series the team scaled down their efforts over the next few years having come to the end of the Saab's racing career (it was sold during the 2006 season to Mark Nelson) and construction began on a new race car. Again Chevrolet V8 powered, the

Audi A4 The Audi A4 is a line of luxury compact executive cars produced from 1994 to 2025 by the German car manufacturer Audi, a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group. The A4 has been built in five generations and is based on the Volkswagen Group B platfor ...

made its debut in 2007, and quickly became a race winning car. In an epic finale to the 2008 season, with the pointscore tied heading into the final race Hossack beat 2007 series winner Ricciardello to win the race and the series by three points. The 2007 season saw Hossack begin racing

Superkart Superkart is a form of motorsport road racing that uses karts on long circuits. The bigger difference between a superkart and most other forms of kart is that they have full aerodynamic bodykits, as well as having a longer wheel base than sprint ...

s as well, racing the Anderson Maverick owned by Scott Ellis' Safe Evolutions team, which Ellis was using to prove his own engine design, the Safe Racing Engine, which was a modern re-interpretation of the 20-year-old Rotax 256 design. Promising results in the first season lead to his first race wins, first at state level in Victoria, then in front of a national field on the support program of the 2008 Eastern Creek round of the V8 Supercar Championship. Two race wins at the opening round of the Australian Superkart Championship also held at

Eastern Creek Raceway Sydney Motorsport Park (known until May 2012 as Eastern Creek International Raceway) is a motorsport circuit located on Brabham Drive, Eastern Creek (40-kilometres west of the Sydney CBD), New South Wales, Australia, adjacent to the Western ...

set up a points buffer which was whittled away as the final round at

Mallala Motor Sport Park Mallala Motor Sport Park is a bitumen motor racing circuit near the town of Mallala, South Australia, Mallala in South Australia, north of the state capital, Adelaide. Mallala Race Circuit (1961–1971) The Mallala Race Circuit, as it was ...

progressed. With a slender points lead to protect, and title rivals Sam Zavaglia and Gary Pegoraro winning races almost lost the title. After almost stalling on the final race, Hossack raced back through the field, overtaking 25 karts over the eight lap finale to climb into third place on the final lap. With Zavaglia finishing second, it gave the title to Hossack by just three points. Hossack lost both titles in 2009, his rivalry with

Tony Ricciardello Tony Ricciardello (born 19 March 1979) is a multiple-championship winning Australian race car driver. Son of Sports Sedan racer and team owner Basil Ricciardello, Tony was brought up into the Western Australian racing scene. He eventually repl ...

saw category veteran Des Wall win the Sports Sedan series with a consistent run, and Sam Zavaglia took the Superkart title with a career best season. Hossack was third in Sports Sedans and second in Superkarts. 2010 saw a return to the title claiming his second Australian Championship in Superkarts after win in the final race of the series broke a tie with Warren McIlveen whose previously points leading Superkart limped to the line in third position.

Career results

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hossack, Darren 1970 births Australian racing drivers Living people Supercars Championship drivers Australian Touring Car Championship drivers