Nathan Pretty (born 7 July 1973) is an

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

racecar driver.

Career

He first rose to prominence racing AUSCAR Superspeedway sedans (a

Holden Commodore The Holden Commodore is a series of automobiles that were sold by now-defunct Australian manufacturer Holden from 1978 until 2020. They were manufactured from 1978 to 2017 in Australia and from 1979 to 1990 in New Zealand, with production of ...

), becoming rookie of the year in his initial season in 1994. His family based race team built a V8 Supercar Commodore in 1998 racing with his sister Nicole at the

1998 FAI 1000 The 1998 FAI 1000 Classic was the second running of the Australia 1000 race, first held after the organisational split over the Bathurst 1000 the previous year. It was the 41st race that traces its lineage back to the 1960 Armstrong 500 hel ...

. After racing as a privateer Pretty increasing gained more prestigious drives with other V8 Supercar teams and was a favourite of the factory supported teams,

Holden Racing Team Walkinshaw Andretti United is an Australian motor racing team based in the Melbourne suburb of Clayton. The team, initially branded as the Holden Racing Team, used to field Holden Commodores in the Supercars Championship before making the swit ...

and K-mart Racing Team. Pretty was part of the

Garry Rogers Motorsport Garry Rogers Motorsport is an Australian motor racing team. It is owned by retired racing driver Garry Rogers who began the team to further his own racing efforts. Based in Melbourne, originally out of a Nissan dealership owned by Rogers, the t ...

team that won the 2002 Bathurst 24 Hour driving alongside regular GRM driver

Garth Tander Garth Dirk Tander (born 31 March 1977) is a multiple-championship winning Australian motor racing driver competing in the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship's Enduro Cup, co-driving for Grove Racing. He was the 2007 series champion for th ...

Steven Richards Steven James Richards (born 11 July 1972) is a New Zealand-Australian racing driver, currently competing in the Porsche Carrera Cup Australia Championship. Richards, the son of seven-time Bathurst 1000 winner Jim Richards (race driver), Jim Ri ...

and

Cameron McConville Cameron Eric "Conkers" McConville (born 22 January 1974) is an Australian racing driver and motorsport celebrity. While retired from full-time competition, McConville still races occasionally and is an in-demand endurance event co-driver. McConv ...

driving the controversial #427, 7.0 litre Holden Monaro 427C. Out of that win Pretty gained a full-time drive in 2003 in the 24 Hour winning Monaro in the Australian Nations Cup Championship. Pretty finished 3rd in the 2003 Australian Nations Cup Championship which included round wins at

Symmons Plains Raceway Symmons Plains Raceway is a motor racing circuit in Australia, located about south of Launceston, Tasmania. Since the closure of the Longford Circuit in the 1960s it has been Tasmania's premier motor racing facility. The circuit is one of th ...

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

and a surprise win at the tight

Winton Motor Raceway Winton Motor Raceway is a motor racing track in Winton, near Benalla, Victoria, Australia. History The Benalla Auto Club began planning for a permanent racing track around 1958, as a replacement for their existing track at Barjarg. In 1960 i ...

in rural

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

.2003 Australian Nations Cup Championship - Outright Points, www.procar.com.au via web.archive.org
Retrieved on 19 September 2010 In the 2003 championship he was joined as a teammate by legendary racer

Peter Brock Peter Geoffrey Brock (26 February 1945 – 8 September 2006), known as "Peter Perfect", "The King of the Mountain", or simply "Brocky", was an Australian motor racing driver. Brock was most often associated with Holden for almost 40 years, al ...

who was making a full-time comeback to racing after having initially retired at the end of 1997. Following the championship, Pretty and his 2002 co-drivers went on to finish 2nd in the 2003 Bathurst 24 Hour race, finishing less than a second behind their teammates Brock, Greg Murphy,

Jason Bright Jason Paul Bright (born 7 March 1973) is a retired Australian racing driver who competed in the Supercars Championship, Virgin Australia Supercars Championship. He drove the No. 56 Ford Falcon (FG X), Ford FG X Falcon for Britek Motorsport, a ...

and

Todd Kelly Todd Evan Kelly (born 9 October 1979) is a retired Australian professional racing driver who competed in the Supercars Championship, Virgin Australia Supercars Championship. He is the older brother of fellow Supercars driver and former Bathurst ...

in the second team Monaro.Mount Panorama - Bathurst 23/11/2003 Bathurst 24hr 2003
National Software retrieved on 4 April 2008 Brock formed his own team to run Monaro's for himself and his son James in the 2004 Australian Nations Cup Championship while Pretty remained with Garry Rogers, running the original Bathurst 24 Hour Monaro. Pretty would finish the 2004 championship as runner up to the V12 Lamborghini Diablo GTR of defending series champion

Paul Stokell Paul Francis Stokell (born 8 March 1968 in Tasmania) is an Australian racing driver. Highly decorated in every category he has competed, Stokell has been a race and multiple championship winning driver in open wheel, sportscar racing and tarmac ...

. Along the way Pretty would set the class lap record at the

Sandown Raceway Sandown International Raceway is a motor racing circuit in the suburb of Springvale in Melbourne, Victoria, approximately south east of the city centre. Sandown is considered a power circuit with its " drag strip" front and back straights b ...

. This would be the final year of the Nations Cup Championship as series owner Ross Palmer would be forced to close

Procar Australia Procar Australia was a motorsport category management company which operated in Australia from 1994 to 2004. Procar was founded in 1994 by Ross Palmer,

. This also forced the cancellation of the Bathurst 24 Hour race.Drivers Points For Season 2004, www.procar.com.au, as archived at web.archive.org
/ref> After spending 2005 largely on the sidelines, Pretty raced for Robert Smith's team in the 2006 Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series. Kelly spent three years at

Perkins Engineering Perkins Engineering was a team contesting the Australian V8 Supercar Championship Series, operating as an active racing team between 1986 and 2008. From 2009 onwards, the involvement of Perkins Engineering in the championship was wound back i ...

racing at Bathurst and racing the teams Commodore station wagon at the

Bathurst 12 Hour The Bathurst 12 Hour, currently known as the Meguiar's Bathurst 12 Hour for sponsorship reasons, is an annual endurance race for Group GT3, GT and Production car racing, production cars held at the Mount Panorama Circuit, in Bathurst, New South ...

. Pretty returned to full-time racing in 2011 in the V8 Utes series where he has been instantly competitive. In 2015, he raced in the

Stadium Super Trucks The Stadium Super Trucks (SST), formerly known as Speed Energy Formula Off-Road, also known as the Boost Mobile Super Trucks in Australia, is an American short course off-road racing series created by off-road racer and former IndyCar and NASCAR d ...

at the

Adelaide 500 The Adelaide 500, officially the BP Adelaide Grand Final, is an annual motor racing event for Supercars held on the streets of the east end of Adelaide, South Australia between 1999 and 2020 and again from 2022. The event uses a shortened form ...

. Pretty occasionally goes by the non-de-plume of Randy Corners where he parodies motor racing culture and racing drivers.

Career results

Results sourced from Driver Database.Nathan Pretty - Driver Database
/ref>

Bathurst 1000

Bathurst 24 Hour

Stadium Super Trucks

( key) (Bold – Pole position. Italics – Fastest qualifier. * – Most laps led.)

References

External links

Monster Energy bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pretty, Nathan 1973 births Supercars Championship drivers Stadium Super Trucks drivers Living people Sportspeople from Albury Racing drivers from New South Wales Kelly Racing drivers Garry Rogers Motorsport drivers V8 Utes drivers