COREY McCullagh wants to add a second Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic title to his resume and knows he needs his dad Bryan by his side to accomplish it.
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The Warrnambool driver told The Main Break podcast how his dad helped shaped his racing career, starting with their regular visits to a go-kart track during Corey's childhood.
"I was a bit of a rev-head when I was younger. I used to ride his peewee 50 around; he used to own a panel shop," he said.
"Dad thought I was going to break some bones on the motorbike so he took me out to the kart track and I drove a go-kart.
Listen to this week's The Main Break podcast with Corey McCullagh:
"I didn't actually really like it to start with but a couple of years later we got our first go-kart, pretty sure it was purple, and we lived at the kart track.
"We'd get there at nine o'clock in the morning, get home at nine o'clock at night. We would have breakfast, lunch and tea there."
Corey remembers Bryan dishing out advice.
"He used to stand there at every corner and tell me 'nah, you're not doing it right, this is what you need to do'," he said tongue-in-cheek.
"I used to get so frustrated, here's a guy who has never raced go-karts or motorsport in his life, all he'd done was a bit of drag racing.
"But I guess I am starting to turn out like him, he was a bit of a sponge and he knew what the good guys were doing."
Corey said the pair worked together to get him a start in the expensive world of sprintcars.
"He's a good man, he hasn't had much in his life and we just love motorsport, we still do now," he said.
"We spend most days in the shed together and it's something I will always treasure."
One of his competitors is having an impact on his career now.
Corey said fellow Warrnambool driver James McFadden had been a valuable sounding board.
"I am a bit of a sponge, I listen to a fair few people and lately I've been learning off James the last two or three months," he said.
"He rebuilds my motors so I have been picking his brain about a few things that I have thought about and figured out. Without guys like him letting me know his knowledge from his American trips...I definitely wouldn't be where I am."
Corey, a self-confessed "perfectionist", said he'd used the off-season to prepare the 2020-21 Australian fixture.
He is unsure if coronavirus restrictions will delay the season but will be ready to race after his team "ironed out issues and found out why we struggled" last year.
"Whenever we go back racing essentially we're 10 steps ahead of where we were last season," Corey said.
Corey also spoke of a "traumatic time" when he suffered third-degree burns racing a formula 500 in Horsham, being around "like-minded people" at the speedway track and his desire to win a second classic and "really soak it in".