Michael has always had a love of cars and the fascination of pulling them apart and putting them back together again. He purchased his first car, a Ford Anglia at age 11 and at boarding school in Somerset he started a Motor Club on the school grounds where he and his fellow school mates tinkered with cars. This would be become a lifelong hobby. After starting an electrical engineering apprenticeship, he later moved into the British Army stationed at Woolwich as a Gunner.
In 1972 Michael started travelling through Europe, Israel & Africa spending several years in Cape Town, working in hotel management and riding and competing on his Bultaco and Ossa off-road motorbikes. He arrived in Australia in the late 1970’s and retrained as a computer programmer working at Westpac. IT has been his career and life ever since, culminating in establishing his own business in 1986, that he still runs today.
Michael met Kay in 1980 when they started working together and in the following year, he began a love affair with MG’s, in particular Kay’s MGB. He has been an active and enthusiastic competitor and Club official in the MG Car Club Victoria and the wider motorsport community ever since. He has successfully raced the MGB in the MGCC Victorian Road Racing Championship, which he won in 2000. Apart from this win his highlights in racing have been competing at the Bathurst Festival of Speed in 2010 with both his sons (Sean and Brett) and then racing against Sean in 2019 at Sydney Motorsport Park.
Michael has been involved in organising and running the driver education days that the Club has run over many years. Michael has been awarded the Clubman award in 1990, Black Spinner in 2003, the Peter Lee Memorial Racing Clubman Award in 2005, and Life Membership in 2012. Michael was President of the MG Car Club Victoria in 2010 and 2011. Michael has had the role of Assistant Clerk of Course at the Victorian State Racing Series and the Sandown Historic race meeting for over a decade and is currently the Clerk of Course for the Phillip Island Classic Historic race meeting.
In 2011 Michael was awarded a CAMS Service award for working as a pit lane official at the Australian Gran Prix since 1994, assistant Clerk of Course at the Sandown race meetings, serving on the CAMS Victorian State executive and his various MGCC Victoria official’s roles. In 2016 Michael was awarded the CAMS Victorian Official of the Year.
Michael brings his life, management and business skills to the Foundation as a trustee.