Gary DeSouza

Gary DeSouza (born February 8,1990) is an Australian racing driver who most recently raced for Whiper-Ildest Racing in the ARLA Elite Series.

Early career
DeSouza's father, Michael, was a race car driver in the prestigious Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC). He was possibly the best known driver on the grid. When DeSouza was just thirteen, he helped out with his father in the pit stall, often acting as the solitary tire changer. Gary actually managed to set the record for the fastest four-tire change, clocking in at 12 seconds flat. By the time DeSouza was 16, Michael felt that he should get a ride, so he entered him into the ATCC in 2006.

DeSouza really impressed in his first season, becoming the youngest winner of the ATCC with four wins and seven podiums. His only DNF, however, was a big one: at the very last race of the season in Mount Panorama, DeSouza was leading with five laps to go. Going down Mountain Straight, he was about to lap his father, who had dropped a cylinder. Unfortunately, a tire blew just as he went over the little jump near the end, causing him to hit Michael at the back at full speed and rammed into the outside wall. His father only suffered a few cuts and bruises, but DeSouza had his left leg broken in two places. This meant he would have had to sit out the first three races of the 2007 season. When he came back into competition, he seemed well off the pace, but at the finale, again at Mount Panorama, he found his speed. He came back from a blown valve in qualifying to win on the final lap with a pass around the outside of the same turn he crashed off a year ago. Better was to come in 2008 as he stormed off to take the title at only the midpoint of the season. It was at this season when he was scouted by Jerry Motta, owner of Team Whiper, to come to the United States and race.

CRL
Motta decided to enter the 19-year old into the inaugural season of the CRL Modified division series. To say he did average was a bit of an understatement. Terrible runs with the only bright spot being Darlington meant that his first season was over before he shined.

VSCC
When DeSouza entered the VSCC,his performance was about the same as in the CRL, except a whole lot worse. Failing to qualify for several races and a massive crash meant he would not be joining the series again. But DeSouza had other plans...

2010
DeSouza was interested at the ARLA Elite Series to progress his career. So he decided to enter a one-off for the 2010 120 Laps of Dwyer and managed to go past both pre-qualifying and qualifying races to move on into the main event. Over there, he impressed, staying out of the attrition and increasing pace throughout the race, only to just miss the top 10 by finishing 11th.

Eventually, he got his big break when Des Inman in the 149 for Ildest Racing voluntarily stepped out of the car after showing very poor performances in the car. He recommended that DeSouza should take over him for the Round of Mosport and beyond. Ildest put him in the car for Mosport and DeSouza impressed, placing second after qualifying second. The rest of the season saw him in bad luck, as a DNF while riding near the front at Appleton and another DNF in the Rockford Q-Race when he looked set to go into the A-Main. Still,Ildest signed him up when he decided to merge with DeSouza's former employer, Jerry Motta.

2011
2011 started off for DeSouza quite nicely, running towards the front in the early stages of the 2011 Fort Worth 500, however, a pit stop mix-up under caution put him a lap down. His next great run would come at Las Vegas, where he was involved with a tense battle with the lead with Leslie Riggs. When the caution flew with a few laps to go, Riggs beat out DeSouza to the caution by a matter of milliseconds.

At the 2011 Xenos Alberta Duels, he would run near the front, but dropped out of the top 10 by the end. He spent the next two races as backmarkers before powering through the attrition at the 2011 Verdugo 250 to finish 3rd.

The next few races passed by for DeSouza without much trouble, but then DeSouza got involved in a fair bit of controversy in the 2011 150 Laps of Dwyer. Early in the race, DeSouza got caught up in the lap one mess in the esses. He then shot out onto the track, almost collecting Todd Wodarczyk. He then got caught up in an incident which took race leaders Ebenezer Quiggles, Jr. and Tom Delgado out of contention. Finally,in the very closing laps of the race, with DeSouza five laps down, the battle between Allie Riggs and Dale Underwood was closing up fast on him. Going into Goliath, DeSouza decided to take the high line into the turn,but instead made contact with Henry Santos and almost came back down on Riggs. Later he got caught up in the battle in turns 6, 7 and 8, when Allie Riggs had to go around the outside to pass DeSouza. He ended up finishing 27th, 6 laps down. These controversies resulted in a 25 point reduction from the championship.

A massive crash at the 2011 Waltham 250 luckily left him uninjured. Another DNF in Watkins Glen despite running in the top 10 meant that DeSouza needed a good run quickly.