STEVE Hallam has fondly reflected on his time as General Manager of Tekno Autosports, with his time spent with Shane van Gisbergen among the best years of his storied racing career.

Following a remarkable stint in Formula 1 working with Team Lotus and McLaren and drivers such as Nigel Mansell, Ayrton Senna, Nelson Piquet, Gerhard Berger, Mika Hakkinen, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton, Hallam moved to America for a stint with Michael Waltrip Racing in NASCAR.

He subsequently transferred Down Under to lead Walkinshaw Racing/Holden Racing Team in 2012-13.

In linking with van Gisbergen, the Tekno squad proved to be a force to be reckoned with, winning seven championship races, three non-championship races, and placing second and fourth in consecutive championships as a single-car squad.  

“In ’14 and ’15 I was working with Shane, I was running the team, we had ten or 11 people, and it was two years of the best racing I have ever had,” said Hallam on the Dinner with Racers Podcast.

“We got on very well. He was at an early stage of his career, he was friggin fast, and we had a really neat, small team.

“After the three years of NASCAR and two years of Melbourne, it was really quite invigorating to get back to winning.

“I had complete control over it, back then, you could do a lot with three million Australian dollars.

“With the Tekno deal, it was a small team; they wanted to be led… letting people do what they were good at and really letting it flow.

“Shane was an awesome driver, he was exceptionally fast, and sure, there were times in Perth, for example, where we struggled, it was a very low grip track, we never went really well there.

“Every person on that team contributed in a really positive way.

“They were the best guys to go out with over a race weekend, and not that they were getting blind drunk, because we were not, but they were just good guys.

“People wanted to be there because they felt with the driver that we had, and the resources that we had, they felt that they mattered.”

Steve Hallam. Pic: an1images.com / Scott Wensley

Hallam has now returned to America to take up a position as the Principal Engineer Vehicle Support for Toyota Racing Developments, the Brit has been mentioned as a possible resource for the Toyota Supra Supercars project.

Hallam notes that his time spent Down Under has left an indelible mark.

“Supercars were great, I got involved with the V8 Supercars commission at the time, involved in setting rules and regulations,” said Hallam.

“Australian racing was back to basics; it was a lot of fun.

“The Gold Coast race, we used to have invitational drivers, you had to be from overseas… and I remember Darren (Turner) said to me, I worked with Darren at McLaren, he said ‘Oh my god, you feel scared in these cars!’

“I said, ‘Is that a problem?’ ‘No, no, it’s good!’

“To drive Bathurst, oh friggin hell, those cars with a spool diff – that’s why those guys are so good, when they go into a normal race car, they are excellent, because they’ve had to manhandle these things.

“You want to set them up like go karts in order to get them to rotate, you have to unload the inside wheel. They are spectacular cars.”