{"id":478504,"date":"2026-02-14T01:37:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T01:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/478504\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T01:37:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T01:37:12","slug":"dream-garage-garnet-patterson-mclaren-driver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/478504\/","title":{"rendered":"Dream Garage: Garnet Patterson, McLaren driver"},"content":{"rendered":"

Think of an Australian having a successful racing career with McLaren on the global stage and the chances are one name will pop into your head immediately. But Oscar Piastri isn\u2019t the British brand\u2019s only Aussie ace making a name for himself around the world.<\/p>\n

Garnet Patterson has flown under the radar of most racing fans, but not McLaren Racing boss Zak Brown. He\u2019s hired the South Australian-based Patterson to race for his United Autosports team in a variety of cars and categories around the world.<\/p>\n

This weekend he\u2019s competing in the Bathurst 12-hour with Optimum Motorsport, sharing a McLaren 720S GT3 with factory drivers, Briton Ben Barnicoat and German Marvin Kirchh\u00f6fer.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a forerunner to his full-season campaign with United Autosports in the European Le Mans Series, where he\u2019ll return for a second season with Michael Birch and Wayne Boyd. The trio only narrowly missed out on a win at the final race of the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should be strong, we\u2019re trying hard to have a good year,\u201d Patterson tells Torquecafe. \u201cOur goal is to pick up where we finished and have a crack at the championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Garnet Patterson racing United Autosport\u2019s McLaren 720S GT3<\/p>\n

Patterson has a long history with United Autosport racing in both LMP2 and LMP3 cars with the team in the Asian Le Mans Series and the IMSA Sportscar Championship in the US.<\/p>\n

While not part of McLaren\u2019s factory GT driver roster, Patterson is nonetheless well-placed for the next potential step in his career \u2013 the Le Mans Hypercar category.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal has always been to get in a hypercar, so I\u2019ll always push to drive one at some point,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Given McLaren is set to enter the Le Mans Hypercar class in 2027 in the World Endurance Championship program and an IMSA program is confirmed for no later than 2028, a good performance from Patterson this weekend at Bathurst and in the season ahead won\u2019t hurt his chances of getting a shot at the outright class.<\/p>\n

Which would create the very unusual (but very cool) scenario of an Australian star in both McLaren\u2019s F1 and Hypercar teams.<\/p>\n

But for now, that remains a dream\u2026 and speaking of that, what would this rising racing ace have in his Dream Garage?<\/p>\n

Daily driver: Audi RS6 Avant<\/p>\n

\"\"Audi RS6 Avant<\/p>\n

Patterson was torn between two German rockets \u2013 the Porsche 911 Turbo S and Audi\u2019s iconic wagon. In the end the added practicality of the Audi wins the battle.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I had to have an everyday dream car, that would be it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The unmatched combination of performance and practicality makes it the ideal choice for someone who enjoys speed but needs to train hard for his profession, so needs space for push bikes and other equipment.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can put your bike in it, it\u2019s comfortable to drive every day and unless you\u2019re into cars you don\u2019t really know what it is,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

Something special: McLaren F1<\/p>\n

\"\"McLaren F1<\/p>\n

One of the perks of his job are regular visits to the McLaren Technical Centre (MTC), headquarters for the British brand\u2019s racing operations. And one of the cars that features on the famed \u2018boulevard\u2019 of iconic McLarens is the F1 road car.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not just any McLaren F1, it\u2019s actually the original press car, the same silver machine featured in much of the brand\u2019s press materials and contemporary reviews when it launched in 1992.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time I go to the MTC I see and I think \u2018geez, I want to drive that,\u2019\u201d Patterson admits.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat thing is so revolutionary it remains so modern. It\u2019s as old as me but it hasn\u2019t dated at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

The V12-powered, three-seat supercar is one of the most in-demand cars of that era, as only 106 examples were ever built, so Patterson is keen to experience its now-legendary driving performance, saying: \u201cIt would be ace to drive and be cool to experience the central driving position.\u201d<\/p>\n

Track toy: 2014 Audi R18 e-tron quattro<\/p>\n

\"\"2014 Audi R18 e-tron quattro<\/p>\n

What else would an aspiring prototype sports car driver choose but one of the fastest, most technologically advanced prototype sports cars of all-time. While the current LMH\/LMDh rules have attracted plenty of manufacturers with the cost-capped regulations, the final iteration of the LMP1 era produced some special machines.<\/p>\n

None more impressive than the turbo diesel hybrid powered Audi R18 e-tron quattro.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnything normal is just boring, so if I could I\u2019d pick an LMP1,\u201d Patterson explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to drive one. I grew up watching guys like Allan McNish racing them, and a few of my teammates have driven them and said how great they are.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d love to drive one, just because it\u2019s close to what I do and because we\u2019ll never get back there because they were so expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Think of an Australian having a successful racing career with McLaren on the global stage and the chances…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-478504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}