At the age of 12 years old, Hamish Fitzsimmons is considered a late starter to motorsport when compared to his peers and competitors. From a humble beginning of Hamish racing karts at Circuit Mark Webber, Canberra with his Dad as the engineer from the back of his family Ute which took them across country NSW, quickly progressed through the ranks onto competing at the national level.
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Before the end of Hamish’s third year of karting, he was competing in the Australian Karting Championship (AKC) in the premier junior class, KA2 with Melbourne’s Shamick Racing. Hamish quickly moved up to senior karting, racing in KA3 Senior, regularly competing in the top 10 as the one of the youngest competitors.
In 2020, Hamish raced with Brisbane’s, Tyler Greenbury Racing and continued to race in AKC KA3 Senior, kicking off the season qualifying second out of 58 karts at Round 1. Hamish was sitting fourth in the outright championship until the season was cut short due to COVID-19.
Hamish moved up to AKC Tag 125 Light class for 2021, winning 5 races, including Round 1 at Ipswich Kart Club winning the final under lights by a staggering 15 seconds. He also, notched up two poles at Ipswich, Queensland and Bolivia, South Australia. After what can only be described as a luckless season plagued by mechanical failure, Hamish achieved fourth outright for the championship without taking part in the final two rounds.
Also 2021, Hamish competed in the Rotax Pro Tour Senior Light class, winning the first round. Again, the season was interrupted due to COVID-19, however Hamish managed to earn his ticket to the Rotax Max Challenge in Bahrain, making the final, whereby he got to race against the world’s best karters under parity conditions.
Hamish made the move in 2022, to compete in the highly competitive pinnacle of Australian karting in X30. He joined Energy Corse Australia (now Calicorse) based in Brisbane, consistently running in the top 5 in the AKC, whilst learning a new chassis.
After receiving sponsorship, Hamish had the opportunity to compete in the World SKUSA SuperNats at Las Vegas. Joining an Australian contingent of thirty competitors, Hamish qualified thirtieth out of eighty-eight competitors in X30 and was one of only two Australians to make the main event.
Upon returning from competing in the USA, Hamish tested a Toyota 86 under the watchful eye of 2018 Toyota 86 driver Tim Brooks. Tim was quick to identify Hamish’s talent and raw pace. A few weeks later Hamish recorded the fastest time for the team, on old tyres and in suboptimal race conditions at Queensland Raceway.
After a solid karting career that included landing Hamish three Queensland titles, the decision was made to progress into car racing. After seeing Hamish in a Toyota 86, Bathurst 1000 champion, Porsche Carrera Cup winner and factory Porsche Driver Coach Luke Youlden recommended Hamish skip Toyota 86 and move straight in to the higher performing Porsche GT3 Cup single make racing series, Porsche Sprint Challenge.
In 2023, Hamish competed in Porsche Sprint Challenge Australia (PSCA) racing for TekworkX Motorsport, which is the feeder series for Porsche Carrera Cup Australia (PCCA). This was pretty much a learning year for Hamish, and one that saw many successes including five top three finishes and ten top five finishes, along with podiums (second place) for Queensland Raceway and Bathurst. He finished fourth overall in the Championship (third rookie) and second in the Endurance Championship (longer races each round). He also, set a lap record in a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (991.2) at Symmons Plains, Tasmania.
In 2024, Hamish began to work with renowned race engineer, Paul Ceprnich for the 2024 PSCA season. Paul quickly realised that he was working with talent he had rarely seen in his 40 years of racing around the globe. Despite only competing in four out of six rounds, it was again a season with many highs, with two race wins and two round podiums with five top three races.
One of the highlights to the PSCA season round 3 at Townsville Street Circuit, where he had pole and after causing a race delay in race one starting from pit lane, worked his way through the field to finish the final race of the round by a staggering nine seconds, and also had the fastest lap by a massive 1.2 seconds.
During the telecast of race 3 at Townsville, commentator Craig Lowndes remarked, “Look at how quickly a weekend can turn around, Fitzsimmons has pole position, made an error had to start from pit lane (race 1) and every race since then he has been fighting back with these grids and now he’s leading this race for the final race of the day for the Porsche Sprint Cup. It’s really amazing the determination to be able to keep fighting back has been incredible.”
