Camaraderie, spirit, and hunger to win: The Gale brothers' rise in motorsports

It was race day at the RMC Asia Trophy in Malaysia, and it was exceptionally hot. Hailing from South India, for us, it was a regular Sunday, but it was unlike any other for our poor, overheating camera. We’d covered most of what we needed to, but I was persistent to get an angle that had established itself important over the weekend: Austin and Toby Gale from CRG. And the moment I took to cool the camera down, I noticed that the guys were in the garage — together. 

I went over to have a chat with Austin, whom I’d messaged on Instagram a day ago, and he roped in Toby and the guys almost quickly agreed to a short segment. 

Our team knew of the Gale brothers and I had followed their year of racing since we started our email newsletter dedicated to covering motorsport news in India and Southeast Asia. But to have a chat with them was something we never planned for going into the last weekend of the Asia Trophy. 

The numbers and stats don’t lie - between the two of them, they’ve got 12 championship titles, over a 100 wins, and currently are CRG factory drivers who had already sealed their titles in the RMC Asia Trophy going into the final weekend. When you look at numbers like that, you know they’re the real deal. 

We’d met a handful of ‘real deals’ in motorsport. Ones with multiple titles, potential sponsorship value through the roof but very few (read: none) that began a conversation with “What if I screamed into the microphone?” - causing both of them to laugh and Sanjay, who was working the camera and audio to go “I will die”. It was all it took to bring down typical perception of highly accomplished athletes having an air of seriousness.

Living in Thailand, a country that isn’t the obvious choice for being a motorsport stronghold, both Austin and Toby started karting just 3 years ago. Unlike their counterparts who started karting at the age of 6/7, their introduction to motorsport was through dirt biking- “We actually used to do motocross before this. This was during COVID. Then we realised how dangerous it really was and we moved to EasyKart, where we had our first club race in Thailand, Pattaya. And from there we just went to our local track, just started practicing all summer and then we did our first race. Yeah, there, we came last but it was a good experience” Austin said. When I asked Toby what the transition was like from two to four wheel, he candidly replied: “I have absolutely no idea! I did (start at MotoX) but I was terrible!” 

Answering the question more directly, Austin continued to explain that there wasn’t a big difference physically apart from adapting his style from two to four wheels. However, the real difference is the level of competition, which he said was low in motocross whereas in karting it’s the exact opposite. A bold statement which Toby interjected with “The dirt-biking fans are absolutely going to kill you for that” . 

Of course, neither of them was wrong — Motocross community is huge and passionate but it not as capital heavy or hugely scrutinised as International karting is with grids of 100+ drivers per category, across the world. And yes the dirt biking community wouldn’t like to hear this either. But having spoken to stakeholders of both motocross and karting, the stakes most certainly are higher in the world of karting where hundreds and thousands of dollars are spent at a very basic level in hopes to jump onto the single seater open wheel ladder. 

So, how does a 6x Thai Karting Champion deal with the pressure when the stakes are so high? Toby puts it more simply than someone would like: “To prepare, you don't really think about it.” He said with a huge grin. “Because in karting, being calm and mentally strong is one of the most important things. You can have all the skill in the world but you wont win unless you’re calm and mentally strong at all times” 

Austin adds on to his answer by talking about their first race in Europe where the pressure was immense but “You get used to it really. You start to settle in, you know everyone, you know how they act, you know what’s going to happen. So, you just mentally try to prepare yourself before the race and then stay as calm as possible for the best result” . 

From the outside, as a non-racing driver, it all looks so simple. I could stay calm when interviewing my heroes Lewis Hamilton or Sebastian Vettel, but there’s no way I can do it without panicking internally. A panic, which I assume, is a very natural internal reaction when one doesn’t know how this has all come about (like the popular meme, “you might be wondering how I ended up in this situation”). And the only solution to calm the panicking is self-belief - something Toby quickly added to Austin’s answer- “You need to believe you will win, though. You do. You really do” 

A self-belief that’s been trained into them and reflected in their stats. Who would’ve thought they finished last in their first race? Drivers, like all other athletes, are born with natural talent but it takes time to craft it over time with a good support system. In the short period of time I was there on track, I would see Austin look closely into Toby’s race and vice versa, almost always accompanied by their coach, Andrea Todisco. Be it a show of support or an opportunity to learn from each other, the Gales were rarely not together. But come next year, things will be a bit different as they become direct competitors on track. When I asked them where they drew the line between being brothers off-track and rivals on it, Toby laughed and said “That’s a deep question”. 

He then proceeded to answer in the most-unlike 14 year old I’d ever heard. “Next year, what we’ll do is halfway through the year we’ll review who’s doing better in the championship and we’ll just help the person who’s doing better in the championship. So if Austin doing better than I am, then I will help him and focus on him ultimately. But if I’m doing the championship better, then it would be the other way around. We’re still rivals on the track but we know our limits” He said and then looked over to his older brother beside him with a cheeky grin and continued “We’ll respect each other and still be best mates off of it”.

“But honestly two years ago, we would’ve crashed into each other a lot. We actually did!” Austin added. 

“It was all him! I have a video for proof!” Toby cut in. 

It was then I felt deep relief. I wasn’t talking to calculative, high-performance supersonic teenage karting drivers. At the end of the day, they’re brothers racing together. 

But of course, at the age of 14-15, racing isn’t their whole life. Off-track and without their race suits, they are GCSE students who made an agreement with their parents to allow them to race whilst staying in school. Or as Toby puts it, “Education is the number 1 (priority)”. And the reason is quite logical- “The thing is, there are so many drivers out there thinking they’ll be in Formula 1 but there’s just 20 seats. It’s not like football, for example because there’s many people. So before we go away (for racing in Europe), we send emails to our teachers, promise them we’ll keep up with the work. (…) because our grades still need to be good because education is really important.”

In a world filled with overachieving young athletes, the Gale brothers are refreshingly grounded in their interactions and candid about their prospects in motorsport despite their rapid ascent on the global stage so far “…there’s so many different variables in the sport that we can’t control. Engine seizes up, I get DQ’d because of, you know, I crossed the white line or something like that. So, realistically, I’d just go to college after A-Level and go get a degree. I love engineering, I love looking at how things work, mechanical things. I love working on my karts; especially in Europe I like to take the engine off, put it back on, work on the frame and chassis. (I’m a) part time mechanic, so I just really interested in that. So something engineering” Austin said, in many ways different from his brother’s approach. 

Both of those qualities are felt up and down the pitlane, told to us by different stakeholders - parents and drivers alike, who urged us to have a chat with them, especially since we were a platform that collected stories from Indians and Southeast Asians in motorsport. And I’m glad we did. 

Both of them admitted that the journey was very long indeed - whether it was high-performance LMP cars or Formula 1, it is going to take many years of training and more importantly, making the right moves for each of them career wise. From my experience working with and interacting with drivers all my adult life, I think it needs more than prowess on track; it needs discipline, grit, and probably the most underestimated aspect - character, something I thought the Gale brothers had nailed, even if it was judged from our half-hour interaction in the middle of a busy day.

At the end of the day, whether you’re 14 or 15, or 34 or 35 in sport, it’s the ultimate sign of success when parents admire you for being a source of inspiration for their kids and your rivals respect the extent of your dominance. And one can only do that if they truly enjoy what they do.