There are racing careers that unfold steadily over a decade of karting, junior development programs and carefully mapped futures. Then there are those that develop quickly, that see a young driver discover their talent and passion for the sport and move swiftly into a promising career. Case in point is the journey of 18-year-old Summer Rintoule.
At a time when most teenagers are still choosing university preferences, Summer was travelling between race circuits, exam rooms and airport terminals — juggling high school exams with national motorsport commitments.
And in the span of just three years, she has moved from watching races to piloting a Mercedes-AMG GT4 with the JGI Triple Eight Race Engineering team in the top Silver Cup category of the Monochrome GT4 Australia Series. That series is a production-based sports car championship that sees FIA-homologated GT4 sports cars from major global manufacturers such as BMW, McLaren, Mercedes-AMG, Porsche, Audi, Ford, and Toyota, battle it out over six rounds and 12 races at race circuits across Australia and New Zealand.
It’s a very competitive series, and a popular one too. Launched in 2023, it now has 26 teams and 60 drivers – some veterans, some relative newcomers – battling for honours across its different categories. Along with co-driver Jarrod Hughes, Summer has driven the Mercedes-AMG GT4 to a handful of podium finishes. Those top three finishes include a pair at the season-ending event at the Hampton Downs circuit in New Zealand in November. The results there saw Summer and Jarrod secure third spot in the race for the drivers’ title. The JGI Triple Eight team secured third spot in the teams’ standings too. To be driving at this level, and be leaders in this group, is quite an accomplishment and proof of Summer’s driving skill.
Her journey to this point has been unconventional, sometimes chaotic, and very swift – and shows that there are all sorts of pathways into motorsport.
DISCOVERING THE SPORT
Unlike many young drivers, Summer didn’t start behind the wheel of a kart at five years old. Motor racing was something she saw on television because her father was a fan – it wasn’t part of her world.
“Motorsport wasn’t really apparent to me when I was younger,” she explains. “It was definitely always playing in the background in the house. Dad loved to watch it. However, I was never involved in it.”
Everything changed when her father gifted her a birthday present: a hot lap at a local racetrack. It was supposed to be just an exciting experience, not a turning point, but the moment she felt that rush – the speed, the sound, the power – something clicked. That experience would lead to the discovery of the Hyundai Excel Series, one of Australia’s most affordable grassroots racing categories. They bought a car and Summer entered her first race early in 2022. She was 14. She had never raced anything before.
“I fell in love with it . . . We jumped straight into it, and from there we just never stopped,” she says with a grin.
Her debut season was far from glamorous – grassroot sport of any flavour is about getting stuck in, having fun, fuelling a passion – and there were mechanical issues, assorted gremlins, and a run of DNFs. And then came another turning point.
“I actually had a bit of a crash and wrote off the front of my Excel,” says Summer. “Sadly, it still has not been repaired and is sitting very sad in the back of a shed!
“But from there I moved up to the Toyota Scholarship Series, which was a really big and good learning curve. I also did the Australia GR series and the Toyota 86 series in New Zealand.”
And Summer did all of those series in 2023 and 2024, while finishing school and a Diploma of Business. Racing weekends meant airports, hotels, long drives – and missed classes. She recalls one weekend most vividly – the Gold Coast 500 round – which clashed with her final physics exam. She had to battle for permission to delay the exam – although not to entirely skip it. The compromise: race, leave the circuit, go straight to school, and sit the exam.
“I had to hop out of the race, run straight to the road and drive to school . . . and I was at school from 1pm till 6pm with one ten-minute break doing both physics papers!” She finished (and passed) and also finished the race weekend. That whole GC event – exams included – is an indication of what an exhausting year she had, but it also gave a glimpse of the resilience that would carry Summer into GT racing.
“It was one of the toughest years I’ve done, but definitely one of the best I’ve done as well,” she says.
Her efforts, attitude and composure under pressure caught the attention of some of motorsport’s heavyweights and a move up into GT4 racing came when Triple Eight Race Engineering – one of Australia’s most successful Supercars outfits – along with JGI Group, made the decision to enter the category.
Today, Summer pilots the team’s Mercedes-AMG GT4 — a 6.3-litre twin-turbo V8 beast capable of hitting more than 240km/h. It’s a car that demands finesse and a skilful touch and, like all GT4 machines, is a proper racetrack monster. While the life of a top race driver might seem glamorous to the casual observer, it is, in fact, a life of early flights, complex logistics, and lots of pressure.
“A typical race week? Normally, we’ll fly out on a Wednesday . . . Thursday is track walk. Friday is two 40-minute practices . . . Saturday will be two qualifying sessions for each driver and race in the afternoon. And then on the Sunday is a final race.”
It’s a busy schedule as race weekend approaches, and there’s pressure everywhere you turn – not least on the track, where keeping cool in an environment where everything is happening at lightning speed is vital.
“There’s definitely a lot of different emotions that happen when racing the car,” says Summer. “It’s obviously very thrilling. However, there are certain aspects that happen during a race where you can get angry or frustrated, and you have to be able to control that emotion to ensure that you don’t hurt the car and are able to finish the race.”
Pressure aside, the thrill of racing in such a series, and to be competitive, is something upon which Summer thrives, and the steady improvement of the team throughout the year highlights the talent for the sport that she, her co-driver Jarrod Hughes, and the rest of the team all share.
“This is my first of a year racing in the GT4 Monochrome Series, and I’m loving every moment of it,” she says. “The first round was definitely a little bit rocky – there were a couple of disqualifications – but we still managed to work our way from the back of the field all the way up to fifth. “We had amazing pace, and that was really good confidence to go into the next round at Sydney, where we got our first podium . . . since then, nearly every single race we’ve managed to get a podium.”
That run of success continued into the final races in New Zealand where the team’s podium finishes ensured a successful end to the season. Perhaps it’s a sign of her passion for the sport and her drive to be successful that Summer, as pleased and proud as she is of the success, is looking to the challenges ahead.
“It’s been a really good year and, to be honest, it’s amazing that we were third in the Drivers Championship,” she says. “We definitely had some ups and downs this year, but it was also a learning year for us, so it’s still very exciting.”
And the goal for next season? “To win!”
While she’s not a mechanic, Summer spends time at Triple Eight’s Banyo workshop, shadowing engineers and learning from GT3 and Supercars technicians, including the chief mechanic for her own crew, Gabrielle Clift – a former MTA Queensland Apprentice of the Year. She helps where she can, learning all the time about how the car operates and how a winning organisation prepares its vehicles. It’s rare access, and a privilege few young drivers get. And working with a crew as passionate about the sport as she is has been one of the most enjoyable aspects of the job.
“What I love most about what I do is definitely working with my team,” she says. “It’s amazing being able to go to the event and do everything together – and get those podiums together. It’s really a team effort. Obviously, we can’t drive the car without the help from our team and that’s definitely the best part by far, 100 per cent!”
THE ROAD AHEAD
At just 18, Summer is already well on the way to establishing a career in motorsport and there are, she says, many avenues for women to get involved.
“When I first got started . . . it didn’t look like there were a lot of women there,” she says. “And then, slowly . . . I could see there was actually quite a lot and there are heaps of different pathways created for women to be able to get into the sport. Whether it be through driving, engineering, mechanics, even design – there’s a pathway for everything.”
Her own pathway will, she hopes, see her one day battling for pole positions and the top step of the podium on the world stage.
“Typically, the pathway is getting into go-karts when you’re quite young,” she says. “When you turn 14, you get a driver’s motorsport circuit licence and move into Excels or Toyota 86s.
“From there you can typically choose whether you’d like to go to Super 2 and try and make it into Supercars. For me, I found that I quite liked and preferred to drive the GT cars – I clicked really well with those cars. So, I’ve moved onto the GT path. And, for me, I want to be a GT factory driver, possibly somewhere in America or Europe. That’s where I’m trying to make a career.” Having said that, Summer adds that the idea of trying Super 2 herself is one that does hold plenty of appeal. “Although I’m focused on my GT4 drive, I haven’t ruled out the possibility of testing Super 2. I’d like to experience that so I never wonder if I might have missed out on an opportunity.”
Given she only began racing in 2022, Summer’s career is moving as quickly as she drives and it seems quite possible that in the years to come, motorsport fans may be watching her tearing around iconic circuit such as Spa, Nürburgring, or even Le Mans. So, when not piloting 250km/h monsters at the nation’s racing circuits, what does Summer drive?
“Currently I have a manual Toyota 86, and I got that for my 16th birthday,” she says with a smile. “When I started in motorsport, I had to learn how to drive manual, and I had just moved into the Toyota 86 series that year, so what better way to learn the car than to drive it on the main road?” The 86 is a nice motor, no doubt, but what might Summer drive if she could have any car, no matter the cost? Not surprisingly for someone so passionate about performance, it is that feature that matters most.
“If money were no object, what car would I drive? To be honest, I don’t really have a specific car. I just want to drive something that’s fast and has horsepower. I don’t really mind how it looks. I just like the feel of it!”
