Shoestring racing was established in 2002 by two friends Gavin Lock and John Gronbach (later to be more commonly known as 'Black Flag Bobby Bach').
Together they started racing karts in a class called Rotax Max running with the successful Trulli Kart chassis.
This was unlike any other racing team, for Gavin and John did not have the funding associated with running successfully at the front of a highly competitive racing series.
After selling their motocross bikes they both bought Rotax Max outfits with Gavin racing a 1999 Trulli1 and John using the newer 2001 Trulli2 Chassis and thus Shoestring racing was born.
From the start both drivers had to spend every penny carefully and instead of buying new tyres for every race meeting like all the other drivers, John would make his tyres do for two meeting and Gavin could get three meetings out of a set. Once the race meeting was finished they would go round asking people for their old tyre so they could use them for practice instead of using their 'good race set'.
Another way of saving money was instead of traveling home after saturday practice or booking into a hotel for the night they would sleep in their trailer. It was cold and uncomfortable but as long as they saved money that could go towards buying a bottle of oil or chain lube then that was all that mattered.
During the 2003 season they got chatting to a novice driver called Grant McIntosh who like Gavin and John the previous year, was new to the sport and required a little help in chassis set-up. After a few race meetings Grant became the third member of Shoestring Racing and still races in the team to this day. Sadly due to other commitments John retired from racing halfway through the 2004 season but still on occasion helps out by being Gavin's mechanic.
