Sue Hughes

Sue with her Radical SR3

Sue Hughes, also known as Sue Hughes-Collins, is a longstanding figure in Australian motorsport. She has experience in most disciplines, but is most known for saloon racing.

She has raced on and off since 1988, when she started driving in hillclimbs. Motorsport is part of her family background; she uses her family name of Hughes as a tribute to her father. He was a speedway rider. In hillclimbing, she won her class in the New South Wales championship, and was runner-up in the Australian championship. Her car both times was a Formula Vee.

She was part of the all-female Mazda 121 Challenge in 1996, which brought her into the limelight. Her solid on-track performances gave her a fifth place. The championship was dominated by Tania Gulson and Paula Elstrek.

The next ride for Sue was a Suzuki Swift in the Australian Production GT Championship. Her first appearances were one-off drives, then a full-season in the series followed in 1999. This was a good year; she was third in Class E and won some rookie awards. Hughes Motorsport, Sue’s family team, made its first appearance this year.

She returned to the GTP series in 2000, and switched between a Mazda MX-5, Ford Falcon and BMW 323i. She was not as competitive in these cars as she had been in the Swift; the Falcon was probably the best drive for her. Competing in Class D, she was ninth. Her combined efforts in the BMW and the Mazda in Class B gave her a fourteenth place.

In 2001, she stuck with the BMW. This was her favourite of her three 2000 cars. She was ninth in Class B. Her season ended with the two-hour GTP Showroom Showdown, in which she shared the BMW with David Lawson. They were 24th, with a class fifth.

A break from active competition followed. Sue worked as a driver trainer for BMW, including teaching celebrities to race for a BMW Mini Celebrity Challenge. She also drove the medical car at Mount Panorama.

Her return to the circuits came In 2008, when she raced a BMW M3 in some national production races, but with no spectacular results.

In 2010, she tried single-seaters, racing a 1600cc Formula Ford, but in 2011, she settled on a Radical sportscar as her car of choice. In her first year of Radical racing, she won one race and was fourth in Class Two of the Australian Sports Racer Series. She was also thirteenth in the Radical Australia Cup and earned one podium finish.

Three more seasons in the Radical Cup followed. Sue was not quite as competition as in 2011, although she was active for most of the season each time. She was 22nd in 2012, then 17th in 2013 and 2014.

She continued to race Radicals in 2015 and 2016, increasingly with her son, Jon Collins. 2015 was spent mostly in the Australian Sports Racer Series, in which she was ninth. Her best finish was a runner-up spot at Phillip Island. At different times, she made guest appearances in the NSW Supersports Cup and the Radical Cup.

In 2016, she was 20th in the Australian Sports Racer series, in spite of a bad end to her short season which included two non-finishes. Two appearances in the Radical Cup at Mt Panorama gave her a fourteenth and eleventh place.

Sue was still racing the Hughes Motorsport Radical in 2017. She drove in some rounds of the Australian Prototype Championship. Her best finish was twelfth at Sydney. This continued in 2018, although she also added some rounds of the Australian Radical Cup to her schedule.

She raced in five rounds of the 2019 Australian Prototype series, with a best finish of eighth overall at The Bend. She made two further appearances in the series in 2020, finishing thirteenth and eleventh at Sydney Motorsports Park. Her annual Sydney Motorsports Park appearances in 2021 resulted in another thirteenth and eleventh.

Sue continues to support her son Jon in his sporting endeavours, including Formula 3.

(Image copyright Hughes Motorsport)

Natasha Seatter

Natasha wins in 2011

Natasha is a well-travelled Malaysian driver, active since 2009, with race wins in different series, in different countries, to her name. She is half-American and was born in Malaysia.

Following four years of karting, she began her senior career by winning all four races of the Petronas Formula Xperience rookie driver competition, in a Formula BMW. This series was one of the supports for the Merdeka Millennium Endurance race, and therefore a big stage on which to perform.

This was followed by a year in Asian Formula BMW in 2010. Now, Natasha was competing against drivers from all over Asia and beyond, including future Formula One drivers, Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz Jr, many of which were far more experienced than her. She managed a best finish of tenth, at Guangdong, and was 20^th in the championship.

In 2011, she continued in Formula BMW in Asia, now rebranded as the JK Racing Asia Series. She improved her best finish to fifth, in Singapore, and was a regular fixture in the top ten. Her final position was tenth.

During the winter season between 2011 and 2012, she travelled to the United Arab Emirates to contest the Formula Gulf 1000 series, held in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Natasha was on the pace straight away, and was second in her first race, at Dubai. Later in the season, in February, she won her first race, again at the Dubai circuit. She also achieved another second place, and three thirds. Unfortunately, she missed the first two rounds, and as a result, does not seem to have been classified.

In between, she managed two rounds of Formula Pilota China, in Mongolia, gaining two third places, plus another third in a ladies’ VW Polo Cup race in India, and seventh in a mixed VW Cup race. Back at home, she drove a VW Scirocco in the Merdeka Millennium endurance race, and was 19^th, driving as part of the Scirocco team with Angus Kirkwood and Noel Edward Becker.

During the 2012-13 winter season, she competed in fourteen rounds of Formula Gulf, and walked away with seven wins, plus two second places. She was the runaway winner of the championship.

She drove in two rounds of the 2013 Asian Porsche Carrera Cup, a first for a female driver. These races yielded a thirteenth and 17^th place, at Shanghai.

For most of 2013, she raced in the Malaysian Super Series, in a Radical SR8. For the endurance part of the championship, she was joined by her father, Stewart Seatter, who also races in the Asia Pacific region. They were second in the second round, at Sepang. Natasha was second in the championship, after a battle with Angus Kirkwood, her former team-mate. She scored four podium finishes.

Late in the season, she rejoined Formula Gulf for its two Dubai races, and won both of them.

In 2014, she entered the South Korean rounds of the GT Asia championship, in an Aston Martin Vantage. She was eighth and ninth at the Jeollanamdo circuit, driving for the Craft Bamboo team with Tacksung Kim. Her first race earned her a “Best Performing Driver” award, for climbing to seventh from eleventh place, then fighting back to eighth, following a safety car period and a drive-through penalty.

Unfortunately, Natasha did not race for the rest of the year. Her plans for 2015 were unclear, but she did express an interest in contesting the Australian V8 Supercar series in the future. Continuing recovery from an injury kept her out of competition in 2015 and she retired for seven years.

She was persuaded back by the BHP Petrol Racing Team, who initially got her to race for them in a six-hour kart enduro. This led to a drive in the first two rounds of the Malaysian Touring Car championship, in which she finished second and third. She also partnered Nurul Husna Nasharuddin and Muizuddin Musyaffa for the Sepang 1000km, driving a Honda City. They were 29th overall.

Natasha and Nurul plan to race together in 2022.

(Image copyright CircuitProDigital)