PORSCHE Michelin Sprint Challenge Australia rookie Ben Taylor has a new high-flying, high profile supporter.
The young Victorian, who steps into a Porsche Centre Melbourne-prepared Porsche this season, welcomed Sir Richard Branson for a tour of his Cup Car this week.
Taylor, who has autism, is backed by auticon – the largest autistic IT consulting business in the world. Auticon employs over 465 autistic people in 15 countries who will be helping to advance Ben’s driving through providing analytics support specifically looking at his on track data.
Sir Richard is an investor in the business and visited the Porsche Centre Melbourne workshop this week to visit with Taylor and the team.
“It was an absolute honour to meet Sir Richard Branson at Porsche Centre Melbourne Motorsport and have him check out my racecar,” Taylor said.
“Sir Richard is one of auticon’s amazing investors, helping to provide I.T. solutions by autistic talent. He’s someone I’ve always looked up to, just knowing that he is neurodiverse and understanding the success that he’s had throughout his life is really encouraging. He had some fantastic insights about motorsport and it was a real privilege to be able to get first hand account from someone of his calibre.
“A very special thank you to the team at auticon Australia for making this connection happen – this partnership really is a perfect match!”
Branson, who for a time owned the Virgin Racing Formula 1 team and has longstanding Australian business links via Virgin Australia, said he was inspired to see Taylor’s achievements so far.
“Very inspiring to meet Ben Taylor – an autistic race car driver with the auticon Australia Racing Team,” Branson posted on his Facebook page.
“It truly inspiring to see a young person like Ben following his dreams and helping other neurodiverse people realise they can achieve anything they set their minds to. It was fascinating to learn how auticon will deploy its autistic data analysts and software engineers to help Ben take his driving to the next level.
“Such a powerful way of showing the brilliant skills that people with autism bring to the table – particularly in terms of IT, coding, and analytics. Wishing you the best of luck for the season ahead, Ben and team! Can’t wait to see you breaking boundaries, both on and off the track.”
Taylor’s Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge Australia campaign commences at Round 1 of the series at the Phillip Island Grand Prix circuit on April 12-14 this year.