The Australian National Drag Racing Association is very pleased to welcome Tony Miskelly of South Australia and Aaron Brookes of New South Wales to the ANDRA Board.
Miskelly and Brookes have been appointed to the Board following a meeting of the Operations Committee (made up of all Division Directors) on June 20.
This meeting elected Brookes (NSW division) and Miskelly (Central Division) to take the positions formerly held by Nathan Peirano (QLD) and Paul Drady (VIC) respectively.
Tony Miskelly is based in Adelaide and has served with the Royal Australian Navy as a Weapons Engineer for the past 40 years.
He had joined the Navy in 1984 as an electronics technician specialising in underwater sensor systems, before becoming a Weapons Engineering Officer in 2001 after completing Bachelor and Masters Degrees in Engineering.
He has also completed a Masters Degree in Management in 2006, has served on nine ships, saw active service in the Middle East, and was awarded the Conspicuous Service Cross as part of the 2020 Australia Day Honours.
“For the last 10 years I have been at the forefront of introducing the Aegis combat system into Australian destroyers, including commissioning HMAS Hobart, the first of its class to be built at Osborne in South Australia, and the establishment of the $650m foreign military sales case for the destroyer upgrade due to commence in 2025,” Miskelly explains.
“More recently, I established the Enterprise Partnering Agreement with Saab Australia to deliver acquisition and sustainment of the Saab family of combat management systems.
“From a professional viewpoint, I am a Certified Practicing Engineer (CPEng) and have completed the Foundations of Directorship through the AICD.
“I feel that my Defence training and skills are directly portable to fulfilling a senior role in ANDRA, with experience in areas such as risk management, complex problem solving, planning, project management, regulatory and policy awareness and effective communications.
“Further, being an engineer, I am addicted to the technical aspects of drag racing, and those that know my race car will certainly understand that perspective.”
Miskelly has been an ANDRA member since 2012, racing in Super Sedan. He is also a SFI certified ANDRA Technical Inspector.
He had commenced competitive drag racing in 2010 whilst in the USA when on a personnel exchange with the United States Navy, racing his 1974 AMC Hornet hatchback in North Carolina and Virginia. He also crewed on a race car that went to final 32 in Pinks All Out at Virginia Motorsports Park.
“Being in the USA gave me a good appreciation of how diverse drag competition meetings can be from mom and pop country tracks with buy backs, to the NHRA Nationals through to the Yellow Bullet Nationals with 650 sportsman competitors,” said the 59-year-old.
“Since being back in Australia I have been a regular competitor at Portland, Mildura, Whyalla, Calder and AIR and also more recently Darwin, Alice Springs and The Bend. In the most recent season, I won ANDRA trees at Hidden Valley and Mildura and was the NDRC Western Conference Champion.”
Joining the Board, Miskelly has a key goal in mind: “I want to assist ANDRA to regain its reputation as the sanctioning body of choice and the premier organisation running a sportsman drag racing championship.”
“I am looking forward to the challenges that lay ahead, and in particular to being part of the team that listens to the membership base, shaping decisions for the benefit of members,” he continued.
“Nirvana for me would be the reputation of ANDRA and ANDRA Championship Drag Racing returning to being highly regarded and respected. I may not have immediate answers and when I don’t, I am committed to engaging with those that do to enable informed decision making.”
Aaron Brookes has been around drag racing his whole life.
“I grew up around the sport, with my mother being the influence – we used to live near Bob Shephard and she used to hang out with the team and I spent many race meetings in a pram in the paddock!” Brookes explains.
“After getting my license in 1997, I did some offstreet racing with various cars over the years before licensing in a comp dragster a few years ago.
“I have proudly been a steward since just after Sydney Dragway opened, the NSW Division Chief Steward since 2016, and am also a Tech Inspector and the Division’s Rule Committee representative since 2018.”
Even away from the track, Brookes is in constant contact with key members of Australia’s drag racing community.
“I am a qualified parts interpreter and have worked as a sales representative for some of Australia’s major players in the day to day automotive parts game and also as a business development manager, specifically in the high performance parts sector, for the last 14 years with VPW Australia, Vibrant Performance, and now with Haltech/Race Winning Brands,” Brookes explains.
“I spend every day talking to our sport’s key stakeholders, be them participants or suppliers.
“Overall, having been a steward for so long and having worked at all levels of events sanctioned by ANDRA from street meetings to regional club events at airports, to major group 1 events, I feel I can bring a holistic perspective on what the sport – as a whole – needs.
“I have seen both the bad and the good, and have heard the feedback from people who come to the race track.”
Brookes, who is based in Sydney’s South West, is looking forward to this next step in his ANDRA career.
“To my mind, ANDRA being a member-run not-for-profit organisation is truly the best solution for drag racing in Australia, and I look forward to bringing a different perspective to hopefully help to restore ANDRA to the heights and participation we had years ago,” said the 44-year-old.
“I would also like to grow the engagement with the grassroots of the sport, those people who race at the regional temporary facilities, special event racers and the test and tune guys.
“I am certainly excited for the challenge and hope that I can live up to the high expectations of everyone.”
ANDRA Chair, Katie Cassar, welcomed Miskelly and Brookes to their new roles.
“Both Tony and Aaron have rich if very different backgrounds which will allow them to bring some unique perspectives to the ANDRA Board, and I greatly look forward to working with both of them,” Cassar said.
“I would also once again like to take this opportunity to thank Nathan and Paul for their dedicated service to the ANDRA board.”
To learn more about the ANDRA Board Members, go to https://www.andra.com.au/about-us/andra-board/
To learn more about ANDRA, visit www.andra.com.au