PBF Driver Academy

**PBF Driver Academy** is a team founded by Benjamin Rhodes as a distinct operation that serves as the successor to the **PBF Academy** driver development arm of PBF Race Engineering. Brenton Foley and Phil Boak have holdings in the team, which serves to develop drivers for appearances with the main PBF squad, and also to provide an opportunity for like-minded drivers to be able to hone their talents and have some fun along the way.

Currently, the team prepares two Holden VF Commodores for Brap and Jon McDonald, and two Holden VE Commodores for Benjamin Rhodes and Michael McDonnell in the ASR Development Series. It also assists Lachy Locke Motorsports in the preparation of two Holden VF Commodores for the Luke McCue Racing drivers of Lachlann Locke and Ben Hall. Additionally, it also prepares a Chevrolet Camaro Gen-5 Swedish Camaro Cup car for Rhodes in the 2022 ASR Camaro Cup.

## History

### 2019-2021

*For the complete history, see PBF Race Engineering#History*

The origins for the team started in March of 2019, as the **PBF Pro-AM** division that was established to run Holden VF Commodores for Ethan Howard, and later Benjamin "Rhodey" Rhodes, in the 2019 AMSOZ Super2 Championship. Ethan left the team after the first round, and a replacement was sourced in Josh Behn, and by mid-season the team had been rebranded to **PBF Academy**. In the second half of 2019, the team entered a pair of SRT Viper GT3s for their two drivers in the 2019 AMSOZ GT3 Series, alongside the PBF Race Engineering entries, and also prepared a Group 5 Ford Capri for Rhodey in the Apex Rear Wing DRM Championship.

In 2020, the Supercars effort shrunk to one car, after Josh Behn left the team, but the team broadened it's reach, also preparing a BMW 32Oi Super Touring entry, again for Benjamin Rhodes, in the ARWTCC Series. 2021 saw a similar effort with a Mini Challenge Cup entry, which netted Rhodey his first overall win, and a stable initial showing in Supercars for their third season. But mid-season, Rhodey was replaced with Hans Brunswick, who was able to provide the sponsors the necessary air time. In the second half of the year, the team also prepared two Mitsubishi Lancer R entries for Rhodey and Scott Murrell in the ASR Super Series.

### 2022

#### ASR Development Series

Leading into the 2022 season, Rhodey started workshopping options for a combined Super2/Super3 team within the new ASR Development Series. In negotiations with the team, it was decided the best course was to spin PBF Academy off onto it's own footing, leading to **PBF Driver Academy** appearing in the early months of 2022. Intially, the plan was a 4 car team, with Super2 entries for Ben Hall and Brad Severs, and Super3 entries for Jon McDonald and Rhodey. However, as time evolved, and goalposts were moved, the team ended up looking like so for the start of the season:

* The PBF Academy Bootleggers, a two car VF Commodore team of Brad Severs and Jon McDonald
* PBF Academy Customer Racing, a two car VF Commodore team of Brap and Zack Brown, and
* PBF Academy's Scotch Smugglers, a two car VE Commodore team of Rhodey and Michael "Cracka" McDonnell

In addition, CRE Race Engineering's move to sign Ben Hall and Lachlann Locke as a CRE customer team under Luke McCue Racing threw a curveball in the initial plans to include Ben Hall in the team, and an agreement was subsequently reached for PBF Driver Academy to assist Lachy Locke Motorsports in running LMR in Super2, which also saw PBF Academy providing logistical assistance to LLM Driver Academy's FGX Falcon team of Ayrton Filippi and Justin Cecil.