TRADE TALK
RACING FOR PERFECTION
Embracing a passion for performance that was sparked as a youngster, today Glenn Paine combines this passion with his engineering prowess and extensive automotive industry experience to drive wellknown performance brand Pro Race into the future Born in Paramatta and raised in Northmead, Pro Race Performance Products Managing Director, Glenn Paine, grew up right in Sydney’s motorsport heartland. “For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been into cars,” Glenn said. “It all started innocently enough, starting out with Matchbox cars, but the die was cast when my parents bought me my first AFX slot car set when I was nine years old.” Traveling into central Parramatta to change buses for Carlingford, where he attended James Ruse Agricultural High School, Glenn discovered the G&D Slot Car centre. That Christmas his parents delivered a “Womp Womp” slot car, and he was soon working there as a 14-year-old and racing comp each Wednesday night. Glenn freely admits that he was bitten by the ‘collecting’ bug early, and together with his late father Ken, built what is considered one of the most extensive collections of 1960s and 70s slot cars in the southern hemisphere. And while Glenn lost count many years ago, he estimates his collection has grown well beyond 4,000. “Slot car racing was a massive fad in the 1960s,” Glenn explained. “Today, you might still be able to find one or two slot car centres around, but there were literally hundreds in the sixties.” “I competed at the Australian Titles in Melbourne when I was 14 finishing tenth. It was an amazing experience and one that I still cherish to this day.” Unfortunately, the popularity of slot car racing started to wane towards the end of the 1960s and in the 70s home set racing started to take over. Glenn
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stopped racing to focus on his HSC in 1983, but the father and son team started collecting old slot cars. “We grabbed everything we could get our hands-on, and it’s a passion that’s stayed with me for my entire life,” Glenn mentioned. “Today, I’m confident my collection is the biggest in Australia, maybe the Southern hemisphere. I did promise my father when he passed away that I’d get it all on display one day, which is still on the bucket list. It is mostly held in storage units, but I have a plan to bring the display to fruition in the future off the back of the continued growth of the Pro Race business.” If that’s not enough, Glenn has a very healthy Bathurst racing memorabilia collection to display alongside the slot cars. Glenn started his career when he took on an engineering cadetship at Sims Metal. “The cadetship at Sims Metal was a great foundation on which to build my professional career,” Glenn explained. “It provided me with an in-depth understanding of heavy hydraulics, and I did much work on their shears and shredders. It’s funny how things come to pass, I basically started my career by crushing cars, including those from the Mad Max 3 film, and now Pro Race is supplying components to engine manufacturers around the world,” Glenn quipped. Following his time at Sims Metal, Glenn worked for James Hardie in an asset management role and oversaw a greenfield installation of an aluminium extrusion plant in Smithfield for G. James Glass and Aluminium before a chance meeting at a mate’s wedding changed the course of his career significantly. “Right around the time the aluminium extrusion plant was being commissioned, things were starting to slow down. Well, that was until I received a call from one of my mates who said that his uncle wanted to have a chat about a potential new job opportunity,” Glenn said. As it turned out, about a year before Glenn’s mate had gone and got himself hitched in Melbourne and Glenn had met his uncle, John Edwards who was also from Sydney, at the wedding. “John was a very unassuming fellow who became a great mentor for me. John ran a small business called J&L Edwards Pty Ltd. So, I gave him a call, and he asked me if I was interested in joining the business as an engineer. He also asked me how much I knew about torque converters, which was absolutely nothing,” Glenn said.
A week later, Glenn arrived at the J&L Edwards office for an interview and brimming with confidence after spending seven days researching torque converters. “The hard work paid off, and I got the job,” Glenn said. At that time, the business represented several automotive brands, including Sachs (acquired by ZF in 2001) and WABCO (recently also acquired by ZF). Still, the primary focus was the supply of torque converters to what was then the BTR transmission plant in Albury. “The next big shift came in 2002 when ZF flagged their interest in GM’s global Zeta architecture project,” Glenn explained. Via the J&L/Sachs connection, John and Glenn were chosen to support ZF through the acquisition process. The Zeta architecture was going to underpin Holden Commodore and the Camaro program, selected Pontiac programs as well as some vehicles in China, so at that time, the plan was for it to become a truly global platform. “During this time, Holden was the lead program on the Zeta platform as they were GM’s home office for rear-wheel-drive design globally,” Glenn said. ZF was awarded that business in November 2003 and local company ZF Lemforder Australia Pty Ltd was established. ZFLA supplied complete rear modules and front corner modules for the VE Commodore, and the company set up the JIS (just-in-sequence) operation next to the Holden production line in Adelaide. At the time, Glenn was still living in Sydney, but as the trips to Melbourne became more frequent, he bit the bullet and moved the family down in October 2004 for what he then thought would be a three-tofive-year assignment (he’s still there). “We set up the ZF office in Turner Street, just
