Tommy Smith: My Sporting Heroes

Van Amersfoort Racing’s Tommy Smith is the latest driver on the grid to give us some insights on his greatest sporting inspirations.

The Australian admired a home hero in a different sport alongside two icons in the sporting world, and beyond.

Here is Smith on his sporting idols…

ROGER FEDERER

“To me, Roger Federer - I've always loved watching tennis and I think he's such a good role model. The way he composes himself, I don't know how many records he’s broken in his life but he's just super humble and a good role model. So, I’ve always looked up to him.

“I did get to watch him play once, it was in Melbourne. He had a winning streak around the time, I think he’d won three in a row and there were some good games against Rafael Nadal, but I went to one in 2018 I think, I went to the semi-final and he was super good. The guy’s a weapon, so good. So I really enjoyed that.”

JETT LAWRENCE

“Actually in Motocross there’s a guy called Jett Lawrence, he’s actually a young Australian and I think he’s younger than me actually. But at the moment he’s over there leading the championship and this guy's super. He's young, but he's super old-school in terms of racing spirit. Like you’d think he's been there for a long time, so I really look to him as an inspiration.

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“It's fresh. I mean, everyone goes for the underdog, don't they? That's common I guess, people get bored of the same people winning I guess, but with him. I mean, firstly, he's Australian as well, so he's made the jump across to America where that sport began, and I think he’s grown up super quick. I think he's 20 or 21, you look at him and you think he's 40. He's up against some of the best riders and he's beating them, which it's super cool to say because I know that sport, they've had the same guys winning for a long time, so like in any other sport, it's super nice to see a new winner.”

DAVID BECKHAM

"David Beckham. To be honest, we don't really follow football so much in Australia. We have our own league, but I learned and read a lot about him. I watched his documentary on Netflix, and I didn't realise how much like controversy he had, but he's super talented, I look up to him now and I'd love to meet the guy.

“Everyone knows of him. Like I didn't follow football, but I knew David Beckham. So he's one of those people. Even when he was younger, he had a bit of this attitude - I guess he didn't care what anyone thought of him and he sort of had that self-confidence and obviously he was very talented. So I look up to Federer who's super calm, but David, he knows he's the best.”