For plenty of young racing drivers, the motorsport journey starts in a go-kart.
For Jackson Long, it started with an Xbox, a steering wheel and a childhood obsession with rallying.
These days, Jackson is a third-generation Australian rally competitor, driving a Škoda Fabia R5 and spending his weekends around the Pedders Rally Team, learning from people who have been around Australian rallying for a long time.
But rewind a few years and things looked very different.
“For as long as I can remember I’ve been around motorsport, with my family being in rallying since the 1980s. But from about age seven, instead of starting my journey in karting, I started on the Xbox, with a sim steering wheel and games like Dirt Rally and WRC, doing fake stage-end interviews with myself and pretend WRC career modes.”
The fake interviews are probably something Jackson would rather we didn’t dwell on too much.
But they do say a lot about where his head was from an early age.
He wanted to be a rally driver.
Jackson’s connection with rallying goes back well before he was old enough to drive.
His family has been involved in the sport since the 1980s, and some of his earliest memories involve pestering his grandfather to let him sit in a very special car.
“As a kid, whenever I went over to my grandparents’ house, I would always bug my Grandad to sit in his Evo 5 rally car, which sat in his garage for over 20 years.”
Like most kids, Jackson couldn’t exactly head out and start competing in a rally.
So he found another way.
He drove virtually.
And as he got older, better equipment and increasingly realistic games meant something that had started as fun gradually became useful training.
“I really started to build my skills of car control, managing some stage times at the top of world leaderboards and taking part in some worldwide competitions.”
Then came the chance to find out whether any of it actually translated to a real car.
At 12, Jackson took part in Motorsport Australia’s Ricciardo’s Racers program at Sydney Motorsport Park.
His weapon of choice?
The family Commodore wagon.
“Despite my machinery being the family Commodore wagon, I was comfortable immediately and had the car sideways on the skidpan under the instruction of Australian Rally Champion Cody Crocker.”
It wasn’t an R5, but it was a start.
When Jackson eventually began competing in full rallies at 17, the years spent driving on the simulator suddenly started to make a lot more sense.
“In our first rally we were in eighth out of over 50 starters, which showed me that all of my sim training really translated into real-life skills.”
Ask Jackson and you’ll get a pretty straightforward answer.
“Pilots can do hours in the simulator to become certified as a pilot, so why can’t rally drivers come from the sim and be fast?”
Fair point.
For Jackson, though, it isn’t just about learning circuits or going fast.
The sim allowed him to become comfortable with techniques he’d eventually need once he got into a real rally car.
“Left-foot braking is a key technique in rallying, and one that you have to learn to drive at the top level. I was able to become comfortable with such an important technique early on because of my sim experience.”
Driving has now become a pretty big part of everyday life as well. Away from rallying, Jackson works full-time at PowerPlay Go Karting.
“I love my job and sharing motorsport with the public, coaching people on their driving and giving them a great experience.”
So whether it’s on a rally stage, behind a simulator or at the kart track, he’s rarely too far away from a steering wheel.
There is another part of Jackson’s story that we really like.
The person sitting beside him in the rally car is his dad.
And that’s significant because Jackson’s dad did exactly the same thing with his own father.
“It is extremely special to be rallying with my Dad sitting beside me, especially as he sat with his dad for many years.”
It makes Jackson a third-generation member of a family whose lives have been intertwined with rallying.
There’s also something pretty special about competing alongside your dad in a sport where trust between driver and co-driver is everything.
“We truly trust each other 100% and get to have fun together despite our busy lives.”
Jackson’s family involvement doesn’t finish at the co-driver’s seat either.
“Dad was especially excited to get back into the co-driver seat and be my coach on this journey, with his many years of experience with several drivers and teams, whilst my mum and brother have always been my biggest supporters.”
That family connection is also one of the reasons Jackson feels at home around the Pedders Rally Team.
“Family support is massive. I’m in a team that is supported by a family business in Pedders, I race with my dad, with the support of our family business, and representing our family history in rallying is a huge honour.”
Spend any time around rallying and you quickly realise how much of the sport is built on exactly that.
Families. Mates. Teams. Long days. Late nights. And an awful lot of people prepared to help each other simply because they love the sport.
For Jackson, 2026 has meant another big step.
After competing in a production Subaru during 2025, he moved into a Škoda Fabia R5.
Unsurprisingly, the adjustment has been significant.
“Obviously the jump has been massive. The car is very fast and has such huge potential, so it’s forced me to really focus on my driving and pace notes.”
You might think a better rally car would make the driver’s job easier.
Jackson doesn’t quite see it that way.
“The Škoda just allows you to be the driver you want to be, but also points out all your faults.”
We thought that was a great way of describing it.
The R5 gives Jackson far more capability, but it also asks more of him.
“It’s like an extension of your brain, and so you really have to work on your mentality, commitment and precision, whereas in production cars I have previously driven, you simply have to drive as hard as you can.”
And that’s where having the right people around you becomes particularly important.
Jackson’s involvement with the Pedders Rally Team developed through Maximum Motorsport and an opportunity to drive Glenn Brinkman’s WRX Challenge car in Adelaide.
As discussions started around what Jackson might do next, he did something relatively simple.
He asked for advice.
“I wanted some advice and mentorship in stepping into the car, so I approached Scott, who had a load of experience in the car and who Dad had co-driven for in a rally in China.”
Scott Pedder liked the fact that Jackson had approached him looking to learn.
As Jackson tells it:
“Scott was really impressed that I approached him for advice and was looking for an opportunity to mentor a young driver, so I suppose it was the right place and the right time.”
Since then, Jackson has found himself surrounded by a pretty handy group of people to learn from.
“Since then, Scott, Gmac and the whole Pedders team have been so supportive of our journey and I can’t wait to see where we go with them in the future.”
From the outside, we mostly see rally teams when they’re competing.
It’s when you get behind the scenes that you appreciate how much more goes into it.
“The team is made up of some amazing people and is so professionally run. It’s effectively run like a factory team, with structure, strategy and a boatload of knowledge.”
For a young driver finding his feet in a much faster car, having access to people such as Scott Pedder, Glenn Macneall, Dean Herridge, Simon Evans and the wider team has become a big part of Jackson’s development.
“Whether it’s my mentality, advice on my driving or setup, I always have access to advice, which has really helped my development throughout the year.”
That’s one of the things we enjoy about being around rallying at Famous.
The competition is obviously serious, but behind it there’s a genuine community.
People who have been there before helping the next generation. Crews sharing knowledge. Families travelling together. And everyone getting up far too early in the morning to stand in a forest somewhere because they love rally cars.
That’s the stuff you don’t necessarily see on the results sheet.
He isn’t exactly setting the bar low.
The dream is the World Rally Championship.
And apparently Scott Pedder has decided to put a little extra pressure on him.
“I’d say that it’s just me who wants this, but Scott always makes the point that he wants to be flying to Europe to watch me win a WRC event, so no pressure I guess!”
Jackson laughs about it, but there’s no mistaking what he wants.
“I hope I’ll be representing Australia and all my supporters in the World Rally Championship.”
And if he could choose, there’s one thing that would make it even more special.
A WRC round back in Australia.
“I have some amazing memories of Rally Australia spectating as a kid and I really want to represent our country on the world stage on home soil.”
Considering where the story started, you couldn’t really write a better full-circle moment.
A kid sitting at home playing WRC on an Xbox, interviewing himself after imaginary stages, eventually pulling up at the end of a real WRC stage in Australia.
There’s obviously a long way to go.
But every motorsport story has to start somewhere.
That’s probably the part of Jackson’s story that resonates with us most.
The traditional motorsport pathway isn’t available to everyone.
Jackson didn’t start racing karts at seven or eight. He started with a game console, a steering wheel and an interest that became an obsession.
Eventually he turned that into a real opportunity.
And that’s something he hopes other young motorsport fans take from his story.
“I hope that young drivers see that it doesn’t matter how or where you start in motorsport. If you put in the work and chase opportunities, you can go so much farther than you could ever imagine.”
From fake stage-end interviews at home to an R5 rally car isn’t a bad start.
And hopefully, there are plenty more stages still to come.
At Famous Insurance, we’re car people too.
Being involved in Australian motorsport gives us the opportunity to get beyond the cars and results and meet some of the people who make the sport what it is.
Jackson’s story is one we really enjoyed hearing.
It’s about rallying, obviously. But it’s also about family, opportunity, people willing to share their experience and a young driver prepared to keep learning.
And really, that’s a big part of what being a car enthusiast is all about.
It’s not always just what you drive.
It’s why you started, who you share it with and where you hope it might take you.
Famous Insurance. For the cars you’re passionate about.
