He might not have the big media profile of others up and down pit lane, he might not be the guy front and centre on the TV coverage, but Mathew Nilsson, the current Acting General Manager of Motorsport at Walkinshaw Racing, is no stranger to the Supercars paddock.

I’m not saying he is a veteran of the sport, I’m definitely not calling him an old timer, but his experience and résumé rivals most.

Drivers championships, team championships, Bathurst wins, 12-hour wins, he has ticked all of those boxes, but he isn’t done yet.

‘Techo’ as he is affectionately known, a nickname given to him at Gibson Motorsport that has stuck ever since, is currently in his 16th year in the Supercars circus.

Before we get into that journey, let’s take it back a step… back to where it began.

“It was at the Grand Prix in ’96. A guy dad worked for was racing in Formula Holden, so we went along and watched it there and got into pit lane,” Nilsson said of his first major motorsport memory.

“I thought F1, wow that’s pretty cool. I had been following motorsport a little bit, only because he had been racing, but then actually going to the track and seeing Formula 1, it was pretty cool. So at that point I was thinking, okay that’s what I want to do.”

It’s one thing to have a career path in mind, it’s another thing to make it a reality.

Nilsson enrolled in an Engineering and Business double degree at RMIT; the first step of making that happen.

The second step came through working with the Formula Holden team on weekends, getting his hands dirty in pit lane.

The third and final step was an opportunity most would only dream about. Spending three months with the Jordan F1 team over the Christmas break in 1999/2000.

As part of a University component you’ve got to do a certain amount of work experience and through contacts I was given the opportunity to go to Jordan. Then the following Christmas I went back and did three weeks at what was British American Racing,” he said.

“I guess the passion just grew, the more I got involved and the more responsibility I had I could apply the degree and get involved in the actual racing side.”

So what stands out to a university student working in the most prestigious motorsport category in the world?

“Probably just the level of detail, which to be honest was something that Fred Gibson always instilled in his staff,” Nilsson said.

“You know, one thing he always used to say is ‘if you can’t be the best on track in performance, always look the best.”

Once Uni was complete, with the help of Gibson, the Supercars door opened, spending a year with the then 00 Motorsport.

That lead to the next chapter of his journey, titled Walkinshaw Racing.

Techo’s first role was with Kmart Racing, which was straight in at the deep end as Race Engineer to Rick Kelly.

That’s no easy task for someone new to the game, but it was a challenge he said helped him grow.

“I look back now, and it was about the support network you have, it was a part of the Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR) stable but it was just a good little race team, we didn’t do any development as such or didn’t do any design work or manufacturing, we just went racing,” he said.

“You look back and I was thrown in the deep end, we had our struggles, but the people around me like Rob Crawford and Erik Pender, took me under their wings and looked after me.”

2005 saw the rebranding of the Team to the HSV Dealer Team, with Garth Tander joining the Team and Nilsson becoming his race engineer.

He was there for the 2006 and 2007 Team and Driver Championships, before following Garth to the Holden Racing Team side of things in 2008.

In 2010, an opportunity at FPR as Engineering Manager popped up, a role in which he held until 2013, when he moved back to the Walkinshaw stable as Technical Director.

Before taking over as the Acting General Manager of Motorsport, Nilsson was the Business Development Manager, overseeing the customer program, as well as running the Walkinshaw GT3 team.

You got all that? Good, because that is some résumé, but let’s delve a little deeper into Nilsson the person.

When asked what the highlight of his career to date was, there was 10 seconds of silence.

You could see him internally wrestling with the idea of picking one, struggling to decide what sits at the top of the tree.

It’s a good problem to have.

“It was probably the championship in 2007 from a personal perspective,” Nilsson said.

“You know people always say it’s hard between a driver championship and Bathurst or a team championship. I think they’re all amazing, but the driver’s championship was probably just the peak because of what we achieved at the Dealer Team.

“Even this year with the 12-hour, to win the Amateur class and to finish fourth overall in a Porsche GT3 program that I had put my heart and soul into for 2016 and an intense three-month period leading up to the event, it was a pretty good sense of achievement.”

There is no doubt this game demands a lot, the work life balance is a juggling especially after you throw travel into the mix, so with a young family, how does he manage?

“I have a very supportive wife and family to start with but look it’s a hard one, you’ve probably just got to try and maximise all the time you get with family… Try and get home and see the kids each night as a minimum and certainly try and maximise your weekends with them as well,” he said.

“My kids are probably old enough now, even though they’re quite young, to realise that I’m away quite a bit and try to grab my attention when they can.”

The overriding tone from this whole interview was a passion and a love for this game. It’s the reason behind the energy he brings to the office, and to a racetrack.

“I love the challenge that each day is always different, particularly at the race track… no one day is the same so all you can do is build on your experience and react using that experience,” Nilsson said.

“I enjoy the team side of it, you know at the end of the day it’s a sport that is based on a group of people so I guess you’re measured very easily, so when you get that sense of a result and that sense of achievement it’s a pretty good feeling.”

Keep an eye out for Techo in Townsville, he will be the man at the front of the garage, headset on, deep in thought about what the next move is.