By Shelby Brooks
If you ordered a pizza in Pakenham in 1990, you probably didn’t have to wait too long for your delivery.
That’s because Australian rally champion Simon Evans was behind the wheel.
Simon was 18 at the time and an apprentice carpenter but was looking for a way to make some more money when he became Mama Rosa Pizza Ristorante’s first delivery driver.
“I thought I needed a bit o f extra work to cover the apprenticeship wage, and delivery driving was right down my alley because I loved driving,“ he told the Gazette.
“I was living on my own at the time and was a frequent user of Mama Rosa’s pizza.
“So, I just asked the question, ’do you want a delivery driver? I’m your man!’ Mama said ‘rightio, you start on Thursday night!’”
Simon delivered pizza for about nine months before breaking his way onto the rally scene.
He has since won four RSEA Safety Motorsport Australia Rally Championship titles.
“It was good for the bank balance, it gave me the money I needed to spend on a race car,“ he said.
“Pakenham was a lot smaller back then so it wasn’t as busy so they actually got me making pizzas. I learnt a lot and had a lot of fun doing it.“
He quickly became recognisable to locals.
“It’s hilarious because I had a Datsun 1200 and I’d done so much work to it. It had twin carbs on it, good valley suspension and half a roll cage in it,“ Simon said.
“People could hear me coming with their pizzas 10 minutes before I got there.
“I like to think I was the fastest delivery in town.“
Rosa said Simon was a very reliable worker who never received complaints that the delivery took too long.
“I had one scenario where I was a bit brave and had to do a heavy break and the pizzas went flying,“ Simon said.
“I stopped at the people’s house I was delivering them to and opened it up and it was a mess. I was thinking to myself, what am I going to do, how am I going to explain this to Rosa.
“I thought I’ll just go up and talk to the people, they might be cool with it. They opened them up, looked at them and said, ‘mate, we’ve had so many beers, we’re starving- that’ll do!
“It was great, I got away with it. I never told Rosa about that.“
Rosa has only just stepped down from the pizza business, but still maintains her coffee van.
