Hawks Set To Fly

By Darren Clayton

The Unharnessed Hawks had such a great weekend at the 2025 Ladbrokes Ultimate Driver Championship, that the team are back chasing the ‘flag’ for 2026.

A group of mates from the Sandgate Hawks Australian Football Club, it was Andrew Crisan that put the group together to form the syndicate for the initial series, and in 2026 Crisan, himself a harness racing rookie just five years ago, will again ‘skipper’ the Hawks,

It was through business and sponsorship interests, that Crisan attended the 2021 Queensland harness racing awards night and as the cliché says, ‘the rest is history’.

Soon after, the Crisan name was appearing in the racebook and it wasn’t long until the bug had bitten when tasting success with Hammer Son, his first foray into ownership.

Since then, Crisan alongside wife Celeste, has thrown himself into the sport,

Finishing third in the inaugural championship with Pete McMullen representing the Hawks on-track, off track the 50-member syndicate -many of which were attending a harness meeting for the first time- were arguably the loudest and most excitable crew in pit lane.

With a good time had by all and complemented by a podium finish, the Hawks are back, with Leader Peter again taking the reins for the syndicate and with a burning desire to take out the title.

“Pete was filthy that we come third last year,” Crisan said.

“When the applications came out, Pete messaged me and said ‘same deal as last year’, so I guess he approached me wanting the spot.”

At that stage, Crisan was toying with the idea of contacting Luke McCarthy or Cam Hart to represent the Hawks, but realising how much McMullen wanted the seat, opted to stay loyal.

“He is coming back to redeem himself, he has over 2,000 winners just at Albion Park, and drives it regularly, so I think he is the best choice.

“And the other two picks have now secured spots in the series, so it makes it interesting now,” he said.

Fast approaching 3,500 career winners, Leader Peter finished second in the Queensland Premiership on 218 wins last year while taking out the metropolitan title with 81 victories.

That broke his own metropolitan record set the previous season when steering home 75 winners.

The highlight of 2025 for McMullen was the efforts of Gus at Christchurch during Cup week, the trotter coming of age with successive Group 1 wins in the Dominion and NZ Trotting Free For All.

Not only will the hopes of the Hawks rest with McMullen on track, the nine-time Group 1 winner will also be responsible for which horses he will drive in the Championship, making the selections on draft day, albeit with some hesitation from Crisan.

Doing the form prior to the draft in 2025 proved stressful, with the nonchalant McMullen not helping Crisan’s anxiety and it appears the same approach will be followed this year.

“I hate it, but I can’t convince him otherwise,” Crisan laughed.

“Last year I’m trying to tell him, there is a better draw for this horse, but he just says, ‘nah, I reckon I can win on that.’

“What can you do, he is the one out there driving them.

“We had spreadsheets and people ranking them and picking them, but Pete just picked them how he saw them.”

Despite the draft day stresses, work behind the scenes for Crisan could arguably be more demanding leading up to the February 20 and 21 Championship than any of the competing syndicates.

Crisan is the managing director of Wolf Signs and the north-Brisbane based sign company have an integral role to fulfil in the Ladbrokes Ultimate Driver Championship, producing the Pit Lane and on track signage to build the race night experience.

Fresh off four metropolitan winners last week, McMullen will be hoping to add a UDC best on ground medal to an amazing list of achievements.