About our Team
Meet our experienced and friendly team all of whom are passionate about driving and safety.
Dereck Crook - Senior Trainer - Advanced, Performance & Special needs
Dereck Crook, our senior trainer has been a driver trainer since 1995 and provided training for a respected list of organisations such as the AFP, ACT and NSW Government Departments, Motor Vehicle manufacturers and Private enterprise offering a diverse range of services such as Driver Assessments, Emergency Services training, modified vehicles and driver rehabilitation, Defensive, Advanced and Performance Driver training, 4WD driver training as well Learn to Drive. He is a natural born teacher with great presentation skills and humour, and his passion for both driver safety and motorsports make him a quality and professional trainer and a highly valuable asset to Fifth Gear Motoring.
Dereck currently heads the advanced driver training program and provides learn to driving training and assessment for learners with special needs and modifications. "I found Dereck to be very helpful and patient with me, also very compfortable as an older driver learning, I was really pleased with the professionalism and how relaxed he was even when I made mistakes. I would recommend 5th gear to anyone."
ACT ADI #16 - NSW ADI #009679
Michael - Manual - North Canberra
Michael has been teaching Learners to drive since 2004 and is still loving it. He also facilitates and highly enjoys working on Fifth Gear Motoring Defensive and Advanced driver training courses. He is well known and appreciated for his flexibility and gentle teaching manner, as well as his high work ethic and committment to producing quality drivers. Always the professional, these qualities along with his super-human organisational skills and attention to detail make him a valued member of the Fifth Gear Motoring team.
"Learning to drive with Fifth Gear was awesome. I learnt that if I relaxed then I did not make as many mistakes. I learnt how to stay safe and hopefully acident free. I want to thank Micheal for all his help. I am now becomming a confident drvier. I am looking forward to do the defensive driving course early next year."
ACT ADI #144
Alasdair - Manual - North Canberra
After being a Fifth Gear Motoring "regular" Alasdair brings with him a strong interest in driver training, and what he lacks in years he makes up for in knowledge and passion. He has a calm and friendly communication and teaching style and an ability to put his students at ease immediately. His flexible yet hard working nature, combined with many hours spent in Advanced Driver training means that like the rest of our trainers, he is "smarter than the average instructor" and is keen to for his students to become the best drivers they can be.
"I really enjoyed my driving lessons with Alasdair because he made me feel relaxed and gave me confidence in my driving. I would definitely refer my friends to him because I learnt a lot and found him very easy to understand."
ACT ADI #249
Tony - Manual - South Canberra
Tony's optimistic outlook on life flows onto his driver training and compliments his ability to communicate with all walks of life. He has experience prior to Fifth Gear Motoring at both the learner and advanced levels of driver training which shows in his knowledge of driving and road safety. Enthusiastic in his approach to getting the best out of himself and others, Tony (and his Gold MINI "Alice") always give 100%. Tony works with both our Learn to Drive program and our Advanced courses and although our most mature trainer, Tony puts the rest of us to shame when it comes to fitness and health.
"I am extremely happy with the lessons given by Tony. He has been really professional in his way of teaching and is very practical in giving examples on how to handle the car. I went through the learning process back in Malaysia and it was really stressful. Tony's approach is so much different. He helped me correct some of the driving mistakes that I've been making all these years and is just really professional in his very practical approach to teaching."
ACT ADI #222 - NSW ADI #012274
Andy - Automatic - North Canberra
Fifth Gear Motoring is happy that Andy is back working with us for the second time around, so he must love his job (and Fifth gear Motoring). He has a lovely relaxed way with his students when he teaches, making them feel comfortable. Having worked on our skidpan courses he is passionate about driver safety and wants to make each driver the best they can be. Andy is also bilingual, speaking both fluent English and Vietnamese and for some reason you can't help but smile when around him.
"The whole experience of learning to drive with Andy was very enjoyable and professional, and as I have mentioned before, I will be recommending Fifth Gear to all my friends who haven't got their provisional licenses yet."
ACT ADI #201
Thomas - Automatic - South Canberra
Thomas is passionate about safe driving and driver training. He has been working with Fifth Gear Motoring since 2008 with our Defensive and Advanced driver programs and has a wealth of experience to offer students. Thomas also works with our Learn to Drive Program and understands that learner drivers may be nervous when they first hit the road. His patient and encouraging teaching style makes him very popular with learners of all ages. He is pretty fast around a race track too! "Thomas is an extremely good instructor. I base my comments on my own knowledge and experience of instructing, including competency based assessing. During his instruction of me he was always clear in getting his message across and I never felt stupid or that I was being condescended to. I felt entirely confident in his knowledge and abilities. His is one of the best instructors I have ever had the pleasure of dealing with."
ACT ADI #199
John Ribeiro - Advanced Trainer
John Ribeiro is a well known trainer throughout Australia and internationally and has a list a mile long of esteemed clients with over 30 years experience in driver training. John has not only been a mentor to our trainers but has also supported Fifth Gear Motoring through his exceptional ability to work with customers and get the best out of them in our Defensive, Skidpan, Advanced and Performance training. John is a rare talent whom we value greatly. Some of us think he might even be the STIG!
Bede Austin - Advanced Trainer
Bede (and his entire family) are motorsport enthusiasts. Engineer by day and Fifth Gear Motoring Trainer part-time, Bede has had a life time passion for cars, driving and all things motorsports. He has more than a slight preference towards getting himself sideways on dirt, with success in local rallies. He has a wealth of knowledge which he genuinely shares with our customers when working on our Defensive, Skipdan and Advanced driving courses. If you could harness his passion for driving, you could power a small city.
Derryth - Administration
Derryth keeps our well oiled machine running and enjoys providing friendly and professional customer service. She has qualifications and experience in community education, design and business management. Derryth is proud to be a member of the Fifth Gear team and the quality service they provide and would really like to be able to clone all of the Fifth Gear Motoring trainers.
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