Racing and Sports Founding Directors
Gary Crispe B.Ec, B.Tech (Civil), MIEAust, CPEng
Chief Executive Officer
Gary Crispe holds Degrees in Civil Engineering and Economics and worked for the Brisbane City Council and Department of Civil Aviation as a Senior Planning and Design Civil Engineer in Road and Airport Design for approximately 14 years.
In late 1981, he applied for - and gained entrance into prestigious Harvard University, Boston - to do a Masters Degree but decided to take up an exciting opportunity in the emerging racing technology field and make his racing hobby his profession.
Gary has had a long association with the racing industry, regularly frequenting race meetings even before he reached teenage years. Many of Gary's family had been involved in racing as owners, trainers and jockeys but it was the form analysis side of the industry, which captured Gary's interests.
In early 1982, he joined forces with Warren Block and the late Don Scott as Racing Manager and Chief Handicapper.
In conjunction with the legendary Don Scott, Gary prepared the class standards for inclusion in Scott's many land-mark books, Winning More, The Winning Way and Winning In The 90's. He also prepared form and ratings analysis chapters for those books.
In 1987, in conjunction with Warren Block, Gary co-developed the national weekly racing newspaper The Wizard Formguide. Gary later worked on the development of the Daily Form Service.
Until June 2002, he was also Chief Handicapper of The Wizard Formguide, the Daily Form Service and Superform.
He also prepared the Computercard and Mr. Magic assessments carried weekly by major national newspapers.
In 1999, Gary ventured into the new technological era bringing racing and technology closer together. As a result online publishing, IT development and raceform analysis became the combined focus.
Gary co-founded Racing and Sports Pty Ltd and established the award winning Internet site (AAP) Racing and Sports, recognised as the leading online publisher of racing information and news in Australia.
In 2000, Gary was given the "Most Valuable Online Racing Person" Award for the Southern Hemisphere by an independent Panel of online experts.
Robert Vilkaitis
Manager Information Technology
Robert Vilkaitis is one of Australia's outstanding racing information technology specialists.
At the age of 17, Robert was employed to develop educational software and games for the Commodore 64 and Apple II computers.
From educational software, Robert has, for over 16 years designed, engineered and managed many racing related software products both for Racing and Sports and for its Business Partners.
These products and developments have included home-based handicapping systems, design and development of the "Wizard Formguide" - then, the largest privately circulated formguide in Australia, and the original version of the Daily Form Service (which is found in NSW TAB's).
Many of Racing and Sport's developments have been at the cutting edge of Information Technology, and have allowed business partners and subscribers first access to emerging technologies such as WAP, Fax, SMS, MMS, real time solutions, and e-commerce that we all now take for granted.
Latest developments include leading interactive voice telephony services.
As Manager of Information Technology, Robert also oversees the design, development and administration of the massive Racing and Sports Racing and Breeding databases which encompass 100's of millions of pieces of horse racing data, form and ratings information from all over the globe.
Racing and Sports is currently developing its Sporting databases to allow greater in-depth analysis and ratings of sporting events.
As part of the Racing and Sports team of highly skilled IT personnel, Robert has been Project Manager for the development of Internet sites including the cutting edge www.racingandsports.com.au and many other business and partner sites.
Robert is also a co-founder of Racing and Sports.
