Early Years
McConville began his motor racing career at the age of eight racing go-karts in first local then national championships, culminating in several Victorian titles. At the age of fifteen, he became the youngest ever holder of a CAMS racing licence with a brief foray into Formula Vee racing before moving onto the highly competitive Formula Ford racing category in 1991. In 1992 he was chosen to be the 'works' Van Diemen driver and he won the prestigious 'Driver to Europe' national Formula Ford title beating future champions such as Craig Lowndes and Steven Richards. This victory (he was the youngest ever winner of the series) drew national attention and a testing role at Dick Johnson Racing as well as some practice laps at the Bathurst 1000 in a Ford Sierra that year. A solid performance meant he was invited back to the Dick Johnson Racing team for 1993 where he paired with Paul Radisich in the second team car. Unfortunately, whilst in third position, and gaining on the leaders, he crashed heavily at the 'Esses' just below Brock's Skyline. This proved to be costly to his stellar rise.
After several years of driving for lesser teams, his persistence finally paid off when he teamed up with prominent Melbourne businessman Tom Warwick to drive a Porsche 993 RSCS in the Australian GTP championship during the 1996 season. He won the series in the last race of the year beating championship favourite Jim Richards. In 1997 he was chosen to replace Greg Murphy as the Audi Australia 'works' driver (largely due to his success the previous year) where he finished third in the Australian Super Touring Championship. In 1998 he was narrowly beaten to the championship by team owner Brad Jones in somewhat controversial circumstances.
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