Race Dental Laboratory has grown from modest beginnings - John Leonard Race founded the Laboratory at 141 Macquarie Street, Sydney, in 1936. Assisted by his wife Lucy he slowly built the customer base of the fledgling business.

In 1940 John Race was drafted into the Australian Army for a second time and forced to leave the business and his heavily pregnant wife, for the Middle East and Papua New Guinea. In his absence and fearing the worst, Lucy named their son after him. She reverted to John’s preference and began calling the infant David once she received John’s congratulatory telegraph some days after the birth. John had been badly injured in Papua New Guinea and negotiated the infamous Kokoda trail on a broken knee, with bamboo crutches made by a friendly local. He later returned safely to Australia, his wife, and his 2 year old son.

After the second world war John realised the west of Sydney would grow rapidly and relocated the business to a premises shared with a dental practice, at 2 The Kingsway, Wentworthville. John was shown to be right, there was a shortage of dental practices in the western area and work flowed in.

In 1954 a small purpose-built laboratory was constructed in the nearby, larger town of Parramatta to accommodate an expanding customer base.

The laboratory continued to develop strong and loyal customers and in 1956 John’s eldest son David (née John) joined the company. By 1987 the staff had grown to over 20 and the outstanding success of the family business allowed for a fully equipped, state-of-the-art dental laboratory to be set up in North Parramatta. Faced with seismic changes to the industry in the 1990’s and 2000’s, Race Dental invested heavily in new technology and digital workflow automation to allow a broader solution to be provided to customers. During this time Race was always “At the Forefront of Technology” – the business’ motto for many years.

Today David’s sons, Brad, Matt and Anthony operate the business from ultra modern Sydney facilities covering 2500m², making it the largest in Australia. With more than 80 years of industry experience, spanning three generations, the Race Dental team boasts an unsurpassed record of excellence and performance in the realm of dental production and technology.

The business prides itself on industry leading adoption of new technology and the ongoing training and development of key people to efficiently deliver a full suite of traditional and digital laboratory services. It is this focus on perpetually evolving and leading the market that has allowed the business to keep manufacturing 100% locally in Australia and New Zealand and continue to be the most advanced dental laboratory.

The focus, as always, remains our customers. We exist to fulfill the potential of the dental professionals we serve by providing them with optimal solutions and the highest quality products.

In 2017, Race Dental continues to expand, opening a fully digital production facility in Grey Lynn, Auckland.