Motorsport

Not even jet lag ... could distract Grafton’s busiest and most determined eight-year-old from putting her foot down and kick-starting her 2023 racing season with three podium finishes earlier this month ... After finishing third in both races in her Stock Polaris RZR 200, Ruby decided to drive her Polaris Off-Road RZR 570 to familiarise herself with her new vehicle under race conditions in the Endurance Race, and was happy to cross the finish line in second place.

The Aussie Invader - World Land Speed Record Challenger was transported by the Pilbara Heavy Haulage Girls Inc and stopped at Kaniva on Friday for young and old to have a look ... The Pilbara Heavy Haulage Girls Inc headed from Karratha to Perth in preparation for carrying the Aussie Invader - World Land Speed Record Challenger to the Australian International Airshow in Avalon, Victoria!

Karen Jones. Congratulations to our four juniors who made the NT Title A Main. A first for three of them it was a learning curve racing against some very experienced quick drivers.

Jeff Hanson. Jake Myers created history at Summernats 35, winning his second Burnout Masters crown. Tearing up the asphalt in his 1966 Mustang, known fondly as S1CKO, in front of the 100,000-strong crowd in Canberra earlier this month, Myers didn’t disappoint, defeating winner of both the Masters and Championship at 'Nats 33 Rick Fuller and his new ride FULLONX, ahead of Michael Pratten in SPASTIC.

Emma Pritchard. Ruby Howell has her sights firmly set on a bright future. And the enthusiastic eight-year-old from Grafton is on track to achieve her dreams ... Ruby recently travelled overseas with her family to take part in the Competitive Off-Road Racing Series 2022 National Race Event at Carolina Adventure World in Winnsboro, South Carolina ...

Thomas Gallagher from Tyndale enjoyed a successful season in the 2022 Australian Kart Championship in the Class Tag 125 Seniors division, placing third overall and finishing first in the NSW round at Newcastle and second at Melbourne ... Finding venues to practice and compete has been a challenge since the Grafton Sporting Car Club ceased karting at Mountain View Motor Sport Complex, with the family often travelling to Coffs Harbour, Ipswich and Newcastle.

Xavier Jacobs-Twain. After a worrying week of torrential rains and local flooding, Grafton Sporting Car Club welcomed a near capacity field of almost 70 cars and drivers with two fantastic blue-sky days for the running of the club's 5th and 6th rounds. The field got off to a flying start as the track dried out and heated up.

The country’s racing-elite return to our region for Round 5 of the Australian Superbike Championship this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Motorcycling Australia CEO Peter Doyle expects that the event will be a much anticipated and welcome highlight for both spectators and riders.

The Ultimate Festival of Wheels, Red CentreNATS returns to the stunning heart of Australia in September, and this year’s program takes things up another notch with the inclusion of a Thursday evening qualifying program at Alice Springs Inland Dragway (ASID). The additional evening is to cater for the ever-growing program, and will see ASID open for qualifying for both Round 1 of the 2022/2023 Burson Auto Parts Australian Top Fuel Championship and Top Doorslammer Australia. This means the fastest cars on earth will be heading to the Red Centre.

The Repco Supercars championship returns to The Bend (July 29 – 31) with event organisers promising the biggest weekend of racing and entertainment yet in the OTR Supersprint’s five-year history. The jam-packed, three-day event is South Australia’s largest ticketed regional sporting event with all ticket holders getting paddock access to enjoy the once in a lifetime experience.

Sunraysia is about to play host to the region’s largest annual event, the Hattah Desert Race, attracting competitors and support crews from the length and breadth of the country ... “The Hattah Desert Race is an absolute juggernaut in terms of major events, this year attracting 465 senior riders and 360 juniors that’s well over 800 in total,” Cr Eckel said.

Joan De Bondt. Young Jack Thomas from Koondrook has landed a dream job in England as a performance engineer with the Aston Martin F1 team based in Silverstone, around a hundred kilometers from London. Jack has been in his new job for three months. He is a graduate performance engineer, motivated to learn, contribute and win in fast-paced, team environments.

The Narrandera Rod Run, which took place over the Easter weekend, seems to be getting bigger and better each year. This year's event proved to be a huge success with almost 500 vehicles involved. There were 398 entrants, plus 100 day-trip cars on Easter Sunday.

Australian Street Rodding can be traced back to 1956 when the first Street Rod Club was formed in Victoria. It was the forerunner to many others including the Earlies Rod Run Club coming to Narrandera in Easter 1973.

Steve Cole. The Peter Turner memorial Show and Shine will allow the Guildford Grumpies Car Club Inc. and visitors to pay their respects to their cherished former President. The Show and Shine will feature a huge range of veteran and vintage cars and motorbikes, along with an array of community stalls, live bands, displays and raffles ... at John Powell Reserve in Guildford on Sunday 27 March.

BiØfil is a world-first fast charging system for Electric Vehicles (EVs) that is fully off-grid, self-contained and powered by used chip (vegetable) oil, a waste product ... “We’ve been isolated from the rest of Australia for too long, so once borders open up, BiØfil means all vehicles can travel across the Nullarbor, EVs included”: Jon Edwards, BiØfil inventor and retired engineer.

2019 saw the celebration of the 90th anniversary of the Mt Tarrengower hill-climb ... There are not very many combined car and motorcycle events in the Australian historic events calendar. This combination contributes to making the Mt Tarrengower hill-climb a unique event and one of the oldest such events in Australia ... The event was so popular in 2019 that capacity was reached within a week of entries being opened. 

Karen Harlan. Picnic Day weekend was no picnic at Tennant Creek Speedway, it was fast-paced, action-packed racing. With two titles up for grabs competitors from Katherine and Darwin ventured into town to take on the local drivers. Tennant Creek was holding the Street Stock Annual 60-Lapper and their new title event of North vs South for the NT Sedans.

Kendall Jennings. Before the tragedy struck at the 2021 Tatts Finke Desert Race, Barham local Riley Duncan piloted his motorcycle, a KTM500, to the 40th fastest time in Class Two of the Prologue with a six-minute 17.4 second time ... The first leg of the desert race from Alice Springs to Finke followed the old rail route near the most centre point of Australia – 226 kilometres of brutal Australian terrain, on the edge of the Simpson Desert, surrounded by mountain ranges and rock formations.

Geoff Helisma. When Keeley Pritchett’s phone rang he didn’t recognize the number, but he took the call … a call that steered his life a little wide of the mark while riding towards a bullseye. Just over two years ago, the Lower Clarence man was an apprentice motorcycle mechanic learning his trade in Sydney. Following that unexpected phone call, Pritchett ended up touring Tasmania with five other bikers and starring in the film Wide of the Mark.

Karen Jones If your backside wasn’t trackside on the weekend, you missed out on an action-packed weekend of racing. Two Northern Territory Titles were contested over the course of two nights. The NT Junior Sedan 2021 Title and the NT Wingless 2021 Title was up for grabs.

Motorsport fans had their popular Easter Brobenah Burnout Championships canned for the second time due to COVID. But the not-for-profit organisation, Brobenah Burnouts, is aiming to stage a three round championship series, kicking off next month, and are also concentrating on raising funds for a new burnout pad.