As the dirt flies at the Narrogin speedway, some of the drivers are as young as 11 years old as the juniors get behind the wheel.<\/p>\n
While some of them are not old enough to drive on normal roads, they are provided with the training to race safely.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Narrogin Quarter Midget Youth Speedway project has been running for more than 20 years. (ABC Great Southern: Rosemary Murphy)<\/p>\n
Among them is rookie Lilly Kulker, who decided to give it a go after seeing her brother race.<\/p>\n
“It looked really cool so I decided to try it myself,” the 11-year-old said.<\/p>\n
“At first I get really nervous, but once I’m out on the track it goes away.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u00a0Lilly Kulker preparing her car for racing. (ABC Great Southern: Rosemary Murphy)<\/p>\n
They are racing quarter midget cars, scaled-down race cars that can reach speeds of up to 75 kilometres per hour.<\/p>\n
Six of those racing are part of the Narrogin Quarter Midget Youth Speedway Project, which aims to make speedway racing more affordable and accessible.<\/p>\n
The group ranges in age from 11 to 16.<\/p>\n
The project provides the cars, maintenance training and senior mentors to guide the young drivers through the season.<\/p>\n
The drivers also do their own fundraising.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Organisers say the safety of drivers is the top priority. (ABC Great Southern: Rosemary Murphy)<\/p>\n
Future skills<\/p>\n
Former member Ryan Donnelly, 16, has raced for four years and saved up for his own car.<\/p>\n
“I did lawn moving and clean-up for the real estate agent,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I’m really proud of how it turned out.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ryan Donnelly took on various jobs to earn money to go towards his own car. (ABC Great Southern: Rosemary Murphy)<\/p>\n
The project was started in 2000 when police officer Trevor Cruickshank was stationed in the town.<\/p>\n
“I bought eight cars and all the safety equipment,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It was aimed at kids who didn’t play sport because we have so much sport in this town. This was just something different for them.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Cars are inspected before racing starts. (ABC Great Southern: Rosemary Murphy)<\/p>\n
Mr Cruickshank said it was more than just racing.<\/p>\n
“You’ve got to learn about the car, how to use a fire extinguisher because of the fuel involved,” he said.<\/p>\n
“They had first aid sessions, we got people to teach them how to public speak \u2026 if they win an award.<\/p>\n
“It gives kids skills for future life.”<\/p>\n
Long-term link<\/p>\n
Jasmin Ellis is now one of the mentors.<\/p>\n
“My dad came home one day and told me that he met someone at work and that I would be racing,” she said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jasmin Ellis loves the opportunity to race against her sister. (ABC Great Southern: Rosemary Murphy)<\/p>\n
“I was not happy because I didn’t want to race, and so I said, ‘Absolutely not.’\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I ended up test-driving a car and loving it, so I started off for about two years and then my sister joined, and we’re still here 10 years later.”<\/p>\n
Group secretary Toni Strange said it was a tight community on and off the track.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Spectators at an event in Narrogin. (ABC Great Southern: Rosemary Murphy)<\/p>\n
“We go to the different events all over WA and we all camp together,” she said.<\/p>\n
“There are lots of past members who are still racing as seniors that we see at the different events.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the dirt flies at the Narrogin speedway, some of the drivers are as young as 11 years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[214199,64,63,5214,3152,199353,214196,214197,822,39321,85,45,214198],"class_list":["post-403510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-alternatives-to-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-community","tag-motorsports","tag-narrogin","tag-quarter-midget","tag-race-cars","tag-racing","tag-speedway","tag-sports","tag-wa-news","tag-young-racers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}