Ararat Car Club, Westmere Come and Try Motorkhana

Yahoooo!!!  What a day, we took 5 very excited drivers to Westmere on Saturday to have a go and hone their skills driving cars.  They were, Connor, Corbyn, James, Bailey L and Ben D.  Unfortunately we had to leave another 5 eager participants at home, due to date clashes with their families.

For Corbyn and Connor it was getting in some instruction and learning the courses that we do as part of participating in, Motorkhanas.  They had a blast improving their times over the session and showing real flair behind the wheel.

While, James, Bailey and Ben, where there to try driving on their own without an adult in the car and then as they proved they could do this responsibly, we added the skill of using the handbrake to turn the car around the flags quicker.

All our drivers showed big improvements over the day both on the stop watch and in the attitude of the car while they were out on the courses.

Due to state Covid restrictions, parents were not allowed to attend, so pictures of the cars in action are proving hard to source.

Congratulations to Kerry Delaney who passed her practical assessment of her official’s licence, now the all important online section to go!!!  After my coaching role in the morning I spent a large part of Saturday afternoon on the stopwatch for the ‘Adult Come & Try’ event, our sport requires officials to run and Kerry would love a hand with carpooling too as she has been our designated Uber for the last few events now.

The next event is looking like a Christmas party race weekend in mid- December.  This will be an all ages and experience welcomed event, so keep an eye out for more details soon.

The ‘Terang Terrors’ are already working hard behind the scenes trying to get the finishing touches on our second trailer, as it looks like we will need 2 cars with this many drivers at the next event.  They have also commenced work on an engine swap and a few improvements for Cee Dee after its return from Prosser’s Panels in Camperdown last week.  Looking amazing in a stunning black number now, after the professional touch Prosser’s did with the spray gun, in making our car shine better than, off the showroom floor!!!  Thanks to Kelly and the team for making this dream a reality.

There are big plans and hopes for Cee Dee as we take a car that was pretty competitive and give it some more horsepower, better steering responsiveness and hopefully tweak the suspension a bit more, in an effort to give our students a more competitive car.  All this takes time and money and even though they work every lunchtime and Friday nights after school, the amount of work we need completed in the timeline will be extraordinary.  Then of course we will need a few $$$$ to complete the project, something we are struggling with as we cannot run a fundraiser with the current Covid restrictions.  If you can be like Prosser’s Panels and support the students in any way, they would be highly deserving of your donations and even more appreciative, our students are doing the hard yards!!!!

Stop the presses, Mick from Mick’s Stickers in Terang has come on board once again and produced some great graphics for Bourkey’s Tyres to help us celebrate the hard work Pat and the team do keeping our tyres in good shape and making sure the wheels are all pointing in the right direction!!!!  Mick’s Stickers have also produced a sticker to help with fundraising.  Look out for details of how you can get your own piece of Terang College Race Crew fan range to pimp your ride!!!  Thanks Mick!!!!

As always stay safe and please pat our crew members on the back, they are doing a great job in a tough year and building a fantastic feeling in the garage as they do it.  The big influx of new members has been fantastic to see and now we need to convert that to getting them to race meets, to have a go!!!

Trevor Ellington.