HAMILTON INSPIRES INDIGENOUS MOTOR SPORT TEAM

Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton has thrown his support behind Australia’s Racing Together motorsport team, which achieved its best results yet in the X3 Queensland Championship for Hyundai Excels at Morgan Park Raceway.

The seven-time Formula 1 World Champion left a personal message for the team on a copy of Auto Action magazine’s Racing Together feature after chatting to team founder Garry Connelly, who was stewarding at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps during the Belgian Formula 1 Grand Prix.

Known as a passionate advocate for diversity and improving the representation of black people in motorsport, Hamilton was full of encouragement for Australia’s first indigenous motorsport team.

“To Racing Together, I am inspired to see you all coming together and the work you are putting in,” Hamilton’s handwritten message read.

“Keep pushing, keep chasing your dreams. So proud of you. Best wishes, Lewis Hamilton 44.”

The message preceded season-best results for Racing Together which finished 22nd, 24th, 21st and 21st in Round 3 of the Series X3 Queensland Championship for Hyundai Excels in Warwick.

Competing among a field of 40 machines, driver Braedyn Cidoni guided the team of ten Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander teenagers to midfield finishes in each race, despite suffering considerable front-end damage after a crash in Race 2.

“A lot of things could have gone better, but we still finished all the races and got our best results yet,” Cidoni said.

“The racing community has been pretty positive about Racing Together and we’re getting great feedback.”

Racing Together Indigenous Board member Taliqua Clancy also provided inspiration to the team last month when she won a beach volleyball silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics.

The program was launched late last year by motorsport figures Garry and Monique Connelly, with the aim to create opportunities for Indigenous people aged 12-16 to pursue motorsport careers as either drivers or race crew members.

Since its inception the initiative has garnered strong support from the motorsport community, including Triple Eight Race Engineering Team Principal Roland Dane, CEO of Shell V Power Racing Team Ryan Story and Bathurst 1000 winner Paul Morris.

An agreement has been reached for the program to expand to other parts of Australia and train participants in advanced driving, racing skills and wellbeing.

Racing Together will welcome a select number of new team members in 2022 after an Open Day selection process running at Norwell Motorplex on November 7 and November 14.

The project is supported by the national governing authority Motorsport Australia and Indigenous organisation Gunya Meta.

The final round of the Queensland Excel Cup will be held at Morgan Park Raceway from November 19-21.

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