By RUSSELL BENNETT
SPRINT car racing has been in the news for all the wrong reasons in recent weeks following an accident involving NASCAR champion Tony Stewart that resulted in the death of another driver.
But Clyde teenager Ebony Hobson is determined to put the exciting sport on the map in all the right ways – she’s hell-bent on forging a career of her own in the US.
When the Gazette last caught up with Ebony on her motor racing journey last year, she’d won back-to-back Victorian ladies’ gokart crowns and had second and third placings to her name from open races in Tasmania and Queensland.
She dreamt of making the step up into Sprint Cars, and that mission has since been accomplished.
She has just raced in the wingless sprint cars and in March was accepted into a program called Speedway Australia Rising Stars through the Australian Institute of Sport where she learns about nutrition and both the physical and mental side of motorsport.
Ebony dreams of forging a career in the States and she looks to have even secured a drive in a couple of weeks.
“I didn’t think I’d be having a skid in America already,” the 18-year-old told the News, still stunned.
“I’ve won Rookie of the Year for the wingless sprints which is huge – I didn’t think I was going to do that either.
“I didn’t see any of this happening but the (AIS) program has boosted it – it’s really got my name out there a lot more.”
Ebony, who has been involved in racing for over a decade already, had planned on going over to the States for a holiday with her dad and brother and now it looks like she’s secured a short-term drive in California.
“It’s massive over there – you’d never see anything else like it,” she said of the American sprint car scene.
“They pretty much drive around on one wheel – just sitting on their right rear around the whole track.
“It’s massive over there – the racing is just huge.”
The cars Ebony is racing in are light with a lot of horsepower, and she’s had to master the fine art of throttle control, but she can’t wait to get stuck into the next chapter of her journey.
“I raced 11 races in the wingless last season and finished second and second on one night in a feature, with a fourth and a third in another,” she said.
“I’m slowly getting there – I’m just that one spot away from winning.
“I just want someone to look at the girls in the wingless racers say ‘Hey, maybe they’ve got the potential to step into the bigger cars on make a career of it’.”
