Adrian “Horse” Christian stands beside his trusty steed. PHOTO: Kirsty Daniel
The very first time Adrian “Horse” Christian drove a race car, his daughter Grace stood on the sidelines crying hysterically, worried something would happen to him.
Now, she’s one of his biggest fan and yelling at him to go faster!
Adrian raced in the Formula 500 class for five seasons and after driving his mate’s Limited Sportsman, he brought one, swapped classes and sold his F500. This is his 3rd season.
Adrian is currently ranked as Vic 2, he had his first feature win last weekend and has had no major stacks; so he goes alright.
The race for Dean Baker started before the car even got to the track. He has been racing to finish the restoration to his 32 year old Limited Sportsman car to get it to the Blue Ribbon Raceway this weekend.
“For the last 4 months, I have spent every spare moment working on the restoration. I’m doing in as a tribute to a great family friend who helped me build the vehicle originally, Reg Luy, who was killed in an accident about 4 years ago. It’s a passion project”, says Dean Baker from Dimboola.
Mark Cowin is a veteran of Speedway. He has been involved in Speedway since the 70’s and after living in Canada for 35 years, he has settled with Beulah.
Mark’s partner Leanne Shanks is co-owner, co-driver and co-suffer of Classic Stock Car 77.
“I’ve been involved with hotrod speedway since grassroots level. Back then they’d whack a few bars around you, a lap-belt and send you out on the track. Things have changed a lot since then”, said Mark.
Micka has literally grown up on at Blue Ribbon Raceway. The late Jenny Simpson, would pack up Micka & her son Dylan from about the age of 4 and take them out to watch the speedway. From the age of 12, Micka started nagging for his own car to race – which didn’t happen. So he volunteered at the track until he turned 18 and begun to race.
This is Micka’s second car. The first, a XF Falcon Street Stock was written off on the track. The wreck had to be craned off the track, they attempted to rebuild it but it was too far gone.
Name doesn’t ring a bell? No? Kathryn isn’t new to racing, this is her 11th year. Up until a few months ago she was Kathryn Wilken. Kathryn made sure she had the race car mechanic work secured for life by marrying her mechanic, Brendan, who she met 10 years ago at the Blue Ribbon Raceway.
