Kayla Green displayed plenty of promise in the first meeting of her short Australian tour driving for Green Brothers Racing last Saturday night.
Coming off a successful debut season racing winged midgets from her adopted home in northern California, Kayla stepped into the #74 Maxim to contest the $10,000 sprintcar feature at Whyalla Speedway in South Australia.
However, the team faced challenges just to make the event, as a problem developed with the intended power plant on Friday night.
“Thankfully long time supporter Ian Binding from Steve Wicks and Sons pulled his own engine out for us to use,” reflected team spokesman Trevor Green.
“With the assistance of Gary Hall, Brad Ferrall and Andrew Rogers, we were able to thrash things pretty furiously and get it all done, which gave us time to make the nearly 400km trip to race.
Despite being her first run back Down Under this season – and only the second time ever seated in a 410 sprintcar – Kayla impressed with her composure and race craft during the meeting.
After placing 10th in time trials, she claimed fifth place in her opening heat and then a brilliant second spot in the second heat, which included a great dice with eventual feature race winner Brad Keller.
“Kayla had the lead and Brad threw a number of sliders at her in that heat,” outlined her uncle Trevor.
“But she knew when to keep her foot in it and drive back around Brad, but also knew when to concede the racing line and back off.
“That’s probably one of the more difficult parts of sprintcar racing ... picking your time and keeping out of trouble.
“So to see her so composed in her first up meeting was great and really shows the racing experience Kayla is beginning to develop, particularly from the past season in the US.
“I must admit I totally misread the conditions in setting the car for the A-main after some track work.
“However, Kayla again displayed plenty of fight to come home in eighth spot, so all up, given the challenges, we were pretty wrapt with the results.”
Green Brothers Racing have now travelled to Sydney where the promising teenager will take part in Saturday’s development sprintcar night on a more familiar venue at Valvoline Raceway.
It will provide a chance to further prepare before she contests the upcoming International series at Valvoline over the Christmas-New Year period.
The team would also like to thank Garry Isom from GI Safety Soulutions for supplying Kayla a set of tourquetube crash blocks which protect the driver’s legs.
We all know how important safety is in sprintcar racing and we can’t thank Gary enough for his support.
Supporting Green Brothers Racing 2017-18 campaign are: Natrad Radiators and Auto Air, SA Motorcycles, Active Vac, Vin’s Mini Buses, Steve Wicks Powder Coaters, Titan Garages And Sheds, Monster Slam, Go Left Designs, Florite Coatings, Freightmasters, Green Welding, Dennis and Dottie Farr, Murray Machining and Sheds, Vortex Wings, BJ Signs and GI Safety Solutions.