He’s too young to drive on our roads.
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But that hasn’t stopped 15-year-old Ryan Harris from tearing up the track at speedway events across the state – and now building his own car to do so.
Ryan has been racing junior speedway events for around 12 months, following in the tyre marks of his father Lyle.
Feeling his previous car was a little under-powered, Ryan – with the help of his parents and sponsors – bought a 1996 Hyundai Excel 1500cc five-speed, stripping it back to its bare bones before fitting it out ready for the racetrack.
He did much of the rebuild himself, including the bodywork, fabrication and race livery – “everything bar the engine” Lyle said.
Ryan had valued assistance and input from Kip Barker and Kalaru Automotive as well as Andrew White from major sponsor Kings Smash Repairs. PPG Paints supplied them with the paint to finish the job.
White said he more than happy to lend a hand, after the shy Ryan made the approach himself, rather than having Lyle do it for him.
“It’s great and gives them more confidence going forward,” White said of Ryan’s car building experience.
The work has taken up all Ryan’s spare time – nights, days and weekends – for around four months, but his eye-catching fluorescent green and blue Excel is ready to race.
“Full credit to him for what he’s put in,” Lyle said.
Ryan said stripping the car back to a bare shell and then building it all back up from scratch was a great learning experience.
There’s even a plan to use his efforts towards the major project section of a Duke of Edinburgh Award.
Ryan gave his new car a test run at Sapphire Speedway, but its true debut with full race livery was on the weekend at Dubbo.
And he performed exceptionally.
Ryan said it drove like a dream “and still looks good!”
He won every heat and in the final was only slightly under-powered against the larger engines to finish second.
After a few tweaks he is off to Warrnambool, Victoria, this coming Saturday – with the longer term aim possible national title contention in Darwin next year.