Harris Green “didn’t really believe it” when he snapped up two awards at the Huntly Speedway Ministock Prizegiving in May.
The 13-year-old racer received the Mentors Choice for Most Improved First Year Driver and also picked up Personality of the Pits which was voted for by his peers.
The young zoomer, who was also a year-9 student at Hauraki Plains College, said the personality award meant the others really enjoyed having him in the pit. “They obviously think I am a cool character to have around,” he said.
Ministock racing was important to Harris’ family – the people he looked up to in the sport.
“My family has been in it for years, my dad used to crew for Greg Simpson, my older brothers [Thomas and Jared] were also into racing thanks to dad, so that got me interested. I reckon I was lucky not to be born at the track,” he said.
“Mum and dad are really supportive of my racing journey.”
When it comes to his own ministock car, Harris knows it inside and out.
“My ministock has a steel frame with [a] Datsun 120Y motor in it, a fibreglass body with a steel bonnet, steel side plates for the motor and a steel scoop at the front of the car to make all the air go to [the] radiator.”
It has a steel wing, a quick release steering wheel and 4 point harnesses with a window net, he said.
“My seat is a Kirkey 15ml, I have ratchet belts, [and a] fully steel roll cage. All the steel work is silver, the aluminium and fibreglass body is black with my dads company logo on it which is Ross Green Contracting. My 4 point harness is hot pink which represents Breast Cancer.”
The biggest improvement he said he made during the ministock season was on his drive lines and making sure he knew when and where to pass, he said.
He also managed to get his “set-ups” right at all the different tracks thanks to his brother, Thomas.
The thing that goes through his mind before a take off was “please don’t flip, please don’t jump the start”, he said.
Besides speed, one skill Harris said he believed made a good ministock driver was the ability to stay calm under pressure.
Another top skill was “putting the car in nice and smoothly to the corners”.
He would love his journey to one day lead him to racing a stock car tank, he said, but in the meantime, his next goal was to win ministocks at Paradise Valley in Rotorua by “sharpening up my skills”.
He wanted to win it for his next birthday on February 26.
“I love to drive and just focus on the track to achieve my goal of winning.”
The young racer’s advice for other first year ministock drivers was simple: “take the first couple of meetings slow and when you are confident, go full noise and race your own race”, he said.
“Or as my brother says ‘’lick the stamp and send it’.”
By DAVIDDA HIKATANGATA
