Sport
24 November, 2024
Raffle with a difference
Gilgandra District Speedway Club (GDSC) offered a unique raffle prize for Saturday’s race meeting, which was highly popular and seems set to return for the Australia Day January 2025 doubleheader, just a little more than two months away.
The GDSC decided to raffle off a first prize as a passenger seat in a race car – but the passenger also got to sit in the car while the driver was competing in events at Gilgandra Speedway on Saturday, November 16.
GDSC club secretary Louise Harland confirmed it is highly rare for passengers to be allowed in race vehicles. Dubbo’s Harry Barnes won the prize and sat alongside Gilgandra Speedway member Geoff Stuart, while Geoff raced his Ford Falcon #99 in the street stockers category. Remarkably, Geoff won the feature race in his division while Harry was alongside him for the night.
Comments on a post from the GDSC also informed the public that Harry was lent racing boots thanks to Jamie Kerr and thoroughly enjoyed the experience, asking questions about all aspects of speedway and keeping abreast of the other divisions racing on the night. He spent time looking at other cars and their set-ups in the pits.
“It was his (Harry’s) first time in a race car and first time at the speedway,” Louise Harland confirmed. “Harry spent the whole night sitting beside Geoff and was in the car for the win and the lap of honour.
“It’s something we want to do again, especially with our pair of big meetings coming up in January (when Gilgandra will host back-to-back race meetings on the Australia Day long weekend on January 25 and 26).”
Aside from the opening round of the Sprintcar Association of NSW (SANSW) Regional Rumble, Anca’s, street stockers, modlites, and all-star (12 years and up) and new stars (10–12 years) categories of racing were all part of the action.
The January doubleheader is a big weekend for the GDSC, who will race for the final time before a nine-month closure, with track upgrades taking place.
