By Dean Thompson
Warragul’s Ally Morrison is Victoria’s number-one Ladies Standard Saloon driver having gone back to back in the last two state titles ran at Nyora Raceway.
Now the gun driver has her eyes on a third state title having set the standard so far this year, winning round one of the Ladies state series in Bairnsdale and setting a lap time faster than any of the men racing that night.
She also won a heat race recently against all-comers at Rosedale in the Rosedale Christmas Classic.
The 19-year-old races for Drouin businesspeople Brad Hill and his partner Krystel, in a friendship that has evolved after Brad was involved in Morrison’s initial entry into the sport.
As a junior, Morrison learnt her craft by watching and observing her father Dale Morrison, who lives in Pakenham and was a former racer himself.
“I have always been a part of Ally’s racing, Quarter Midgets where it all began, her XF Falcon Standard Saloon and her little Datsun 1200cc,” Hill explained.
“It is there I watched her constantly learn and want to get better and her passion for racing just grew and grew.
“Ally had some good success in the Junior Standard Saloons until everyday life, school took up a lot of her time, and racing was put on the back burner.
“She was then driving here and there in different cars, and you could see that she still had immense drive to compete and succeed in the sport that she loved so much.
“The turning point for her speedway career was when she moved into the senior racing and was offered a drive in the Ladies’ state title by Russell Hill in his XD Falcon at Rosedale.
“Not only did she compete, but actually come home in second place.
“After seeing the smile on her face and the competitive edge in her, I knew we needed to get her into another front running car and on a permanent basis.
“I made a suggestion to Krystel, and she was very supportive agreeing ‘let’s make it happen’.
“We decided to build her a BA Falcon with the best of everything to give her the best chance.”
The build was started, however wasn’t completed by the time the next state title come around at Nyora.
“She jumped in my car for the race meeting and won her first Victorian title,” Hill said.
“After that, we worked hard to get her new car finished to get laps in to both her and the new car.
“That is exactly what we did and when title time come around once again I knew she had the ability to do it all again and the car to go along with it.
“Ally then won her second Victorian state title at Nyora.
“Her success has kept on rolling with win after win heading into her state title at Bairnsdale this month with hopes to go three in a row. “
At Bairnsdale on Boxing Day a win in the first round of the Ladies Standard Saloon Victorian series put Morrison on top of the series with four rounds left travelling to Rosedale, Drouin, Nyora, and Alexandra Speedways.
Morrison is now focussing on the three-peat attempt on 28 January at Bairnsdale Speedway where she is expecting to be up against tough competition including former state champions and perhaps some surprise entries.
Morrison is fully immersed right now in car preparation, something Brad Hill also says she excels at.
“A lot of people don’t see behind the scenes with the race team and think the car just turns up to racetrack or that I do everything on the car and she drives it, but in reality it’s very different,” he said.
“The number of hours that Ally put into this car’s build; and still puts in every week with maintenance and repairs is next level.
“She could pretty much build that car from top to bottom herself with how much she has learned over the past few years.
“I’m happy to have her not only as a part of our team…but of our family.”
