Above right: Cranbourne driver Kellie Banks with her Rookie of the Year trophy from the Melbourne Mini Sprint Club.By Paul Pickering
CRANBOURNE’S Kellie Banks isn’t interested in how her mini sprint car crosses the finish line – as long as she gets it there in a hurry.
Banks, 24, was recently named as the Rookie of the Year for the Melbourne Mini Sprint Club, finishing sixth overall in her first season of speedway racing.
But this isn’t your typical motorsport junky. Banks leaves all of the mechanical dirty work to her father, Norm, who is a long-time sprint car enthusiast.
“He does pretty much everything,” Banks explained this week.
“He still doesn’t let me touch – he thinks I’ll break it or something,” she laughed.
And that’s okay with the driver. She’s content to stick to the fun part of tearing up Victoria’s dusty speedway circuits.
“I just want to improve and have fun,” she said, reflecting on a whirlwind season that ended in June.
“In my first season, I didn’t think I’d do too well at all, so I was really happy with where I came.”
Her sixth overall placing was a handy accomplishment, given that she got behind the wheel for the first time last October.
Banks has no plans to take the speedway scene by storm just yet, but she is proud to be representing the girls in a male-dominated domain.
She has also developed a friendly rivalry with fellow Cranbourne speed queen Amy Phillips, who finished seventh in the same class this season.
