Females dare to dream at Shannons Nationals
Monday 23 September, 2019
Photo: Revved Photography and CAMS Media
It’s been a busy start to the school holiday period for Dare to Be Different (D2BD) with a number of young females taking part in two big events in Victoria.
The first of two special days took place at the Melbourne International Karting Complex in Port Melbourne where groups from Middle Park, Glen Waverley and Cheltenham Primary Schools, along with carsales employees and friends got an insight into the wonderful world of motor sport.
While the groups participated in the popular activities that take place at most D2BD events, including the STEM and pit stop challenges, the participants switched the simulator for the kart as they got to cut laps in a go-kart on one of Victoria’s most famous karting tracks.
Overseeing the program was a host of D2BD ambassadors including Triple Eight’s Romy Mayer, Erebus’ Bonnie Beard, carsales’ Nadine Armstrong and Nissan Motorsport’s data engineer Nikki Staltari, as well as Solve Consulting and Karting Australia.
On the other side of the city the following day, another lucky group of girls were given a special behind the scenes look at life at a race meeting during the Shannons Nationals’ visit to Sandown International Raceway.
On top of doing the usual activities, the girls were back on the Motum Simulator, posting laps on the world’s most famous race tracks, an activity which has proven quite popular in the past.
Adding to the experience, the young females got an exclusive tour into the garages of the competing categories, including the carsales TCR Australia Series and the brand new S5000 Series cars.
The D2BD participants also got access onto the iconic race track ahead of each category’s daily race to take part in the grid walk and get up close and personal with cars and drivers.
The Dare To Be Different program moves to Queensland for its next event, taking place at Virgin Australia Supercars Championship team Triple Eight Race Engineering’s headquarters on 17 October.