Harper and Slayter Brown have just competed in the Queensland State Cart Championships and now have their sights set on Australian Go Cart Nationals next year.
The 13 and 11 year old sister and brother from Wonglepong have racing in their blood, following in the footsteps of their mother, Nicole and her husband, Luke and father Craig Lynch.
Tamborine Mountain State High School Student Harper started at just six years’ old and Slayter began his racing at five.
“They wanted to have a go and the rest is history,” laughed Nicole.
The pair are part of the Warrick Cart Club and train once a month and race a couple of times a month.
Unfortunately, Nicole said they had many issues at the championships and although Harper made it into the top ten, they missed out on getting into the finals.
Slayter was bumped off the track and then had a flat tyre, while Harper struggled with grip level due to the amount of the rubber on the track.
“They were very disappointed. We thought Slayter had made the final and we prepped his cart for the morning and had to break the news to him he’d just missed out,” Nicole said.
“It’s a brutal sport.”
However, she said they love the speed and adrenaline rush.
“They like the butterflies they get in their stomach sitting on the grid waiting for the race,” Nicole explained.
Harper drives a cart with a 100cc engine and Slayter has a 60cc engine, getting up to speeds of 105km an hour.
Nicole said there has certainly been scary moments.
Harper has had break failure and a stuck throttle causing her to run into a fence as well as someone drive over the top of her and hit her head.
“Sometimes I wonder what we are doing putting them out there, but they love it. They don’t think about what could go wrong when you are out there,” she laughed.
“We’ve been trying to get them out of it but that’s not working. It keeps us busy and poor.”
With dreams to compete next year in the Nationals, the young athletes will be looking at sponsorship opportunities to go that next step to cover costs of travel around the country.
By Cindy Lever
