Junior drag racing ban forces Canning Vale driver to head east

ALL Canning Vale resident Madison Brown wants to do is spend her time down at the race track, indulging in her passion.

Unfortunately, that passion – junior drag racing – is currently banned by the State Government.

The government banned junior drag racing following the tragic death of eight-year-old Anita Board when she crashed at Perth Motorplex in November, pending the results of a police investigation.

MORE: junior drag racing banned in WA

Eight months on, the police investigation into the crash remains ongoing and so the government’s ban remains in place.

Brown is one of many junior racers patiently waiting to return to the track, and the Carey Baptist College student said the ban was tough on the drivers who had done nothing wrong.

“Most of us, we don’t have anything else to go to, we don’t have another sport,” she said.

“It’s not like soccer, where we can go down to the park and play.”

Her mother Justine said the junior racers were currently unsure of when the ban would be lifted.

“Everyone’s been told to carry on, get back in and do it again, but we’re not being permitted to,” she said.

“The only option for the ones who can is to travel, but unfortunately a lot of kids don’t have the option transport-wise or cost-wise to get there.”

In August, Brown will head off to her first race since the ban, the Sunset Strip Junior Nationals in Mildura, Victoria.

Her father Ian, a former WA drag racing champion, said his daughter was looking forward to the trip, but they could not have waited any longer.

“We keep saying ‘a couple more weeks and we’ll be right,’ but we’ve been saying that for three months,” he said.

“The year before (the ban), she finished second in the state and sixth in Australia for that season, the next season the ban came in and that was it.”

Mrs Brown admitted the frustration was growing with every day and not every junior drag racer could afford to travel.

“You see other kids doing junior sports like go karts, motocross, we’ve waited and waited, but can’t wait any longer,” she said.

“There’s also the frustration, we’ve got to get time off work, you feel bad leaving the ones behind who can’t go.”