LOCAL LEGENDS
SOMETIMES it takes a village. And that is exactly what it has taken to get Townsville driver Robert Horsfall to realise his dream of racing on the Reid Park circuit.
It has taken a community effort to build his Nissan 180SX from the ground up with all local businesses coming together to support him. It will all come to fruition this weekend when Horsfall rolls out on to the track as part of the NQ Supersprint support race for the NTI Townsville Supersprint.
It is the first time local drivers have had the opportunity to join the Supercars Championship as a support category, and the first event to host support categories since the resumption of the championship.
More than 70 local drivers will hit the hybrid circuit at Reid Park and will be broadcast on Fox Sports as part of its weekend coverage.
“It’s a great opportunity,” Horsfall said. “We have a lot of local drivers that do it (racing) nationally so it’s good for them to race in front of their home crowd.”
Drivers, many of which have never raced in a professional setting, have been preparing their cars for months leading up to the event and the Townsville community has been more than happy to help.
Horsfall has spent the last 18 months building his car and said that he used local businesses to help him with the finishing touches, including major sponsors Performance Parts Plus in Currajong.
“There has been a lot of support,” he said. “I have recently just done a full service on my car so all my fluids, filters, I’ve repainted the car and everything was bought locally.
“It’s very exciting to finally be able to race on a national circuit in our home town and to show the government that there is a lot of motorsport up here and people are interested and how it can help local businesses thrive.
“Hopefully, if we can display that we’re up to the level to attend these events, it would be a great opportunity to do it year on year.”