GREEN LIGHT

> JASMINE GREEN WINS THE 2020 LAURIE STARLING SCHOLARSHIP

AT THIS year’s Valvoline SMOTY VIP party (see page 174 for the full story), the 2020 Laurie Starling Scholarship for Innovation and Excellence in Automotive Fabrication was awarded to the motivated and talented Jasmine ‘Jazzy’ Green. Given what the 25-year-old mini-truck enthusiast has already achieved while working from her back shed, we can’t wait to see how her talent grows throughout the scholarship.

Jazzy not only fabricates metal panels from scratch, but she has also turned her hand to spray painting, mechanical and electrical. “The only thing I don’t know how to do is trim,” Jazzy says. “I love metal – that’s my favourite – but I want to learn motor trimming, as it’s a new field.”

It’s all part of Jazzy’s larger plan: “My partner Michael has started Woza’s Fabrication, so I’d like to partner in business with him while bringing my own skills as a trimmer. Then together we can do full car builds.”

The barista was stoked to hear she’d won the generous $4000 Laurie Starling Scholarship, which she plans to put towards paying for a trimming course. “I found out two weeks before Summernats, when I got a call from Rob Starling, though I couldn’t tell anyone that I got it. I was pretty happy!”

Jazzy’s substantial skill-set has seen her homebuilding a ’bagged, Ls1-powered ’91 Toyota Hilux mini-truck over the past six years. “I’ve learned most things by asking questions to all of my friends in the car community – everyone is really helpful,” she says.

“I plan to finish the Hilux by the end of the year; it now needs to be signed off for the engineer’s certificate,” she continues. “Once the welding is signed off, the bare-metal chassis can be pulled apart for powdercoating. Then it’s on to the interior, which I’ll soon learn how to do. It’ll be a dark brown, and I’d like to combine metal into it, too.”

Building a car in her home shed on a barista’s wage is a tough way to go about it, but Jasmine (pictured above with Summernats founder Chic Henry) isn’t scared of hard work to achieve her dreams. “On a trip to the USA in 2018, I called into a Texan wrecking yard and got them to cut the wide guards off an American Toyota Tacoma ute,” she says. “I then found someone with an angle grinder at the Scrapin’ The Coast minitruck show I was going to in Mississippi, and I cut the parts up so they fit in my suitcase. Once I got home, I welded them back together and then welded them all into my truck”