Successful start to teen’s race career
After success in his first serious season racing, a Manawatū teen hopes to keep rising through the motorsport ranks.
Feilding’s Cooper Cooley, 16, has been having a successful season racing in the GTRNZ series in his debut year.
Cooper started racing go karts when he was 8. He got his motorsport license at Manfeild, got his first Honda Civic and has recently upgraded to another one, which he is racing in the GTRNZ series.
“I started out doing club events in the local events at Manfeild in the last six months. I bought this [car] in November and started racing nationally around the North Island.”
He said missed the first round of the series before he got his new car, but since then had won nine races.
The Feilding High School student felt he had adapted well to racing at that level.
“I was just expecting to try and transition to the car a little bit and I picked it up quite quickly.
“I learnt the car quite quickly and put my skills to use which seemed to pay off.”
The final round of the series is at Hampton Downs this weekend and Cooper hoped to finish in the top three for the championship.
He said he had always been keen on motor racing, but wanted to take it to the next level and keep racing.
His next goal was to move into the TR86 Championship
He is going to a test day at Hampton Downs later in the year where he hoped to be selected for the Hampton Downs academy. About 100 drivers go to the test day then a top four are selected for a shootout for the scholarship.
If selected he would get $37,000 to race a TR86 car. He also hoped to be selected for the GTRNZ scholarship, which was based off the series.