Held in Harvey, about an hour south of Perth, Western Australia, the 2017 Charity Ride Day was a day of off-road racing fun, shared with kids from various charities and their families.
Wearing oversized helmets and sitting on booster seats, kids were treated to a ride in a race car around a 6km short course off-road track. With no intercoms connected, it was ‘thumbs up’ to go faster and ‘thumbs down’ to go slower. It’s fair to say ‘thumbs up’ won the race for the day!
The weather dressed to impress with sunshine all day long. The water tanker did a few laps to keep the dust down, creating some nice slippery gravel corners for the bigger kids who wanted to go a bit faster.
17 cars from the WA off-road racing community came along, including various types of buggies and 4WDs from all WA off-road racing clubs. Continuing the community spirit, drivers swapped cars and navigators had a turn in the drivers seat.
The sausage sizzle, cakes, cookies, fresh fruit, icecreams and lolly bags were a hit at lunch time, and the kids were absolutely chuffed when they were awarded their very own 1st medallions, hats and stickers.
We received a huge amount of interest from families again this year. Unfortunately some missed out but they have already expressed an interest in next year’s event. Keep an eye on our website and Facebook page early next year for all the info.
A huge thanks goes out to our event sponsors:
- Shire of Harvey
- Jeep Owners Club of WA
- St Johns Ambulance Harvey
- Harvey Fire and Rescue
- Confederation of Australian Motorsport (CAMS)
- Grant Hiab Waroona
- Cochrane’s Transport
- Matt Cook Transport Harvey
- CCR Hose and Fittings
- Charles Hull Contracting Waroona
- Pinjarra Bakery
- Pinjarra Meat Supply
- Pinjarra Engineering
- Active 24/7 Fitness
- Opposite Lock Bunbury
- Harvey Norman Electrical Bunbury
- Barbeques Galore Bunbury
- Bunbury Farmers Market
- Bunnings Australind
- Southern Custom Fabrication
- Discount Auto Parts Australind
- Whitey’s Tackle and Camping
- Supercheap Bunbury
- Bunbury 4×4
- Sodexo Boddington
- Coca Cola
- Harvey Fresh
- Chris Hill – Psycho Moose Racing
- George Metaxas – Ruger Racing Team
- Michael Davis
- Robert and Judith Guimelli
A special mention goes to Community Officer Blake Pugh for organising this fantastic event for the 7th year running and his organising committee Gary Howe, Big-Al Joyce, and Wozza. Blake brings continued enthusiasm and new ideas that are the driving force behind the success of this event.
Massive thanks to Clerk of Course Danni Joyce who clocked 15km of walking around the pits to make sure everything ran smoothly. Thanks to James Kenneison for his liaison and coordination with various charities, and to all the volunteers and officials who helped out on the day – from helping kids in and out of cars, controlling traffic, finding helmets to fit the little ones, cooking the bbq, serving the food, to marking the track, and packing it all up again, and of course all the drivers who took their cars down for the day – there were too many to name!
To the kids and their families who participated – thanks to you all for coming along and sharing our love of off-road racing for a day. We hope the event made memories that the kids will talk about so much that it drives the parents crazy!
You can check out some of the action from the day on our Instagram page (www.instagram.com/waorra) and keep an eye on our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/waorra) over the next few days for more photos and videos.
Regards,
Kim Yaxley
WAORRA President.