Press Releases
Jan 26, 2012
Thomas Davies Selected As 2012 Speedway Australia Rising Star
Thomas Davies of Narrogin Western Australia has been selected as a 2012 Speedway Australia Rising Star
Despite being only 19 years of age, Thomas' racing career already spans 13 years, dating back to his Dirt Kart debut in 1998. After a displaying promising talent at such a young age, Thomas' father invested in better equipment and began travelling away from Narrogin for race meetings. By 2001 the youngster was on the pace with the top WA competitors, and travelled to Adelaide for the national titles where he would place 9th.
In 2002, Davies finally met the age restrictions in place for Speedway at the time, and was able to step into a Quarter Midget at local track, Narrogin Speedway and across the south of WA. Thomas began racking up feature wins and championships in both karts and Speedway.
In 2008 Thomas focussed his attention solely on Speedway, when at 16 years old, he graduated to the Formula 500 category. In his F500 rookie year, Thomas topped the points at his local track and was named 'Rookie of the Year' by the state association.
Thomas continued to race in Formula 500 in multiple cars over the next several seasons before using his racing knowledge and experience to upgarde his car to suit his driving style.
"During the 2011 off season, I re-engineered my own chassis to be more up to date with current cars, and I built my own wings and designed my own aerofoils, which work very well. I now run a standard setup, which suits my driving style, and the tracks we race on in Australia," reported Davies.
The changes are paying off for Thomas, who is in the midst of his most successful and consistent campaign yet. He recently competed in the gruelling Oval Express Formula 500 Series, achieving a podium finish at Simpson Speedway (3rd), finishing every A Main race during the championship and finishing 5th on the points standings table at the end of the season.
Thomas is aiming to use his time as a 2012 Speedway Australia Rising Star to achieve his short term goal of improving his racing fitness and assist in long term goals of graduating to a 410 Sprintcar and competing in America.
"My current fitness improvement this year has made a huge difference to my levels of concentration on the race track, but I am ready to take it to the next level," said Davies. "In the near future I endeavour to travel to America to compete in the Pennsylvanian Speedweek, rumoured to be the toughest series in America."
"I eventually want to race 410 Sprintcars competitively in Australia, and then hopefully in America. I will only advance from Formula 500’s when I feel I have learnt as much as I can from the competing in the division. I do not do things half hearted, but when the time comes that I can afford it or I receive an offer to race for a sprintcar team I will move up."
Participants in the 2012 Rising Star Program will travel to the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra during the first half of the year for an intensive 3 day camp with Australia's best sporting trainers and experts.
Stay tuned to speedwayaustralia.com.au over the coming weeks as the 2012 Speedway Australia Rising Stars are introduced. You can also stay up to date on all of the drivers' latest results and updates at the brand new, dedicated Rising Stars Facebook page via https://www.facebook.com/speedwayrisingstars.
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