Some of the state’s best and brightest up-and-coming speedway drivers descended on the Newtown Park Speedway on Saturday night as Northwest Speedway Club Narrabri hosted the 2025/26 Racing Sedans Australia NSW Junior Title event.
Some of the competitors were homegrown Narrabri drivers, while others travelled from across the state to compete.
The junior drivers contested three eight-lap heats across the evening to determine their starting positions for the 25-lap feature, which was won by Levi Payne for the second year in a row after the Singleton teenager took out the event in Goulburn earlier this year.
Narrabri’s Hunter Smith finished third in the 2024/25 NSW Titles and went one better this season as he clinched second place in front of a supportive home crowd.
The local driver started the feature from pole position after winning all three of his heats, and both he and Levi tussled for top spot throughout the 25-lap race.
Hunter managed to secure the fastest lap time of all the junior drivers across the night in that race, but the Singleton driver eventually took out first place again.
The NSW Junior Title event was Hunter’s last, given that he will age out of the junior division in February. He said he now plans to go after a title in the fast fours senior division next year.
Rounding out the top five in the all stars division were Newcastle’s Ethan Eveleigh in third and then Bailey Jackson in fourth place and Keira Bailey in fifth place.
The new stars title was taken out by Tamworth youngster Charlie Phillips, who is a member of the Narrabri club. In just his fifth race meeting, he finished sixth out of 17 junior drivers and was the top-ranked new stars driver in the feature race, seeing off Bree Besant, who was the second-placed new star.
The third-placed new star was another Narrabri driver, Eleanor Shoobert, who continues to excel in the sport as she claimed a podium title finish in just her third race meeting.
She finished 11th overall in the feature race, and her sister Olivia Shoobert ended up seventh.
Photos: Nic Pic NSW and Leslie Hardman
Northwest Speedway Club Narrabri president Michael Shoobert told The Courier that it was an action-packed night, and that the standard of the junior racing on show was quite high.
“It went really good. We had more than 200 people on the hill there to support and about 40 cars there,” Shoobert said.
“It was really good to see so many on the hill, especially with how hot it was.
“We had 17 juniors there for the title. Eight girls and nine boys.
“The junior racing was nice and clean, and it was really good to watch. Everyone drove really well.
“It was a really good night for the club. We had second in the all stars and first and third in the new stars.
“It was just awesome for us. We’re stoked to have Narrabri people do well, and we’re really happy that the new stars title winner is from our club.”
There were three other divisions in action on the night, which included fender benders, fast fours and street stockers.
Podium finishers in those events are as follows:
Street stockers: First – Todd Keeler, second – Trent Keeler, third – Jackson Gordon.
Fast fours – First – Zac Walker, second – Brooklyn Acres.
Fender benders (no feature, decided by point score): First – Jeremy Keynes, second – Daniel Cronin, third – Jye Pope.
