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Leanne Tander goes back to her karting past with support of young karter Isabella Thomas

Leanne Tander has thrown her backing behind the next generation of Australian female driving talent by supporting 12-year-old Victorian karter Isabella Thomas.

A former karting champion herself, Tander spent a day working with the successful 12-year old karter at Melbourne’s Todd Road circuit on Wednesday last week (November 14) in an effort to further assist the youngster develop her career.

In the process she proved she still has her formidable karting skills, lapping an unknown kart within 3/10ths of the class pole position when she drove on Wednesday – her first time back in a competitive kart for almost nine years.

At just 12, with four years of karting experience behind her, Shepparton-based Thomas is quickly proving her talent as one of the quickest rookie drivers on the Victorian karting scene.

A member of the Go-Kart Club of Victoria and a regular at most major Todd Road karting events, the talented youngster has quickly risen to the top of the rookie ranks following a series of strong performances, especially this season.

She contacted Leanne earlier this year and both have since been exchanging emails – leading to the pair organising the test day in Melbourne earlier this week.

”Leanne has been a hero of mine and I’ve always followed what she had done in racing,” Isabella said.

“It was great that she was able to come out and see me win at the last club race meeting,

”I really look at her as a role model because she has helped me gain confidence about being a girl in Motorsport. She’s been there and been through it all before so she has been a big help to me.

”I want to be in cars as soon as I can,” she added.

”It’s my goal to be in V8 Supercar racing but I would love to race in Formula 3.”

A positive attitude to the sport looks likely to see ‘Bella’ go a long way towards her goals, matching driving talent with an attitude to the sport often not seen in some people fifteen years her senior.

”I have had a lot of great results since moving to the Go kart club of Victoria – but I’ve learnt so much,” she explained.

”My coach, Matt Hayes, has been fantastic but it’s been great to race against people like Liam Morey.

”We have had some great battles and I really respect him. I would rather finish second in the club championships to him rather than win it with him not being there.”

Leanne said that Isabella’s attitude would see her go a long way in the sport.

”She has a fantastic attitude to her racing and a very supportive family who are very supportive of what she is doing. I think she can go a long way if she keeps at it,” she said.

A formidable karter herself, Leanne raced in, and often dominated, Australian Karting between 1993 and 1997 before stepping into a Formula Ford, production cars and subsequently Formula 3 – finishing a record 2nd in this years’ Australian Drivers Championship.

She said she relished the opportunity to help the youngster’s career – and at the same time jump back into a kart for the first time in years.

“It was a lot of fun!” she enthused. “It was great to be back in a kart again. I raced Formula Ford in 1998 but had a one-off ‘comeback’ in a kart in ’99 but that was the last time I’d driven a proper racing kart.

"After driving the F3 car anything feels slow, but it took a few laps to get used to having my bum just a few centimetres from the ground again, and how sharp and responsive the steering is – I was using a lot of the kerbs on the inside for the first few laps!

“It was great to spend a day with Bella and see her drive again.

”It has been a goal of mine for a couple of years now to use what profile I have to help younger girls progress through the sport.

”When I was karting there was no female advice there for me to get because there wasn’t many women who had come through the sport and were keen to be involved and interested in helping me.” She said.

Leanne said the key for Isabella’s career would be the steps though the ranks after finishing karting.

“So many young girls get started in sport but after a few years lose direction with where they want to go and how to progress their careers,” she explained. “I hope that’s something I can support Bella with, and use my experiences in the sport to progress her career.

“Bella certainly has the talent and the ambition to do the job."

Published: 2007-11-18 00:00:00

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