THE son of a Touring Car champ and a Production Car racer, Braydan Willmington was always going to race – but this young teen plays dirty.
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Starting young is a distinct advantage when it comes to highend, top level motorsport, and the greats have typically pushed pedals before their feet find the coordination to walk or run. But starting out in a sport when you’re too young to actually race offers a whole new set of challenges.
Braydan Willmington is barely a teenager, but he has a bloodlust for the Speedway that goes beyond his racing bloodline. His father Garry ran in various cars at Bathurst from 1978 right through to 2000 and has various Touring Car championships, V8 Supercar rounds and Truck racing to his name. His mother Natalie has also been competitive in the Production Touring Car Championship and drag racing.
Some may say Braydan’s transition into racing was inevitable, particularly as his parents own and run the Marulan Driver Training Centre.
It was here that Braydan first tasted the thrill of driving - but he hasn’t exactly followed in his parent’s footsteps. Although he has an entire tarmac track at his disposal, karting, motorkhanas or racing on the blacktop was never an option. The large oval dirt track at its centre was where Braydan first kicked a car sideways, and from that first moment he was hooked.
“From a baby, I always wanted to race,” Braydan affirms. “I started out in the Honda Odyssey and the 250cc dirt buggies at home.
It’s handy having a track in your backyard! I’m out there most days after school and on weekends.”
Garry and Natalie openly encourage young drivers and would-be racers who have speedy ambitions to “hop on the right track and get into some form of motorsport rather than waiting to hoon on the streets.”
Braydan agrees: “Speedway is the best way to learn how to drive; the surface changes all night, you have to always be looking. When I get my license, I don’t see how I would hoon on the road; there’s no point.”
With that attitude - and the ‘backyard track’ - Braydan’s skills and taste for racing developed quickly. However, he was forced to stand on the sidelines of the races for years, due to the current age restrictions on juniors in both NSW and the ACT. The legal age to begin racing is 14 years, and with that milestone still a year away when he was ready to race, the Willmingtons looked further afield. The option to go interstate to Victoria and compete at unknown tracks around the state was better than not racing at all, and with paperwork done, the father/son team packed up and headed south in late 2011 to begin Braydan’s racing career.
“I didn’t care where I could race, I just wanted to race,” Braydan said.
The Junior Speedway racing in Victoria restricts the pre-teens and teenagers to a 1200cc car. Braydan’s chosen ride for his racing debut was a Datsun 1200 Sunny.
Braydan and his father work after school (and homework) to prep the car, and the whole family’s idea of a holiday from 2011 was escaping the Marulan track to travel to a dirtier one in Victoria.
Their first trip was in October 2011, dragging the car down to Horsham’s Blue Ribbon Raceway.
And to the family’s surprise, he finished 19th out of 27 starters, and at a track he had never seen before. The confidence and lessons learnt at this outing produced an impressive third outright at Redline Speedway in Ballarat – again, a new track for the youngster – and he backed it up with another third at the Southern 500 Speedway in Portland.
Then in December 2011, at his fourth meet, he won the Junior Speedway outright at the large Sungold Stadium Premier Speedway meet in Warrnambool.
With such success in a small amount of time, one may expect Braydan to adopt some of the murkier racing attitudes associated with ego and sudden success.
But the shy youngster only laments his lack of experience due to his age and not knowing about Victoria’s junior speedway circuit earlier, and was bent on making up for this ‘lost time’.
Braydan finally hit his milestone of being old enough to race in NSW in late 2011. NSW have different rules for Junior Speedway racing other than the age of which the youngsters can get out and race. Cars used in NSW are 1600cc front wheel drives.
Braydan’s NSW racing debut took place in his Datsun 1200cc Sunny rear wheel drive. Although the Datsun was underpowered to the 1600cc cars in NSW he was competing with, it didn’t dampen his determination to conquer the podium at many Goulburn and Nowra Speedway race meetings. In January 2013 Braydan and his family travelled to Mackay to compete in the ultimate Australian Titles for Junior Speedway Sedans. With 76 Junior entrants Braydan qualified 26th out of the 76.
In late 2013 Braydan decided to join the other NSW Junior Racers with a car that was equal to the current racers. Braydan and his dad totally rebuilt a Toyota Seca that had raced previously at the Goulburn track.
A change in driving skill from rear wheel drive to front wheel drive didn’t stop Braydan. After getting used to the different driving style Braydan won both the Goulburn Speedway and the ACT Speedway Christmas Cups.
Braydan competed in the 2012/2013 NSW Titles in December at Grafton Speedway and after a lap after lap battle with local Grafton racer Chris Corbett, Braydan finished in 2nd place. Arriving home on the Sunday it was a quick car change to the Datsun 1200 and they were off again this time to Avalon Raceway in Victoria where Braydan came 3rd.
The next week took Braydan to Nowra Speedway where he won all 3 races plus the feature and the following week they were off to Waikerie in SA in the 47 degree heat wave where Braydan qualified 6th out of 46 racers in the SA Titles running third before resulting in a DNF with car trouble.
With his 2012/2013 NSW#2 Title under his belt it was time for Braydan to compete in the 2013/2014 NSW Title Championship at Nowra Speedway on January 25th 2014.
Braydan led the race for 19 out of 20 laps and the NSW#1 Title was well in his sight but in an unfortunate racing incident when lapping a slower car for the third time, Braydan came home with 2nd place giving him 2 years running of NSW#2 Title holder. Although disappointed with being so close to a victory it hasn’t disheartened his lust for success.
Braydan’s last race he competed in was the 2014 Auto One Southern Tablelands Title at his local Goulburn Speedway.
Success was achieved with not only winning his heats but coming home with a win for the Title. “I love the racing” From here we will be running the last of the local events at both Goulburn and Nowra Speedway and the next Title I will be competing in will be the Victorian State Titles in April,” he said.” I will be back in the 1200 Datsun for the last of the local events because I have just sold my Toyota Corolla to help pursue my next dream “The Speedcar.”
So what is Braydan’s future outlook?
“I have a dream and it’s a big one. I turn 16 in June and I will be eligible to race in other forms of racing other than Juniors.
I can keep racing Juniors until I am 17 but I want to move on to another form of racing. I want to race a Speedcar in the USA, the new tracks, the big crowds – and I want to get to the Chili Bowl. My heroes are Steven Graham from Bowral, Bryan Clauson, Kyle Larson as well as Steve Kinser and Brooke Tatnell. I’ll get there - probably...” I love spending my time with my Dad in the workshop most nights and at the race tracks – he is my best mate, sometimes we have our differences, I guess that’s what happens when you have similar passions. He says I’m a lot like him at that age but I have his full support unlike he did.
His parents didn’t want him to race.”
The United States is a lot further than interstate – at least Braydan has youth on his side, and is already on the right track.