The Racing Together initiative was the recipient of the FIA President’s Award in the category of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. The award was presented at the FIA Annual General Assembly in Bologna last year by FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem. The programme is about building a team of indigenous youths and teaching them the career and life skills they need to get jobs in the motor sport or automobile industry.

Since its inception, Racing Together has been based at Norwell Motorplex on the Gold Coast, where it has built, prepared and campaigned Hyundai Excel race cars for the competitive Queensland and Northern Territory Excel Racing categories.

The new headquarters was launched in an official ceremony attended by dignitaries including Motorsport Australia President Andrew Fraser, Federal Member for Blair, Shayne Newman MP and Assistant Minister for Hydrogen Development Lance MacCallum MP.

Due to the popularity and success of the programme, larger facilities were required and thanks to the support of Queensland Raceway owner Tony Quinn, Racing Australia has been able to relocate to a base on-site at the Willowbank circuit. The prizemoney from the FIA Presidential Award went towards fitting out the new base and providing new uniforms for the team.

“Having a dedicated space to be able to run Racing Together will enable us to take the programme to the next level, and provide an environment for our inductees that fully represents a race team working environment,” Connelly said.

“When we launched in 2020, there was virtually no indigenous participation in motorsport, so we’re proud we’ve been able to encourage first nations Australians to become involved in the sport, and four of the inductees from our original intake have already found employment within the industry.”

Launched in September 2022, the FIA President’s Awards aim to recognise the significant work carried out by FIA Member Clubs to bring sustainable and measurable change within the FIA community and society at large in the fields of climate action, road safety, and equality, diversity and inclusion.

By raising awareness on these causes and highlighting existing solutions, the Awards will contribute to the achievement of the global sustainable development goals which are central to the FIA’s mission.

View the Launch Vieo of Racing Together by clicking on the image below: