Typhoon Tammy claims first victory at Willowbank Winternationals
TAMMY Goldthorpe just loves motorbikes, that’s fortunate because she rides one for work, she rides one for fun and she rides one for sport.
The love of two wheelers is also a family affair with husband Denis and 16-year-old son, Tom, also straddling a bike every chance they get.
The long-time Ipswich postie has been cruising the local streets delivering mail for more than 20 years, but the sedate putt putt on the Post Office bike is turned up full throttle on weekends when she rips on the power of her Suzuki GSXR 1000 drag bike at Willowbank Raceway.
At the local track she is a well-credentialed racer and on 10 occasions has taken a track champion trophy at the end of the season.
But while those trophies have held pride of place on the crowded mantelpiece in her Raceview home, there was always one missing.
That trophy was a Winternationals winner’s trophy.
Now 20 years after first blasting down Willowbank at more than 250kph that elusive gold trophy is in her possession.
Tammy finally won her Winternationals trophy the other weekend beating Scott Mutch in the final after a brilliant start in the Modified Bike final in front of thousands of drag racing fanatics.
“Partner Denis is a fellow postie who I met more than 20 years ago, and as he was into racing cars at Willowbank so he took me out to the track in around 2000 to have a look,” Tammy said.
“I liked the sport and said I’d like to have a go at that and as soon as I raced down the straight on my bike I was hooked and haven’t stopped since.
The Winternationals winner’s title is regarded as one of the top trophies you can win in the sport of drag bike racing and after two decades of trying to get one Tammy thought it was never going to be.
“It just seemed if something was going to go wrong it would be at the Winternationals and the best I ever did was to make the semi-finals twice.
“This year I got to the final, my reaction time on the start line was great and I ran close to my dial-in time,” she said.
The passion of the sport is what it’s all about for the fastest postie in the west with the winner’s cheque of $600 barely covering fuel costs.
She has had a few mishaps on the track, but for the most part her runs have all been without incident and that’s the way the 45-year-old wants to keep it.
Now with the latest trophy in the cabinet Tammy has one more title she wants to claim and that is the Australian Modified Drag Bike championship.
It’s a point score competition run throughout the season and she’s presently sitting third just a few points behind the leaders.
With a few more runs like her most recent at Willowbank Tammy could be on target to record a year to remember for all time.
