• Youngster Callum Walker reached a new career highlight on Saturday night at Brisbane’s Archerfield Speedway, when he managed to claim his maiden 410 Sprintcar feature-race podium result.

    It’s been an encouraging end to the 2016-17 season for the 18-year-old apprentice sign writer, who has completed the full season at Archerfield Speedway, along with making cameo appearances at Toowoomba’s Hi-Tec Oils Speedway in Queensland and Sydney’s Valvoline Raceway (NSW), having consistently qualified for feature races and shown good pace, particularly in his previous outings.

    Getting the season off to a positive start at the Brisbane venue, Walker qualified on pole position for the feature race by virtue of winning the Dash in only his second outing of the season. He then went on to lead the opening 10 laps, before slipping back while amongst lapped traffic in the final stages and greeting the chequered flag in seventh. Earlier that night, he had impressively topped the time sheets in qualifying.

    Once again proving his front-running speed later in the season at Archerfield Speedway, Walker qualified second, lined up on the outside of the front row for the feature race, and was looking likely to stay there, up until a steering failure in the closing stages of the race dashed his podium hopes.

    Qualifying up towards the front of the feature-race field yet again on Saturday night at Archerfield Speedway, Walker had recorded his fastest ever personal lap around Archerfield with an 11.461 second lap during the Dash. Being able to quickly work his way forward into fourth from his outside third row starting position, Walker was in a prime position to capitalise on the late-race engine failure of third-placed Peter Lack, whose retirement ultimately secured the final podium place for Walker. As one would expect, he was thrilled to achieve his new career highlight.

    “I couldn’t be more excited to have finally made it to the podium for the first time,” expressed the Cornubia, Queensland-based racer.

    “I’ve had a bit of bad luck in race meetings at various stages this season, which we’ve learned a lot from, but, as a small family team, we’ve been working very hard over the past season, and it’s great to finally be rewarded with a podium.

    “This result is definitely a great confidence boost for the whole team and me, so hopefully we’re able to build on our consistency and carry this form into next season.”

    The Walker family have a long association with the sport of speedway, with Callum being a third generation racer, with his pop Ray Christoffel being the inaugural Australian Litre Sprintcar Champion back in 1982, his dad, Murray, previously raced Sprintcars in 1990s for a handful of seasons, and his uncle Clayton racing Sprintcars and Speedcars throughout the 1990s and well into the 2000s.

    Having commenced his own competitive racing career with nine years of go karting on the tar circuits at both a national and international level, Walker made the decision to try his hand at dirt track racing and step into Sprintcars after completing an encouraging test run, which saw him immediately bitten by the speedway bug.

    Making his Sprintcar debut towards the end of the 2014-15 season aboard a Maxim car at the tender age of 16, Walker contested around five shows, which was highlighted by a heat-race win. He completed his first full season in the class in the following season (2015-16) and picking up a number of top-10 feature-race finishes.

    Purchasing a new Kaeding Performance Maxim for this season, Walker has certainly come into his own towards the latter end of this season, and he hopes to continue building on his form to hopefully achieve consistent front-running pace.

    The 2017-18 season plans for Walker are to contest a similar schedule at Archerfield Speedway, along with venturing to Valvoline Raceway to contest selected shows, in order to gain more experience and improve.

    For his next appearance, Walker will head to Maryborough Speedway this Saturday night, followed by his final 2016-17 season hit out, which will take place at Archerfield Speedway on the Saturday night of May 27.

    Walker would like to thank the following 2016-17 season sponsors for their continued support: Cylinder Head Warehouse and All Engine Parts Australia. He would also like to give special thanks to Murray (dad), Nonie (mum), Chase (sister), Glenno Inglis - SprintShack, Scott Inglis - Inglis Racing Engines, Brad Hilder - BHR, Phil Young - Gp Performance, along with Jakob Law, Andrew and Josh.

    To find out more about Walker and his team, LIKE them on Facebook by searching Callum Walker #33.

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