THE Hawkesbury’s Monique Sciberras is following in the footsteps of her older brother Blake and breaking into the motor racing scene.
Sciberras recently had two podium finishes in the V8 Ute Series as well as the Aussie Racing Car series, and younger sister Monique has always been by his side helping out in the pits.
This season, she got her own chance to race and did so alongside dad Brian in the Hyundai X3 Excel Racing Series.
Monique, 17, got her chance to race after nearly upstaging her dad at a practice circuit.
She was helping him maintain his Hyundai at a race track and then he suggested she have a go, and it turned out she was a natural.
“Dad was shocked, I didn't really know whether I was going fast or not until I got into the garage,” she said.
Despite never having raced a car before, Monique nearly beat her dad’s fastest lap time, and he decided he probably needed to get another car for her to race in.
“She is very precise. She is better than me. She is very confident, doesn't overdrive it,” Brian said of his daughter.
Monique said she got the thrill of a lifetime late in the season, after finding herself in first place in one of the races.
“I had never been first before in my life, I did a bit of a scream in the car,” she said.
“The adrenaline was running through me. I was thinking ‘now I know why people race and I know the feeling of having no cars in front of you.’
“It was a really good feeling and I want to race more now.”
Monique has been around cars all her life, and is hopeful she can become an apprentice mechanic after finishing school this year.
She has applied herself at it so far. While not a mechanic, when Blake is away racing, she travels with the Western Sydney Motorsport team to do whatever she can to help in the garage.
“I assist the mechanics,” she said. “Tyre pressures or changing tyres, clean the inside of the cars, I do a bit of everything.
“I love it. When it is race weekend it is the best weekend.”
It is also a bonus getting to hang out with Blake, who she said she looked up to.
“Everything my brother does I've followed him ever since I was little,” she said.
“We get along really well. He is my idol, I look up to him for everything.
“When he won a race at Tasmania, I stared crying, I was screaming I was so happy.”
Monique said she was looking forward to another season of racing her Hyundai in 2018.
“I am glad my dad let me get into it. I think racing is in our family’s blood,” Monique said.