Jackie started racing after she meet Craig in 2006 driving a Holden Commadore, the car was bought to raced in the ladies races at Oxford, giving her time to get used to the speedway enviroment and understanding of race lines. She showed a natural ability behind the wheel taking out 2nd in the ladies champs and winning her 1st Sash.
After a short time we decided to build a Toyota Celica to SPNZ production saloon rules with the thought of running at Woodford Glen, Cand J Autosport are not fans of front wheel drives at speedway but realize to be compeditive in this grade it was the choice. The car was built in 4 months and looked a picture, it was light and showed real potenial with its power. Out to Oxford for its first race with jackie behind the wheel, a hard lesson was learnt about over revving an engine as it blew up in the 2nd race. Dissapointment was the obvious reaction but thats racing, the car was not repaired but sold, you take one good thing out of the situation, shes determined to win!
A friend and well known racer at the Glen Tony Peirce offered Jackie a run in one of his 3 Ministocks, each of the cars racing at a compeditive level. Jackie took to it like a duck to water, the centered driving and the light contact ability was just the right mix to fine tune her race skills. In her first off season race meetings at Oxford she maintained good pace and brought about her first checkered flag. A fourth place finish in a run off for third at the Northern Zone champs in 2008, A fourth place at the South Island Ministock Champs at Oxford 2008, most improved driver award and 3rd overall points for the season told us she was ready to go to Woodford Glen.
Jackie started the Glen season 2008/2009 racing for Tony before the purchase of her own Ministock come about, she raced as 95c. After racing effectively racing 2 seasons she clearly wanted to have ago in the Stockcars, a class she felt could be two bigger step but wanted to have a go anyway, good attitude! We went about looking at cars and found the Ex Colin Summerton Stockcar in Invercargill, a car Craig was famliar with as he new Colin personnally and new it was a good chassis.
Her first run in the car was at the Stockcar Invitation at Oxford, a good first race in a 9 car field, 5th place with a carb playing up toward the end of the heat, a few adjustments and out for the 2nd race. Off the front and bang the Drive shaft falls out in the 1st turn. This gave us a clear message to look over the car thoroughly after the meeting as we had'nt checked it that well before the meeting. We fixed the driveshaft and readjusted the carb for the 3rd heat, a great race holding on to 2nd most of the way until Murray Tapp took out race leader Hepi Paul gifting her the race win, a cool end to the day with a 5th overall result. As an extra Jackie was offered a run in Hepi Pauls Superstock, its a wild machine powered by a potent Jag 6. She started and finished 1st driving the car very tidy to keep a charging Reese Ward in 2nd.
Sadley this was the last time She was able to race as we found out 2 weeks later Jackie was preganant. The car ran the 2009/2010 season with Craig and Mike (Maverick) McLeod behind the wheel till little Rhys arrived 6pound 6 on the 29-12-09. The car was parked until a few months later Craig run it at the Stockcar teams meeting in the cash races, a good night of biff and bash but after that the decision was made to park the car until Jackie was able to get in the drivers seat again, its her car after all.
With the help of Craig Campbell (Stockcar 78c) repairing the car we had her back in the seat for the last meeting at Easter. She had a ball even thought she felt the wall hard, as she says its all part of it and was still left smiling.
The Stockcar is still parked at present as the Superstock has been given priority for the coming season, Rhys is still under 1 year old so waiting until he's a bit older will make the racing long term alot better for the two drivers that make up C and J Autosport.
