ELLY Morrow will next month become the first female Super2 driver to tackle Mount Panorama in six years.
The Brad Jones Racing junior has flown under the radar this year, quietly going about learning her #8 Holden VF Commodore.
While wins and podiums have been out of reach, she’s done enough to be positioned in the standings ahead of fellow full-season campaigners, ute racing legend Ryal Harris and former Triple Eight protégé Angelo Mouzouris.
Her no-fuss style matches an upbringing on a Traralgon farm.
A passion for motorsport started from being a spectator at Supercars events, cheering on then Ford hero Mark Winterbottom.
“As a kid, we religiously went to the Victorian rounds, watching Winterbottom and (Craig Lowndes) bang around,” the 23-year-old told V8 Sleuth.
“I think it was purely just an activity or a social event you did with the family.
“I probably wasn’t as fixated on it until I started karting which was I guess a bit older in my childhood.”
It was around age 13 that Morrow’s karting journey begun.
“I think Dad went past the kart shop one day on his way home from work and he got my brother a kart,” she recalled.
“My brother was sort of interested but not really so it sat in the shed for a while and then I hounded him to take it out.
“I started karting at a local track down near home about 15 minutes away. I fell in love with that and sort of progressed up to national karting with Tom Williamson Motorsport, which have a link with the BJR junior academy.
“So I did an evaluation day at the end of 2020 and from that obviously went to Super3, did a couple of races at the end of 2021, and then this year have gone up to Super2.
“It’s been a big jump again and I’m just sort of finding my feet, being in cars for nearly 12 months now. Every weekend is a learning curve.”
Super2 hasn’t had a female driver since Abbie Eaton made a one-off appearance at the 2019 Adelaide season-opener.
Chelsea Angelo was the last woman to race Super2 at Bathurst in 2016.
Engineered by Steven Todkill, an industry veteran who has previously worked at Garry Rogers Motorsport and Kelly Racing, Morrow is upfront about where she’s at.
“Obviously learning on a national stage with TV cameras and everyone is watching you, it’s sometimes difficult but everyone has learnt somewhere, whether it is in front of people or not,” she said.
“You have just got to walk before you can run and take those steps.
“I think we are getting there with speed, it’s just execution at the moment.
“I’m probably not putting it all together on the lap that counts. I think on an average lap pace we look good in races but that quali speed I’m still struggling to turn the tyre on and get the most out of that.”
As for her mixing it with the boys? “I think I’m just the new kid on the block, irrespective of anything else.”
The plan is to stick with Super2 next year, which would see her shift into a ZB Commodore handed down by BJR’s main game squad, and eventually look to graduate onto the big stage.
“I think I have got a lot to learn and just soak in as much as I can out of this category,” said Morrow.
“There’s people that have been here in the sport for years even still in Super2, so just try to pick up what they have learnt and if I can mix it with them I’ll just see how it goes.
“But this year has just pretty much been a learning year. There’s no expectations, it’s just learn the tracks.
“It’s my first time at pretty much every track this year other than Sydney and Bathurst which I did in Super3 last year.”
