A CHANCE meeting in a hardware store and a Sunday afternoon chat in a Merrivale shed were behind Tim van Ginneken’s return to sprintcar racing.
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Van Ginneken has teamed up with renowned car owner Harry Droste for the summer, with the Warrnambool pair eyeing success across the state.
Their campaign, in the V36 Cool, starts with round one of the Sprintcar Racing Association of Victoria season at Moama on Saturday night.
Tasmanian Shaun Dobson drove for Droste last season and repaid the faith shown in him by winning the SRA Victoria series crown.
The partnership ended during the winter, prompting van Ginneken to approach Droste about replacing Dobson behind the wheel.
“I’ve known Harry for a little while and he’s known of me,” van Ginneken said, recalling an unlikely series of events which secured him the drive.
“I ran into him in Ponting’s one day and stirred him up, said ‘there’s no use a good car sitting in the shed’.
“A couple of lads at Ponting’s knew him and they stirred him up as well. After that he went to America for three weeks and came back for a week.
“On the Sunday at four in the afternoon he invited me to come to his shed. He said ‘what are we doing?’ I said ‘anything to make this deal happen’.”
Van Ginneken, a former junior sedans, formula 500 and super rod racer, said the chance to drive for Droste was “a dream come true”.
His sprintcar adventures started in 2011 when he purchased a car driven by Jason Meyers and spent two seasons largely funding his own campaign.
The results were encouraging: SRA Victoria rookie of the year honours in 2011-12, second in the Victorian title in 2012-13.
But motor dramas, a draining budget and becoming a father for the first time prompted him to step away from the sport last season.
Van Ginneken said his return would not have been possible without Droste and the more than 20 sponsors who have backed the team.
“I always wanted to race a sprintcar. I went out and bought one and put it in the shed. All we did was plan for the year,” he said.
“We said when we ran out of finances or weren’t having fun, we were going to stop. We kept going the next year. The motor blew up, work got busy and I didn’t have the money. When this came around, it was a dream come true.”
Van Ginneken acknowledged he was still a rookie in sprintcar circles: “I’ve only done 35 meetings in two years”.
He said the plan was to contest most of the SRA Victoria series rounds, as well as Speedweek, the Victorian title and the Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic.
