![FUN TIMES: Ballarat teenager Tom Yeoman celebrates completing a hot lap around the Eureka Rally track. Picture: Lachlan Bence FUN TIMES: Ballarat teenager Tom Yeoman celebrates completing a hot lap around the Eureka Rally track. Picture: Lachlan Bence](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/bGjjztadDpmdY72p2rELZ4/809bf39b-438a-469a-bd57-1ced11418ea5.jpg/r0_0_3712_5568_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Tom Yeoman is a young man of few words.
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The Year 10 student at Ballarat Secondary College Woodmans Hill campus, keeps very much to himself, preferring to play video games.
And for the past 15 months he has helped his family care for his younger sister, who became a quadriplegic after an horrific swimming accident.
So when Tom’s father Peter saw an opportunity to win a hot lap in a rally car in the lead-up to this weekend’s Eureka Rally, he jumped at the chance to bring some much-needed joy into Tom’s life. That’s why he didn’t hesitate to enter Tom’s name in the competition run by The Courier.
“I would dearly have loved to have been in the (rally) car, it’s something I’ve always been interested in. But I wanted to do something for Tom, something to put a smile on his face and to get him out of his comfort zone,” Mr Yeoman said.
The 15-year-old had never been in a rally or race car before, but after spending an exhilarating few minutes on Thursday with driver Steve Glenney reaching speeds of 160km/h, he reckons he might give it another go.
Before undertaking the white-knuckle thrill of a life-time, Tom said he “felt a little bit scared”. But it was a different story after his lap through the bush. “It was great. I’d do it again.”
The hot lap was a bright moment in what has been a tough 15 months for the Yeoman family.
Tom’s younger sister Amelia (Milly) broke her neck in November 2016 after a swimming incident at a local pool. Milly, now aged 13, needs 24-hour care after suffering C5 and C6 injuries which have rendered her a quadriplegic with very limited movement.
“Since Milly’s accident, Tom has missed out on doing heaps,” Mr Yeoman said. “Doing the hot lap means this experience is all for Tom,” Mr Yeoman said.
The excitement of rally racing is powering back to Ballarat this weekend when Australia’s best drivers, navigators and race crews of the CAMS Australian Rally Championships race through the streets and forests around the city.
Cars and drivers will cover about 600km from the start line on Sturt Street on Saturday morning before wrapping up round one of the 2018 Australian Rally Championship on Sunday. The event will include 16 special stages totalling about 215km with less than 5km of the special stages on bitumen.