Local hero Jacobson much more than a racer
Eggleston Motorsport's Garry Jacobson is a hero to the Goulburn Valley community, and it's not just for his skills behind the wheel of a V8 Supercar.
When he's not steering his Commodore near 300 kilometres per hour in the V8 Supercars Dunlop Series, the Shepparton-local works for the family bus line, driving intellectually disabled children in the community to school every day.
"It's a really rewarding job to be able to give the kids a happy, safe environment to start the day on the way to school and share with them my experiences of racing a V8 Supercar all over Australia," Jacobson said.
"They just love hearing about my progress and sharing photos of the cars and seeing me on TV over the weekend, and then on the bus on Monday morning they get to hear all about it.
"It's a real treat for them to be able to know someone that does this sort of thing."
The 23-year-old balances his Dunlop Series career with his duties at Jacobson Transport, which also sees him responsible for office work as well as labouring in the workshop at the Mooroopna-based operation.
But this weekend, Jacobson swaps the school bus for his #54 Commodore as he contests the third round of the Dunlop Series at the NP300 Navara Winton SuperSprint.
And today he was paid a visit by his passengers from Verney Road School after Winton Motor Raceway treated the students to free entry to the circuit to see their bus-driver get behind the wheel of his V8 Supercar.
"I get to see the kids everyday during the year on the way to school and back home, and to bring them into my environment [today] really gives them a great inspiration of what I do and what motorsport is about," Jacobson said.
"It's new to everyone having the kids here and we're all having a lot of fun. To get to bring the kids here... it's really special."
Jacobson sits fifth in the series standings, 195 points adrift of leader Cameron Waters.
Eggleston Motorsport teammates Paul Dumbrell and Ant Pedersen are second and seventh respectively.
The Dunlop Series take to Winton Motor Raceway tomorrow for qualifying at 10.35am, followed by race one at 3.40pm.
The NP300 Navara Winton SuperSprint runs from May 15 to 17. Information is available at www.v8supercars.com.au. Tickets are now on sale from Outix at www.outix.com.au/sites/winton
