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The road to a career in motorsport has just begun for local enthusiast Jorja Ahern, who spent last week working the paddock as a scrutineer during the V8 Supercars' return to the Townsville 500. Photo supplied.It was while watching a Formula 1 film years ago that Burdekin local Jorja Ahern first fell in love with professional motorsport. But unlike many aspirants, it wasn't those donning helmets and racing suits in the cockpit that piqued her interest. It was the crewssteering the ship from the garage. An avid fan ever since, the teenager took her first steps into the paddock during last week’s Townsville 500 and, with them, a major stride towards her dream of working in the sport full-time. LOCAL TEEN FAST-TRACKS MOTORSPORT DREAM AT TOWNSVILLE 500 The road to a career in motorsport has just begun for local enthusiast Jorja Ahern, who spent last week working the paddock as a scrutineer during the V8 Supercars' return to the Townsville 500. The Year 10 student worked alongside fellow scrutineers to ensure the high-octane Supercars met a list of racing regulations, dedicating a gruelling 48 hours across the four-day event from Thursday’s Porsche category to Sunday’s Supercar showdown. The voluntary role marked Jorja’s first time in a professional racing garage, an experience she said crystallised her long-standing dream of working as a professional motorsport engineer. “Just being there and being close to the cars, I was like, ‘how did I get here?’” she laughed. “You would walk through the paddock and then all these drivers would just come out of nowhere… Being in that environment, like that—I feel like that's my element.” Jorja landed the role after reaching out to the Supercars team in search of opportunities to gain hands-on experience, eventually signing on as a scrutineer. In the role, she was responsible for assessing tyre pressure, driver apparel, seat belts, and checking that fuel chains were ‘earthed’ to avoid potential fires, among other tasks. She also observed the races from the garage, monitoring pit stops and ensuringprocedures were undertaken smoothly. The Year 10 student worked alongside fellow scrutineers to ensure the high-octane Supercars met a list of racing regulations, dedicating a gruelling 48 hours across the four-day event. Photo supplied. The experience gave the teenager a rare opportunity to pick the brains of seasoned engineers and crew members across four long days of racing, each of which began as early as 5am. She said that, come the end of the week, her fascination for engineering and the finer details of racing had only grown. “I had no idea they had to do all those different safety checks … and all the different regulations that had to be ticked off,” she said. “It's also so interesting how the aerodynamics work, and how one little change in the aerodynamics can make such a big difference to the speed.” According to her mother, Tracey Ahern, Jorja’s heart has long been in engineering, evidenced by her gravitation toward STEM-related school subjects as early as primary school. “Whenever there was an opportunity to become involved in STEM, she would put her hand up and say, ‘yeah, I want to get involved. I want to see what that's all about,’” Tracey said. Jorja’s STEM interest continued into high school, where she became involved in the STEM Changemakers program—an initiative which aims to encourage female participation in scientific and technical industries. Tracey described the Changemakers experience as a pivotal reassurance for Jorja that “girls can do anything.” “[The Changemakers program] really opened up like the doors to understanding how diverse engineering is, and that although it has been a male-dominated industry … girls can do these things as well,” she said. That notion was rubber-stamped for Jorja, who recalled seeing several women in the garages during race week in Townsville. Now armed with newfound confidence, the motorsport aspirant is eager to continue her surge into the world of professional motorsport engineering. For Jorja, that involves studying mechanical engineering at university, before pursuing an engineering role at “any motorsport team—whether Supercars or F1.”
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