Sport
4 October, 2023
Firing on all cylinders
Age and gender are no barriers for Year 10 Clifton State High School student Yamuna Sternbeck, who is going from strength to strength in the world of motorsport.
Aged 15, Yamuna is bound for Nationals in the Formula Vee competition.
She recently placed 6th at the Morgan Park Formula Vee event at Warwick.
Father, Michael Sternbeck is very proud of his daughter’s achievements, especially as she is maintaining top academic results and behaviour in school.
“2023 is her rookie year in the open wheeler Motorsport class after six exciting years racing go karts and she has taken to it like a fish to water,” Mr Sternbek said.
“Racing in the Queens-land State Championship over the last six months Yamuna has improved quickly, moving through the racing pack to her recent best place finish of P3, being only bettered by the two previous Queensland Champions.”
As a 14-year-old Yamuna was the youngest driver in Australia at this category.
She is also the only female racing in both Queensland and New South Wales.
Now having just turned 15, and with a few race meetings under her belt, she is turning up the blow torch on the competition with the acquisition of her new race car.
Finishing P6, P7 and P8 in the National round has launched her into the top 10 ensuring she races in the next round to be held at Sydney Motorsport Park in late October and the Victorian round at Philip Island in November.
Many Australian V8 Supercars stars have backgrounds in Formula Vee, including Colin Bond, John Bowe and Larry Perkins.
Internationally, there have been multiple Formula 1 champions who had the start in Formula Vee.
Her racing team is called Team MYSTAR which includes her younger brother Madhava, a year 8 student.
Madhava competes in his first open wheeler race alongside his sister in the last round of the Queensland State Championship mid-November at Morgan Park Raceway.
Big things are on the way with these two the only brother sister team racing in the Formula Vee Australian series.
As Yamuna and Madhava proceed onwards and upwards on the circuit, Mr Sternbeck is hopeful some local businesses are willing to get on board.
“At the moment the team has no local sponsors and we’d love to have some Clifton business names on the cars as they take our local area brand around the country,” he said.
