Fort’s sprintcar foray

The move into Sprintcars is a big one in anyone’s language, but for Josh Fort, this move has seen him exceed his very own early realistic expectations.

After stepping into Sprintcars during the off-season, where he teamed up in a joint venture deal with Jared Desmares, Fort made his second Sprintcar appearance last Saturday night at Brisbane’s Archerfield Speedway during the latest Development Sprintcar Series round, and to say that he was dominant would be quite the understatement.

Not only did he win both of his heat races, but he also managed to complete the night by qualifying for the feature race on pole position and then leading the entire 15-lap distance.

“Heading into last Saturday night, I didn’t really have any large expectations set, as it was my second ever Sprintcar race meeting, so after winning my first heat from the front row, my confidence grew,” explained Fort, who prior to stepping into Sprintcars came from a Formula 500 background after growing up in Geelong, Victoria.

“In my second heat race, I had a bit of luck go my way and I managed to get the win after starting from the back of the field, and then in the feature race, everything just fell into place for me, as my crew gave me a great car all night, and I came away with the best possible result, so I couldn’t be happier with how the night panned out.”

Despite the dream run in the Development Series round on Saturday night, Fort knows that the learning curve ahead in Sprintcars is a long one. In fact, later that night, he tagged onto the back of the B main, but the night turned sour, after he crashed out, but sustained mainly cosmetic damage to the race car, such as top and front wings.

“Sprintcars are the Formula 1 of speedway racing, so I know it’s a tough game, but it’s one I’m looking forward learning as I go and becoming more competitive,” enthused the 31-year-old.

“I’ve always wanted to go Sprintcar racing and thanks to teaming up with Jared (Desmares), we’ve been able to turn that into a reality where we can go Sprintcar racing together.”

Fort and Desmares friendship dates back to their Formula 500 days a few seasons ago, when they were both competing in the class, and it has led to them joining forces to create their own Sprintcar team.

While Fort has only two Sprintcar race meetings to his name, Desmares has contested 10 race meetings, mainly in North Queensland, where he resides in Cairns, competing at Cairns Speedway and Mareeba Speedway tracks. Just last month, Desmares, aged 35, came down to Toowoomba Speedway, where he ended up second in the feature race for the opening Development Series round running his own Pro Sprint (LS3) powerplant.

Later this season, Fort, who’s based in Brisbane but works in the mining industry at Moranbah in central Queensland during the weekdays, is planning to later this month bring out his 410 Sprintcar program and compete at Archerfield Speedway and Toowoomba Speedway – after Desmares had a shakedown run in it earlier this season at Toowoomba Speedway.

On top of these plans, he is looking to venture south to compete in Victoria and South Australia over the Christmas-New Year period.

For Desmares, he is hoping to compete the remaining Development Series rounds and be able to contend for the series point standings honours before he returns to race locally at the end of this southern season.

The next outing for Fort is going to be back at Archerfield Speedway on the Saturday November 19 for the next East Coast Logistics Series round, while the team plans to then head to Toowoomba Speedway for the annual ‘Pink Night’ on December 3 with Desmares set to be behind the wheel of the team’s D # 40 JFE Group Triple X car with the Pro Sprint engine, while Fort will also be running his 410 powerplant on the night in the Qld # 40 JFE Group Triple X car.

The team has planned a one-off paint scheme planned with support of the National Breast Cancer Foundation for ‘Pink Night’ with limited edition t-shirts that we will donate all of night’s sales to charity.

Fort and Desmares would like to thank their 2022-23 season supporters:

• JBL Australia
• JFE Group
• KRE Race Engines
• Bowdens Own Car Care Products
• Triple X Race Co
* Leggo Property Group
• Keizer Wheels
• Locked Down Apparel
• Moti Coaching
• BR Motorsports
• Swiftek Engineering
• Primera Custom Co
• Air Hygiene Services
• Shell Shock Co
• Butler Built Seats
• Down Under Graphics

Special Thanks: Pit crew members Glen, Corey, Jessie, Zarlie and Michael.

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