A not-for-profit organisation set up address the “nearly non-existent levels of participation by Indigenous youth in motorsport” has selected a cohort of 10 new entrants for its program following an Open Day in Townsville in October.

Racing Together was established in 2020 with a view to helping develop motorsport skills and employment opportunities for Indigenous youth and has so far put 10 young people through an intensive program to build a race car to compete in the Queensland Excel Racing Series.

In addition, 100 young Australians have been through the organisation’s two-day course at south east Queensland’s Norwell Motorplex complex to learn driving skills, social responsibility, road safety and first aid.

The latest intake of young Indigenous enthusiasts was chosen over the course of a two-day event in Townsville on 15-16 October, during which applicants underwent a series of evaluations and tests including reaction times, dexterity, mechanical and driving skills, and even underwent a mock media interview.

Applicants also had the opportunity to test-drive Toyota GR Supra and GR86 sports cars supplied by Toyota Australia, which is a sponsor of the Racing Together program.

Australian Rally Championship (ARC) champion Harry Bates was in attendance to give attendees an insight into careers in motorsport, racing safety and to offer driving tips.

The new team of Indigenous boys and girls aged between 12 and 17 will follow in the footsteps of the inaugural group established in 2020, by building, preparing and racing a car in the Queensland Excel Racing Series, while they complete their education.

Team members will not only be responsible for racing the car, but also engineering and mechanics, workshop management and even running the team's social media accounts.

Toyota Australia chief marketing officer Vin Naidoo said it was fantastic to see the program take on a new cohort from the Townsville area.

"Toyota supports, and is involved in, motorsport at all levels across the globe and Racing Together does an incredible job to inspire and encourage Indigenous youth to get involved in motorsport," Mr Naidoo said.

Racing Together founders Garry and Monique Connelly say they had long discussed ways to improve Indigenous participation in Australian motorsport and were inspired in part by Lewis Hamilton's comments promoting increased diversity in Formula 1 in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests.

Mr Connelly said the program has been "an outstanding success" and he was proud of the impact that Racing Together has had on its participants.

Three members of the program’s previous intake have already been successful in finding full-time employment opportunities in the automotive and motorsport sectors, including one who has secured an apprenticeship at a local automotive workshop and two others who have taken on roles with the Dick Johnson Racing and Triple Eight Race Engineering Supercars teams.

"Apart from the fact that we've got 10 kids who have formed the (original) team, we've now put over 100 kids through our two-day course at Norwell that involves not only driving skills but classes on social responsibility, road safety and first aid," Mr Connelly said.

"The ultimate goal is to equip these kids so that they can get a job in the automotive and motorsport industry and we've succeeded in getting three of them jobs already."

He said that the most satisfying part of the program was seeing the development of the participants not as young members of a racing team, but as people.

"My wife and I have confidence in the program and we're really proud that we're getting some big corporates like Toyota on board, letting us expand up to Townsville," Mr Connelly said.