Ford and Van Dongen set to represent Tas at AFDC

Tarn Ford and Hannah Van Dongen have both been selected to represent Tasmania at the upcoming Australian Female Drivers Harness Racing Championship at Brisbane’s Albion Park.

The six-race series will be held on 1 April.

It will be the first time Ford has represented the state. She has driven 23 winners in her career, with 10 of these coming this season, where she has a winning strike rate of 11% so far in 2023.

It will be the fourth time Van Dongen will represent the state. She is closing in on 100 career winners and finished fifth on last season’s leading female drivers’ premiership after winning the title in the 2019/20 and 2017/18 seasons.

Other drivers competing include:

• Queensland: Narissa and Taleah McMullen
• New South Wales: Amanda Turnbull and Jemma Coney
• Western Australia: Emily Suvaljko and Demi Roberts
• Victoria: Michelle Phillips and Ellen Tormey
• South Australia: Samantha Pascoe and Dani Hill.

The series winner is determined by points accumulated over the six heats of the championship.

Ford and Van Dongen will warm up for the series with several drives on the eight-race Hobart card on Friday night, which commences at 17:24 and can be seen on TasracingTV and Sky Racing 2.

by Duncan Dornauf, for Tasracing