Revving Up Resilience Offroad Racing Offers Adrenaline Therapy For Burdekin Veterans

Ian and Justine Baker are two of the Burdekin’s newest residents and when they moved here from Ipswich, they brought with them a rare opportunity for local veterans to experience offroad racing.
Although new to the Burdekin, the Raemus Rover Racing program has been operating in southeast Queensland for over 10 years, a method of adrenaline therapy utilising the highly dynamic genre of racing and combining it with a peer-to-peer counselling and support program.
The program’s origins trace back to 1976 when it first started as a trade training activity using ex-Vietnam war stock out of Puckapunyal, Victoria.
“It was then used as a cross training activity, and they used to compete in the state and national championships,” said Ian.
“It was a good platform at the time to entertain the troops, a lot of them ex-Vietnam, to entertain them while they were basically posted in the middle of nowhere.”
Once the program had served its purpose and the vehicle and team were no longer required, the vehicle went into storage at the Bandiana Army Museum where it remained for 22 years.
“When I was an apprentice at Puckapunyal Workshop, I played with Raemus Rover,” Ian said.
“I’ve gone through a lot of time in service, been deployed multiple times, and the regiment I was in at the time had a permanent, established group rotating through Afghanistan for 11 years straight, and we were starting to really see the effects of continual rotation of deployment and combat.
“My guys needed a distraction, and they came to me and asked about the old Raemus Rover.”
The therapeutic potential of offroad racing became clearer and clearer before Ian, who had been in the Australian Army for 33 years since the age of 15, and Justine, who worked in defence as a public servant for 30 years, built the program into what it is today.
“We found this adrenaline therapy research and that’s the basis of the program,” Ian said.
“We utilise a genre of motorsport that isn’t widely understood; it is the most dynamic and aggressive form of motorsport that looks like you’re going to die, but you’re not.
“It’s extremely safe and it has an enormous amount of suspension.
“At the heightened state of adrenal flow is when people are more likely to open up, accept suggestion and talk about issues, so we purposely put them into a heightened adrenal flow state utilising something that’s sexy to them, race cars, we get them to that point, and we sit down and talk.”
The Raemus Rover Racing program has discharged military counsellors, nurses, trained combat medics, psychologists and padres either on staff or on call, providing a safe and familiar space for other veterans to take part.
“If we weren’t on that tour with you, we know someone who was or we’ve been to the same area and done the same things, so we can automatically build a rapport and we can start to talk about things,” Ian said.
The program involves weekly drop-in sessions, inviting veterans to come in and help work on the vehicles; trackside program days, where veterans and families are able to get in the vehicles and race; as well as racing events, where those looking to further their racing can compete in official offroad racing events.
“It’s all about building that support group that understands and will help them through it, because it’s not going to be a fix, it’s just building up the confidence that they can keep coming back and nobody’s judging them,” said Justine.
“A lot of people, when they leave the military, they don’t realise the transferrable skills they’ve got.”
“We get veterans engaged and valued,” added Ian.
“For a lot of them, the issue is the lack of self-value or self-recognition.
“Once you get out, you don’t know where you fit and you can’t find your tribe.
“By having all of these little avenues of engagement and letting them show what they can do, nine times out of ten, they display how valuable they are within an area that they never would have been exposed to unless they came out.
“I don’t care how broken you are, you can do this.”
The program is sponsored by RSL Queensland and is currently being researched by the Gallipoli Medical Research Foundation, which could lead to the program being grown and adapted further afield.
The team are preparing for their first north Queensland program day at the Burdekin Offroaders track in May.
Ian and Justine are seeking interest from local veterans to get involved in weekly drop-in sessions at their Burdekin workshop.
To find out more, message RSL Raemus Rover Off-Road Racing.

Raemus Rover Racing invites veterans to utilise and develop their skills in offroad racing. Photo credit: Alan McIntosh Sports Photography

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