HTCAV – Jason Humble profile

When Jason Humble says he was ‘born trackside’ he’s possibly, ah, cribbing a bit. But in the late ’70s, when Geoff Humble unloaded his gear at the track ready to go racing, an essential part of the kit was his baby son Jason.

Growing up with the smell of Avgas and hot rubber in his nostrils, Jason watched his father race open wheelers from Formula Vee to Formula Holden. He first climbed behind the wheel of a Vee himself, aged 15, at a club day. But it was touring cars that grabbed his attention.

Cars of the Rising Sun

Jason’s first racecar was an Improved Production Toyota Corolla KE10 fitted with a 4AG engine. That made way for the pale blue, ex-Bob Tweedie Group N Mini Cooper S in ’98: a year later he was the NSW Appendix J Association Club Champion.

Always the smart businessman, Jason sold that car to buy a house, but was back in another Improved Production Toyota Corolla as soon as funds allowed.

That second Corolla was sold in 2003, after which Jason embarked on a 2.5-year project with a car he reckoned would be an historic touring winner. A very bare Mazda RX2 shell in spray-can black with yellow wheels was soon at the acid dippers, caged and repainted in its original brown.

With fabrication and original build and setup by Dave Broadhurst, the car won first up at the Muscle Car Masters in 2005 and, the next year, won by 20 seconds at a wet Oran Park.

Team Works

The good results kept coming into 2009, when Jason and engine builder Matt Russell teamed up with to build their own rotary engines. Part of the plan was to build and race an engine, then, on the back of good results, sell it on to fund extra development.

The plan worked - Matt now builds Mazda engines for racers in every state and Jason experiments with every aspect of the car to see what works and what doesn’t. Part of the success, he claims, is the knowledge-sharing among the band of brothers in the NSW Mazda camp that speeds up the evolution of quick.

“Eight engines, four carburettors, two exhaust systems, four gearboxes with different ratios, a range of diff ratios, and trying out fuel from 110 octane down to 91!” says Jason, “we tried every option that looked half a chance.”

And the result? Although Jason runs in the Under 3 Litre class, his fastest lap of 1.51.2 at Phillip Island earlier this year would have put him among the top five in the Over 3 Litre class.

“I was ready to go mid 1.49s in the Sunday morning race – the weather and track conditions looked about right”, he said, “but the battery died on the line!”

For the Record

Glenn Seton currently has the Phillip Island Under 3 Litre record, set in his father Bo’s Ford Capri V6 at 1.51.0. Jason’s eyes are firmly on that prize.

A race win and two stirring drives from the back of the grid earned him the VHRR ‘Driver of the Meeting’ consolation prize at this year’s Phillip Island Classic.

As a new HTCAV club member, Jason will be running in Victoria whenever he can. He’ll next be seen at the JUST CARS 50km cup – part of the Winton Festival of Speed in August.

Anyone who saw Jason hunt down Darryl Hansen’s Mustang in the gloom at Winton two years ago would stump up money that he’ll be one of the men to beat there this year.

Put August 5 and 6 in your diaries, folks. That meeting, and especially the 50km race, will be huge…