He hails from Pipersville Pennsylvania and for the past three years he has swapped the cold winters of the United States to celebrate the dawn of a New Year in warm and sunny Brisbane. But it's not just the weather he likes here, Mike Carber also enjoys the first race of the New Year at Titan Garages Brisbane International Speedway (BIS) and as the results show, there's been good reason for him to do so.

On January 1 2007, Mike was mid-way through his first tour of Australia and part of an American contingent of drivers in Brisbane for the Speedway's annual International Sprintcar events. He was the new kid on the block, racing alongside seasoned campaigners Brent Kaeding and Jonathon Allard from California, and he brought with him a fairly impressive résumé that dated back to his childhood years racing Quarter Midgets and Microsprints.

Carber swept aside his more fancied rivals that night to claim his first win on Australian soil, leaving his fellow Americans in his wake and racing to victory over Andrew Scheuerle and Cameron Gessner to cement his place in the track's history books.

Mike returned to Australia during the summer of 2007/08, having accepted a drive with John Weatherall's well-credentialed Motorguard Motorsport team that had won numerous Championships and main events in Qld during the previous four seasons, a team that listed the likes of multiple Australian Champion Garry Brazier as one of it's regular drivers. Carber knew he had landed a plum ride and despite not winning a Feature race in Brisbane that summer, he did however stand on the podium in the first sprintcar event of 2008 at BIS on January 5.

This Thursday night, January 1 2009, Carber and the Motorguard Motorsport team will unload the USA 1 Maxim at Archerfield and line up against Brent Kaeding and a host of Qld stars as they chase their own set of New Year honours, this time in the second of the three Sprintcar Internationals on the track's 2008/09 Summer of Speed program of events.

History may be on their side and Carber is a last start winner at the track, having won the thirty-lap Feature race on Boxing Night, so they are carrying good form into the event. It all points towards another golden opportunity for them yet they will know they have a hard task ahead of them. Brent Kaeding, and Qld's best in Andrew Scheuerle, Todd Wanless, Pete Thorley, Darrell Hodges, Darren Jensen and co will make sure of that.

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