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A Coronial inquest into the death of an eight-year-old girl while drag racing in Perth has delivered a range of recommendations to improve junior driver safety.

Anita Board died from a catastrophic brain damage after crashing her 210cc dragster, named Pony Power, into a concrete barrier during a test run at Perth Motorplex, in the city's south, in November 2017.

She died two days after she reached the minimum age to apply for a competition licence, while attempting to qualify for the licence.

In her findings, released today, Coroner Sarah Linton made seven recommendations, calling for more training and safety measures in junior drag racing after an eight-year-old Perth girl was fatally injured in a crash while trying to obtain her licence.

Coroner Linton said the sport was inherently dangerous and she found it “difficult to come to terms with the idea of children being put at risk in this way”.

However, she noted “I have heard, and I accept, the evidence of the witnesses involved in drag racing that the risks for junior drag racers are much lower than they might superficially appear.

“Views differ between the general community and the local drag racing community as to whether her death could be said to be foreseeable.”

Witness Simon Cope, whose daughter also races, told the inquest earlier this year that more needed to be done to promote a safety-conscious attitude in the sport, saying there had been “an ongoing disregard for applying the current rules consistently for a long time”.

Coroner Linton added “while Anita’s death could be described as a freak accident, he had witnessed many disturbing safety issues that had made him feel an incident like this, while unprecedented, was inevitable.”

She made seven recommendations, saying there was “a lot to be said” for ensuring children had more comprehensive and independently regulated training before they could get their drag racing licence.

“I am also satisfied that more can be done to improve the general safety of the venue.”

Coroner Linton added “while Anita’s death could be described as a freak accident, he had witnessed many disturbing safety issues that had made him feel an incident like this, while unprecedented, was inevitable.”

The four recommendations relating to junior driver safety were:

• Mandatory frontal head restraints should be introduced
• Better training for young drivers
• Regular vehicle inspections 
• Vehicles should also be installed with remote cut-off devices

The Western Australian Government suspended junior drag racing in the state within days of the accident, pending the Coronial inquest.

Since then, children have been travelling interstate or overseas to pursue the sport, including Anita’s

At the time of the crash, the head of Kidsafe in Western Australia called for a review into the age of children licensed for high-speed drag racing.

Kidsafe Chief Executive Scott Phillips today told the ABC he supported the Coroner's findings, noting “I think the training (suggested) here, where children build up their training and make sure that they get some experience before they get into a vehicle at the top speed, is an important step forward.”hillips said a child's driving ability should be assessed by someone other than their parents before they began racing, commenting “we want to see that children have the right assessments and the right training to make sure that they can deal with the risks in a safe environment that's well supervised.”

With the junior racing ban remains in place, Western Australian Sport and Recreation Minister Mick Murray said it would remain in place until all the Coroner's recommendations were implemented.

Minister Murray advised in a statement “reflecting upon these findings, it is clear the state's decision to suspend junior drag racing pending the coroner's report was manifestly appropriate under the circumstances,.

"The State Government supports all of Coroner Linton's recommendations and will work with ANDRA (Australian National Drag Racing Association) and the drag racing industry to implement them as soon as possible."

VenuesWest, which operates the Perth Motorplex, is to hold a board meeting on Tuesday to consider the report.

VenuesWest Chief Executive David Etherton said he expected the findings would be adopted in full, adding “if the ultimate decision is to remove the suspension, I would expect that would be subject to everything being implemented satisfactorily.”

Image: Anita Board died in her dragster at Perth’s Kwinana Motorplex (top, courtesy: Facebook/Ian J Board) and one of the tributes to Anita Board after her death (below, courtesy: Facebook/Georgia McSweeney)

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