News

Opening night –November 5th -Stratford

Since purchasing the car at the tail end of last season from Auckland, and spending a lot of time just looking at the dust growing on the old girl it was great to get her out of the shed and into battle on Opening night.

Thanks to Bruce Williams for setting the car up and Craig Partridge for being the ever loyal dogs body that got everything organised and sorted while I basically piss around too much.

Any way Opening night arrived, Green sheeting was done at home (bloody good idea that as there were a few serious issues) so when we rolled in all we had to do was unload and get ready.

First race-grid 1: Car goes round corners and up the straights real GOOD. Was spun somewhere in the rush but ended up fifth.

Second race-Grid 7: Car a lot better with tyres pumped up- Finished mid pack and had a couple of altercations on the way thru.

Third race-Grid 14: awesome race-Used the bumper a bit and ended up third

Result: 2nd Equal in city of New Plymouth Classic

Opening Night-November 12th-Wanganui

After such a good night at Stratford it was decided to head off to Wanganui for their opening. Everything was checked. The only flat was fixed and off we went down to the Ocean View Speedway.

Its always good to go down and chase Doyley and Richard Watkins round their track as they come our way a lot.

We got there in good time so had a bite to eat and talked rubbish for a while before drivers briefing and the first race.

First race- Mid Pack draw: Car seemed to like the track-Mid pack finish

Second race-Grid 3: It started and finished on the start finish line. Basically a stuff up by the flag marshall so the car in front started to go, so did I, he realised he had gone early, so did I, I reversed and while I was reversing the flag man and SNZ let the race start. Result was one very munched gearbox as 1 car going one way and 10 cars going the other way don’t usually like each other.

End of night

December 10th –Stratford (taranaki Superstock champs and Jason King memorial)

The Two weeks to fix and tidy up the car came and went really quickly. After leaving the car quietly in the shed in disgrace other priorities kept us away from the car and as most things go., three days before racing we got onto the car only to find the replacement gearbox didn’t line up on the driveshaft. So off to the engineer with the problem and thankfully they made up a new flange straight away. Thinking that the selector would fit straight on we left that to do at the track. It slid on alright but none of the bolt holes lined up so Helen (nicked name Rangi the builder) had to find a hacksaw in a hurry for me to slot some holes. With cars on the dummy grid and me swearing at the ratchet we got things lined up and off we went.

Heat 1- Mid pack draw: Car felt real good, a bit loose as the race went on but finished with no problems.

Heat 2-Back of the grid draw: A real bash and crash race, real good stockcar stuff with cars being spun, etc etc. Paul Jamieson had a lunge and got me half spun, then Brian Booker completed the spin on me. Then they had a go at each other and let me catch up. I thought revenge would be good at this point and got Paul on turn one. For some reason he couldn’t fire up and the reds came on. All in all a good race.

Heat 3-Inside pole: With two Wanganui cars in the top 3 going into the final heat and me going only averagely. It was decided that if it looked like we weren’t going to get a top 3 finish this race, I would drop into a blocking roll to try and Get Nev Nolly through to win the Taranaki Champs. First corner, got side swiped sending me round in a neat little circle. So Hunting we went, targets were set, Basically anything with a ‘V’ on the side. For once, everything went the way we wanted, nailing Richard Watkins twice and slowing the other Wanganui car. Even had time for once to wave Nev through. Congrats Nev on picking up the Taranaki champs (Proves that good guys do win sometimes)

Result: 5th Taranaki Champs and Winner Jason King Memorial(Stirrers Trouphy)

Boxing Night meeting-26th December- stratford

Not too much to report here as Alastair had the car for the night. I did the pit crew job and was told by the crew that I was bloody useless. Ali goes quite well, probably a tidier driver than me, doesn’t get into too much mischief but he did encounter Pacman Pete Moseley through the night.

John and Gary Adamson Memorial 28th January

After a massive break of a month due to Championships through out NZ and Stratford not running Superstock’s it was good to get back to racing. A beautiful day, very warm and a reasonable crowd turned up to see some pretty good racing.

Heat One- Grid 6: Had a pretty good start, but the car kept jumping out of gear, Then I got spun (getting pretty used to that), tried out the puddles on the infield and found no fish, No more real drama after that for 7th place (two bent rims thanks Brian Booker 95s)

Heat Two-Grid 12: Very good start but with the car jumping out of gear and my driving being very erratic thought I might be better to try for the Gary Adamson Memorial for stirring. Two things I learnt quickly were when stirring you need to keep the car in gear and secondly make sure you hit the car you attack properly so you don’t get spat out the side.

So off I went bouncing over the pole line side ways and came down on the corner of the car on a weird angle. This somehow proceeded to smash the rear hub including my left rear wheel off the car.I must thank the tractor driver here for trying to smash my stockcar body off the car when lifting it. Nice one!!!

So once again a stupid mistake cost dearly both financially and in not being able to complete another meeting.

Hence with my workload at the moment and the unsurity of getting parts fixed in time we have made the decision to with draw my entry to the NZ Champs in Auckland next week.

It gutting as I had set myself to compete right from the day we purchased the car . Accomodation was booked and a workshops had been sourced. Thanks guys for your support and sorry for the inconvienience.