News - Modified Production Number 8
Gympie - Queensland Title, 10th June - Night Two.
After a big day chasing parts and trying to make the car stronger we headed back to the track for night two of the Australian Title. Thankyou to Greg Raymont for supplying some suspension parts and to Craig Franz and Rodney Midolo for the use of their workshop. It was a long day of racking my brain as to how I could strengthen the front to ensure it could go the distance, and then to make it happen so far from home with limited tools to work on it. Without the locals generosity this would not have been possible.
Night two consisted of a final heat and then the Bmain and Amain. It was always going to be a tough ask to qualify for the Amain, but after only finishing one heat on the first night it was near impossible. Starting in a heat race with 3 of the top 4 qualifiers almost diminished my chances to nil and also made for an extremely anxious lead up to the start of the race. I started out of 5 behind Glen Pagel, Mark Raymont, Gavin Lorensen and Todd Doyle. The car was really quick around the top of Pagel Corner and I was able to get up to 2nd behind Doyle. With Doyle out in front I had a chance to challenge him for the lead coming into Pagel Corner but wasn't able to make it stick and was extremely happy to finish 2nd behind Doyle with a gap back to Rayont, Hussey and Pagel.
A first place and second place finish gave me good points. I qualified 15 for the Amain with Royce Ernst in the final qualifying place of 16, with 4 qualifiers to be added from the Bmain. Shane Macdonald was to start out of 8. The 40 lap feature was run with only a few stoppages for minor incidents and was a dust haze. I went back a few spots throughout the race and then moved forward a few to finish in 12th place. Aiden Raymont won the title with Gavin Lorensen in 2nd, Glen Pagel 3rd, Greg Raymont 4th and Mark Raymont 5th. Shane Macdonald was out when the car shut down with an electrical problem and Royce Ernst exited around the same at half the race distance when his car overheated.