News - Modified Production Number 8
Australian Title
We arrived in Maryborough for the un-official practice session on Thursday afternoon. The car was going to stay in the trailer till Saturday night's racing. I had been too sick leading up to the title to burn up energy that I just didn't have. I was hoping to rest up and be well enough come Saturday to compete. The calcutta was held on Thursday evening and I was bought by Travis Barron for $40. Later on in the evening Travis apparently ran out of money at the bar, and Colin Hockley took advantage of that situation to buy me off of Travis - for a bargin price of $35.
The offical practice session on the Friday night saw some blistering fast times, and some unfortunate damage for some teams.
We arrived at the track on the Saturday afternoon to be greeted by a quick downpour. It seemed to be good for the track which was in fantastic condition all weekend and held up to an amazing amount of racing. I started off pole in my first heat and the track was still a little greasy. Matt Swarbrooke came from 4, around the high line into the lead on the start. His car was sitting on the track beautifully. On the second lap I got turned around by Gavin Fletcher and unfortunately Robert Trapp got caught up in the mess. With damage to his front end Trappy was unable to keep going on the restart. My car was too tight and I just couldn't get it to turn in. I struggled with it for the race and defensively was able to hold onto 2nd spot.
After making some changes I came out for the second heat starting out of 8. I moved my way up to 4 behind Greg Raymont and got the chance to go underneath him coming into turn 3. The car was sitting on the track so much better, and had fantastic pace. I was up into third when, with a few laps to go, got a noise in the engine. I shut it down instantly and rolled to the infield. After being pushed back into the pits I couldn't crank the engine, it had totally seized. Unfortunately the car was going strong, and with a 2nd and potentially a 3rd for the first 2 heats, my points would have been looking good, but it wasn't meant to be. Instead I got to sit and watch some of the best Modified Production racing with such a great quality field.
I have since pulled the engine apart and found that a roller lifter had jumped sideways and wrecked the cam.
Congratulations to Robert Trapp who started in 16th position and finished in 6th place, which is a fantastic result for Trappy after loads of bad luck previously. Bad luck to Shane Macdonald, who came from 15th and was running in 5th place with 2 laps to go when his engine shut down. He was quick and consistent all weekend and drove extremely well. It was a shame to see such a disappointing result for him, but great to watch his successes over the title weekend.
Congratulations to the finishers - Todd Doyle won back to back Title's with Andrew Blackwell in 2nd, Greg Worling 3rd, Paul Hussey 4th, Aidan Raymont 5th, Robert Trapp 6th, Troy Ware 7th, Darren Cockerill 8th, Trevor Mills 9th, and Justin Drew 10th.
The full details of the event can be seen here at the Speedway Sedans website.