OPENING NIGHT 4TH NOV 2006

As usual the best made plans had to be thrown away when we ran out of time and had to just get the car ready for opening night.

We had purchased some new go faster bits and bolted them on, only to almost have to revert back to the older more reliable bits. We did however at the last moment decide to leave them on and try them on opening night.

There where to have been eight cars however only 6 fronted,

351 Paul Vasey
414 Warrick Ansty
16 Arron Headington
11 Gary Ellis
53 Philip Marx
73 Bryce Marx

In order to make a promotion happen we decided to run the cars in 4 hot laps and then into a 1 on 1 challenge over two laps with the winner remaining on the track.

However in the hot laps 11 and 351 had engine problems and pulled off and this left only 4 cars so following is an account of the races in the 1 on 1 challenge.

Race 1 Myself 73 vs 16 Aaron Headington.
Attempted to turn Aaron in the first corner but he got away and formed a break down the back straight, rather than chase for the remaining lap I stopped on the pit corner in an attempted to stop him. This turned out to be a bad mistake as with only one mirror and not enough track time I missed and Aaron won.

Race 2 Philip Marx 53 vs 414 Warrick Ansty
Philip managed to turn Warrick sideways in the first turn but could not get him right around with Warrick as quick as ever with the clutch. Warrick had to move before both could go again. Philip attached down the back straight and around pit bend until he made a mistake and Warrick made his break and completed the last lap without incident.

Race 3 Philip Marx 53 vs Bryce Marx 73
No love lost here and off the line Philip almost drove over the front of my car with a good launch off the line. Unfortunatly for Philip he had to back off and that allowed me to get away while he completed his gear change.

Race 4 Aaron 16a vs Warrick 414
This was a good match up with both making plenty of contact at speed, Arron did get the intial break and Warrick had to give chase for the last lap and it was tight. Aaron got there by a car length over Warrick.

To make the next race a bit more intresting the boys agreed to a 2 on 2 teams race over 6 laps. Toyota vs Chev.

Teams : (Chev) Warrick / B. Marx vs (Toyota) Aaron / P. Marx

At the start I moved off with Arron attacking the back of my car all the way down the back straight until he managed to turn me sideways in pit corner where we both came to a stop. My car had stalled and I was busy trying to start it back up when Arron backed up, gave me a love tap and drove off. I had though when we came to a stop that I would have seen Warrick driving past into the lead, however he had problems getting off the line with Philip hard on the brakes and holding him up while Arron and I went down the back straight.
So as Arron left me sitting there Warrick came around the corner and begain the chase.
I got the car refired and moved to slow Arron while Philip made it as hard as possible for Warrick to catch Arron. Warrick and Arron tangled and Warrick got to the lead which he held to the finish. Arron got one last hit on myself going across the finish line.
Win to the Chev’s

The last race we only had three cars 73 16 414, The race was finished before it had even started for myself as we had a setup problem that had the car extremely lose so I waited for a couple of laps to go and decided to see who came first, Warrick had tangled with Arron and made it into the lead. Now Warrick is not one for backing off and went to the outside at pace, he actually hit the backside of my front bumper and almost spun me while he launched himself into the air, this allowed Arron up the inside. I did give chase but was out done in pit bend and lost the car in another spin.

I must thank the boys for particapting in the races as they did, as none of us enjoy racing with so few cars. There are still more Auckland cars due shortly which should make it easier.

The best part for myself is that the car ran all night and had good pace when I tried to use it, only the car setup needed to be better. But with what we where doing it was not worth changing it.

Bryce Marx