This was one meeting I would rather forget. After the car felt quite good last week we had hoped for a reasonably good showing.

My grid starts were 9 / 1 / 17 which I wasn’t completely unhappy with.

In the first race we got off to a good start and went up the pole line on the back straight, only to have 16a Arron Headington appear out of no where sideways in front of myself now this was a good hit especially when I had cars behind pushing.

Now the problems started coming out of the next corner the car felt sluggish and no drive. The rear of the car was loose and difficult to control right thru the corner and no forward drive. I managed to do 7-8 laps when exiting the corner onto the back straight the car pulled hard left for no reason and I spun up onto the infield. I remained there only to cross the finish line at the end of the race.

Back in the pits with both front brakes smoking badly it became apparent that the front brakes where not releasing, with the rear brakes not much better. The boys freed the right front brake calliper and said have another go.

At the start of the second race on pole, the car pulled to the right on the very first corner (not what I was expecting), but it was now driving forward with a bit of speed the next corner was fine and I exited with a bit of speed for a change. However as I entered the next corner I had no brakes then a lot of left front braking which turned the car faster than I could control, by this stage I had collected 7r Dwayne Wright and someone else in my spin and I ended up backwards up the wall. This hurt and I had enough for that race.

Prior to the last race we altered the car setup and the car went alright from the back but the corners had to be taken with care as the brakes where still not working correctly, then after about 10 laps the front of the car started to wander in the corners making it difficult to control yet again. This gradually got worse until I saw a few sparks and then going into pit corner the right front wheel came off hub and all.

The only thing we can think that caused this to happen is that the jammed brakes have heated the wheel bearing up so much that it collapsed and in turn aloud the hub to float off. ( We had repacked the hubs only the week before prior to Auckland)

So it was not a good night for ourselves or any of the Auckland cars.
Arron out after half a lap.
Gary Ellis missing race 2.

Hopefully we can get the brakes fixed and find some more pace, or it could be a bit more track time needed.

Thanks to Darryl / Lance / Wayne / Dad for keeping the car going no matter how sore I was.

Last two things:
Superstocks go even faster with no brakes.

Would like to welcome Placemakers MtWellington on board the team as a new advertiser. Please show them as much support as they are showing in ourselves.