3rd November 2007 : Waikaraka Park FIREWORKS NIGHT

We where going to run at Huntly last week. But we still had a bad miss, even after I had changed the distributor. The final problem was I had crossed two leads when changing the dizzy, now I know that sounds stupid and you are correct it is. It just goes to show that sometimes you need to stop and start from the beginning again.

Anyway we were confident that the car was ready and only needed to be retimed and setup for racing. Unfortunately I received a call that allowed some deer hunting to take place on Friday and oh what a day. Needless to say that Saturday morning was spent dealing with Fridays success.

This meant that we didn’t have time for retiming and setting the car up, so we where a bit unsure of what the car was going to be like.

I didn’t have to worry, from the green in the first race it was nearly perfect. I got a good run down the back straight and came out of turn 4 in second place, then into first during the third lap. Not sure what was happening behind but I believe that there was some discussion by the rest of the guys who was having second which allowed myself to get a bit of a break on the field. Looking at the lap times Jared Wade was catching at about .300 sec a lap on average but I held onto the lead for the race. Great feeling.

In the second race we were off the back and thinking that I had no chance of staying with the rest. But off the line we all had a push going into turn 1, the brother 53 was up the wall on the outside of the tank 85 with me pushing the tank. I don’t know how but I manage to get to the inside of both of them. Then after the dust settles I am running third behind 23H Lala and 16a Aaron, I could see that 23H had a problem and it looked like a flat left front. Lala was still rapid and seemed to be moving away with 16A close behind. Then the track started taking control of the race, at both ends there where obstacles if you hit them wrong the car would square up, or put you high into the air. I think this may have been 23H undoing as the car was already lower than it should have been he coped a bad turn 3 & 4 and allowed 16A and myself up the inside. Now I cannot catch Aaron on a open track but when the tank of Jareds is in front the track is not that open.
Jared had positioned himself perfectly and Aaron caught him right on the apex between 1 & 2, I had 23 lala right behind me with only a lap left to run and decided to go to the wall. Now if Jared had of turned right I think both myself and Lala would have had an interesting run along or into the back straight wall. Fortunately he took Aaron to the grass and I was able to stay in front of Lala to the finish. A bit of a fortunate win but you have to be there and take any luck that comes your way. (First for me in winning two races in one night.)

In the feature race there was a few altercations in the opening lap but it settled into a procession with 16a Aaron running me down to get third with myself finishing fourth behind 23H and 85H.
My biggest problem in the last race when the track dries out, is that in the current car I just don’t have the power that some of the other drivers do.

Must admit that I am looking forward to the new car.