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Matt's Blog
Chariot's Of Thunder Round 1 posted Thursday, 14 August 2008 |
Last Saturday night was round 1 of the Chariots of Thunder series at northline raceway and it was a disaster for our team.
During engine starts the Engine developed a miss and wouldn't run past idle. Some quick work by the guys got the motor running for time trials where i timed 10th, which was not too bad considering there was 5 or 6 quality cars that weren't racing in previous weeks.
At the start for heat 1 i put my foot down and the motor wouldn't run again so i pulled infield.
Heat 2 and the motor was fine but whilst running second to Warren Ekins i half spun the car leaving Jason McIver with no room to get past. The front wing was ripped off and radius rod broken. Another DNF.
Heat 3 went well, i got to the lead from the pole and managed to hold off Ian Louden through traffic for the win.
About 5 laps into the A the motor went off again so i circulated around the top until a red a few laps later, so we took it back to the trailer.
It was a frustrating night so we've changed some things so we wont have these problems next meeting. |
Darwin Season So Far posted Monday, 14 July 2008 |
We've had 4 club shows so far up here with some mixed results.
With car numbers around the 18 mark i've timed 9th each night so i guess i'm consistent!
Opening night i managed to run third after starting out of 2. This was mainly due to some of the faster guys having bad luck than me being fast.
Second meeting i struggled and ran 8th in the feature, i was pretty much the same for the 3rd show until the feature when we found a setup that i can drive. i was running 6th and looking to take 5th when Daniel Goldoni got into the catch fence hard and damaged it enough that the rest of the night was cancelled.
Last weekend was the 4th night of the season and we started the heats with the same set up as the previous show. I moved forward in my first heat to finish 3rd, then finally managed to win my first heat in a sprintcar after holding off Warren Eakins in heat 2. It was really the first time i had drivin the car hard, it helps when you can get some confidence in the car. Unfortunatly i couldn't do as good a job in the feature and dropped back to 7th after running 4th at one stage.
Even though there is only 18 cars running at the moment there is still some tough competition with Warren, Luch Monte, Ben Atkinson, Jaimie Maiolo, Jason McKiver, My car owner Brooke David and Scott Reilly all fast. With the Bevelite Glass team and perhaps Ryan Farrel on they're way for the Chariot's of thunder series the racing will be tough.
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Wingless Views posted Tuesday, 29 April 2008 |
Sorry i haven't put anything up about the wingless show, it's been a busy few weeks moving up to Darwin for their season.
Firstly the wingless show was fantastic fun and i sure hope that it continues to grow! I was suprised by how well the cars still hook up especially coming off the turns. I ran the first half of the race without going past about half throttle and was still able to keep up with the leader Alex Mcglaughlin, I had some opportunities to pass Alex early in the race as he was pushing coming off the turns, but with 40 or so laps to go i thought it would be ok to take it easy. This probably cost me the race because i made a mistake and let the eventual winner Leigh Van Ginneken through. After the red at 26 laps, we lowered the front of the car which stopped the front end doing it's own thing and restarted in second after Alex crashed out. With Darren Mollenoux Fighting hard to get past i pushed for the last 3rd of the race using what tire i had left. With 2 to go i briefly passed the leader going into turn 1 but was repassed going down the back straight to eventually run 2nd.
It was a great race with a close finish which could be expected from a wingless show on a small track i guess, i won some money and also a top wing and front wing for being the first car to flip! ( heat 1 ). I'm sure next years event will be bigger and better.
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First Night In The Murphy Sprintcar posted Tuesday, 29 April 2008 |
I ran a fortnight ago in Brisbane for Brooke David, but this time it was in the car i'll be using in Darwin instead of Brooke's Cheetah Chassis i'd previously ran.
The car is one of Brooke's old Murphy chassis, i spent 2 weeks at Nathan Macdonalds workshop rebuilding the car from the ground up and gave it some new panels and paint and a sign job. We only just made it with the last of the stickers put on at the track after engine starts!
The car came up a treat and ran well but the driver was a little ordinary in the heat races with only two 5th places after starting out of 3 in the first heat and 4 in the second. With big car couts this put me out of 11 in the B.
I was actually going ok in the B gaining 4 spots in the first 3 laps until i clipped a spun car and bent the left front radius rod so the torsion arm came off the axle and i was done for the night. Disappointing after the huge effort Nathan and I had put in to get there.
So thats it for Brisbane for this year and i guess i officially start my sprintcar career up here in Darwin. I'm looking forward to getting on a track with a bit more room, Brisbane is so tight, it's hard to get your head around and do some consistent laps.
One last thing, if you ever think about wrapping a sprintcar tail tank in vinyl sticker, you'll need 2 guys and about 10 hours.....get it painted instead! |
Aussie Title Wrap posted Thursday, 27 March 2008 |
For the 3rd year in a row we've failed to come up with a result at the aussie title. It was the most dissapointing because we had one of the fastest cars all weekend.
The first heat was a great 2nd from the rear, 2nd in the second heat ment that a top 5 in the third heat would have given us a top 4 starting position. On the first lap of the third heat i challenged for a position on the inside and contact was made which nearlly flipped me over. The headers were pushed up into the motor and damaged the oil pressure line. The line evntually broke a few laps form home and hurt the engine. This DNF gave us a 14th starting position for the following nights A main.
In the morning we changed motors and a front shock which had also been damaged in the incident. We were very fast in the hotlap session before the final but were a little tight so we freed the car up some more. On the initial start of the final i gained 7 positions in an excellent first lap and managed to pass Steve Caunt, Brock Hallet, Ben Devlin and Wayne Moller who are all very fast and would have been difficult to pass later in the race but this was all to no avail because the reds came on half way through the second lap which ensured a complete retart. At the green Brocks left rear wheel came off and i rode over his right rear trying to get around him. Heavy contact with the wall bent the front axle and tie rod badly and the car was very difficult to drive for the rest of the race. The rod ends actually came loose but luckily held on until the end of the race. After going to the rear for the restart i made my way back to 12th or so but was agian put to the rear on a yellow a few laps later for jumping the start. So after repassing all those cars 10th was all we could come up with after racing very hard with Matt Redpath for alot of the final.
I guess a little more patience in the 3rd heat would have given us a great chance to win the race but it wasn't to be, perhaps the most disappointing thing is that this could have been my last formula 500 title with sprintcar commitments in the future. Congrats to Mick Pronger who didnt put a foot wrong all weekend. Thanks to my car owner Steve, Crew cheif Ants and Geoff Murphy for making the trip over from perth. Looking forward to this weekends wingless 50 lapper at Laang |
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