In my last post I announced we were done for the season but, as it turned out, we managed to have our sponsor day earlier than expected and my work committments changed which allowed us to compete at Easter in the Manawatu Champs at Palmerston North and the Winged Thunder 3 at Harrisville the next day.

We made the trip down early Saturday morning with no dramas and arrived at Palmerston North at 3pm and went straight to the track. My last few outings at this track have not been amazing so I was very keen to get that monkey off my back and have a good run. The last two meetings there I completely destroyed two cars and, in one of those accidents,  I broke my back.   Without going into great detail we had a good night with the boys giving me a great car which allowed me to drive it confidently. We qualified highest in points from the heats races then won the pole shuffle over O’Connor. This meant I started on grid 1 which probably wasn’t the best place to start as the top of the race track had a great cushion. None the less it was great to earn a front row start at a track I considered to be my bogie track. O’Conner got the jump from the start and we took off running a quick pace on a great surface. There were a few yellow lights but towards the end of the race in lap traffic I had an opportunity to pass O’Connor but unfortunately a lap car moved out on me,  preventing the pass on the second to last lap. I would have loved to win but we finished second with the car running well and came out with no damage.

The next day we rolled out to Harrisville and were blown away by the quality of this event. The only way to describe it was awesome. The amount of effort Brett and Denise Harris put into the event is second to none. I hadn’t raced there before so it was a learning curve for us as the surface is dirt not clay meaning the grip levels during the day are quite different to what we are used to. Having said that,  in the time trail we went out and set 2nd quickest time which was really pleasing. I got 3rd in my first heat and 5th in my second heat which gave me a grid 6 start. The feature was tough as the track was super slick and dusty which meant passing was tricky. I ended up finishing 6th but again in one piece.

All in all we had a great weekend and it was a good way to finish the season. I’m sorry this post is so late but we have been busy stripping the car and going through everything. We just received the chassis back from the powdercoaters and have begun the rebuild. It is a long process so we wanted to get going early. I will be posting progress photos and updates in the coming weeks so make sure you stop by this site and check it out.

JMAC