After absolutely trashing the car at Cromwell we were offered the use of a workshop at Dunedin where we were spending a few days to see the sights. Well one whole day we got to see the inside of a workshop thanks to Mike at the Turbo shop in Dunedin for his shop. We changed every thing over to another 2nd hand chassis that we had taken down with us. The theory was with Murphy’s Law if you take it you wont need it. I was never good at theory at school either.
Qualify was five heats to get your grid for the 25 lap feature.
It took me severely races to get 100% settled in in the different chassis with a few things not quite as I would have liked. A shame we didn’t have a shake down meeting somewhere to sort out a few things. We were a little unlucky to have a tough group for qualifying & started 4 of the 5 heats behind Jonathan Allard making it hard to get passes done in the first lap because Jonathan is always so fast & making the move on the guy in front of him. We also had a larger group than 4 of the other groups, meaning you always had to pass an extra car. Result we qualified 6th.
Final. In the feature it took several attempts to get the first lap under way with crashes in the rear of the field that took out a bunch of guys. I could have done withe a few out from in front of me. From there it was 24 laps with no cautions & not a lot of passing so the grid 6 start effecting where we finished.
Result 5th NZ Champs , 2nd Kiwi home but no 2nz.
1st Sammy Swindel USA . 2nd Jonathan Allard USA, 3rd Austin Wheatley USA, 4th Ryan Oconnor NZ, 5th Rodney Wood
NZ Grand Prix, Cromwell. The come back kid. February 10th, 2012
Well we ventured south to the NZ GP, the place where we won the New Zealand champs 2 years ago. We had a slightly bent left knerf bar on the car then & it has been on the car for the last 2 years without getting bent. Unfortunately after passing for the lead in race 1 I climbed up the right rear of a lapped car & fired the car up the fence & along the wall breaking out rail way iron posts along the way. On walking around the car after the crash the only piece that didn’t seem bent was the left knerf bar. It broke the chassis in several places , the radiator up rights etc were broken away. so we got stuck into it & with the thanks of my crew & many random helpers as well as the expert help from Kevin (jamo ) Jameison who welded the car back together along with Marton Jameison we roughly pushed out the bent torsion tubes, fitted a new front end Knerf bars & bumpers & made it out for race 2. After race 2 we had the time to also replace a few bent bits in the rear.
The next two heats the car was a bit average but gained some points & managed to start the feature in grid 10.
Feature. With some fine tuning through the night the car was starting to handle a bit better & had an awesome drive to push through the field passing eight cars to challenge Jamie McDonald for 2nd place. Jamie did the nice crossover & got his spot back resulting in us placing 3rd.
This was a great come back considering the damage we sustained. Many would have loaded up & gone home but I think our years of stock car racing have instilled a determination to fight on.
End result 3rd at the NZ GP behind USA driver Austin Wheatly & Jamie Macdonald.
PS Also a big thanks to Kevin & MartinJameison for towing our trailer to Cromwell ,across to Dunedin & up to Christchurch & then home. a journey of some 3000 pkms
We had 4 Visiting Drivers from the USA with The Legend Sammy Swindel, 1NZ Jonathan Allard, Peter Murphy & Ricky logan as well as the lads from Auckland.
Heat 1. I was on grid 4 & stoked to have the 1USA of Sammy on 3 beside me. This race felt like a feature & it was great to race a duel with Sammy & to come away with the win.
Any day you can beat Sammy Swindell is a good day.
Heat 2. Started off the back, Didnt get a great start but got mid way through the feild.
Feature. This was a reverse grid highest points off the rear. I had a great start & had already got up to about sixth when No16 Dean Oriely got out of shape on the apex & came across in front of me, ripping the front axle out of the car. Race over DNF. Very disapointed as I think we had a good chance for a feature win.
Heres a clip of heat 1, you will have to excuse the sreamin of my loyal fans.LOL
Well we Started the night with an extremly wet race track that I even had to pull some tears offs & that was just doin wheel packing.
Race 1, Sprints were moved forward into the race programe because of the wet conditions rather than the ministocks & visiting mini sprints. Oh to have had a front row grid for this race. The track was so heavy, vision was difficult, every time you got close to pass somebody you momentarily had to race blind because there was that much mud thrown at you. I struggled to move forward much & ended up 5th from grid 6th.
Race 2. grid 6 to 3rd. Possibly missed the set up a bit for this race,was a bit average
Feature. Grid 2. to 1st.
Had a great duel with Skinny who started on pole & We raced wheel to wheal for several laps which was a great racing & then managed to pull away. An anxious moment arose when we came up to lapped traffic withe the 75 car of Greg Kilworth, The Rookie instigated his own initiation into the sprintcar ranks with a nice barrel roll off turn 3 of about 3times. I saw it unfold as we set for the turn & hit the picks, Skinny was not so fortunate & figured 3 rolls wasn’t enough for a rookies initiation & gave him 2 more. I was bit lucky as I thought about slipping around the out side, glad I didn’t.
Check out the Vid.
Rodney thinks he’s been good boy all year (yeah right) a good Tuis ad. So the team owner and santa bought him a new toy. Posted by team owner AKA Mrs.W. Shes the lucky one who gets to upload and download and watch the true crazy speed her crazy husband does and how close he does get to the wall.
Please note this is not a in car camera, but a highly sophisticated wall sensing device as team owner likes to keep her own record of how many times HER car is being introduced to the wall. first time a bit too much clay. bit of a laugh. needs tearoffs! this was Race 2, as Race 1 was a black out by the end of the first straight.
Heres a clip of the feature thanks to Kyle Peterson & Mr Guy
After sustaining some damage from hitting the wall at the springs it came back to haunt us this night at BP. We had replaced a few bits durring the week but had problems with a torque ball binding all night ( even though it had been replaced) & so a bit of an average performance this night.
Western Springs taking on Donny Shatz. December 26th, 2011
With Western Springs not being my favourite place to race we weren’t intending to race there this summer but there was really only one thing attracting me to race there. The opportunity to take on Donny Shatz & Sammy Swindel who I would rate as the two best sprintcar drivers in the world & I get to race them both in the same night. The excitement of the challenge must have been too much as I didn’t really have the best of nights & wasn’t as smooth as i could have been. Brains went out the window.
Heat 1. Started grid 2 with Donny right behind me on 4, awesome. Got a good start & lead for 9 & 3/4 laps only to give up the lead in the last corner before the chequered.( I kicked myself for the rest of the week. ) In the last two laps I had been putting up a good challenge but some water had been splashed onto the low line in turn 3 that messed me up & got me out of rhythm.
Heat 2. A good run from grid 14 throught to 6th.
This meant I was fifth highest qualifier ( 2nd highest kiwi) & had to take on Sammy in a pole shuffle shoot out, as he was sixth qualifier. I got the start all wrong as I allowed myself to be two low on the track. I figured I would get good drive off the turn but when I stood on the gas the right rear got traction but the left rear didn’t, winding me on to the grass & loosing the chance to compete. Result from that I had to start grid 6 for the feature.
Feature. I don’t think we were going to have a winning car for this race but we were in there. We had a caution after a few laps & I wasn’t ready for the restart. I had loosened my belts a bit to relax & get some air & wasn’t ready for the green. Once we got going I was furiously trying to race & tighten belts as well as defend my position as there was pressure being applied behind me. I got totally caught out when I came off turn 4 & slaped the wall , then coasted to the in field. Race over. Disappointing.
Another great nights racing at BP with good atmoshpere & a great race track. Again we had Peter murphy visiting with us & i think he was a bit more hungry for it than the week before.
Heat 1. started on grid 14 & had a goood rive upo to 5th.
Heat 2. From pole open a nice lead to come home 1st.
Feature. Started on grid 2. Had a battle with Skinny for a few laps until we got in the groove. Had a good half a lap lead & then had a cauton, twice. Peter Murphy had a few attempts for the led in the last few laps , I drove a defensive line once I knew he was there , it prbably wasnt the right option but still managed to come home in 1st.
All up a great effort for our first 3 meetings. 5 wins from 9 races is more than our fair share.
The fireworks was abandoned because of the Dotteral birds that were in a recovery unit next to the track due to the ship the Rena being bech off our shores, but there was still a great night of racing. We had visting USA driver Peter Murphy join the ranks to spice it up a bit.
first time a bit too much clay. bit of a laugh. needs tearoffs! this was Race 2, as Race 1 was a black out by the end of the first straight.
