| Winter Is Finished And Now It Is Time For Racing | ||||
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Hello all, and thank goodness the racing is set to start this weekend at Parramatta. It’s been a prolonged and hard winter off season and I’ve had a long enough break, to be honest I just want to go racing. Well it hasn’t been that bad, I did have a few weeks racing in the States during August, after winning last season’s Parramatta City Raceway track championship the prize was a drive in the World of Outlaws and I was fortunate to run at two meetings. The first show was the big 1/2 mile track at Calistoga and it was a fast racetrack. I’ve never raced at that track before, the speed was something else, and I was doing over 130mph at the end of the back straight. It was a bit of a jump, getting into a 410 sprinter after 3 or 4 months off racing, all I can say it certainly opened up my eyes and I really enjoyed the experience. I think we all had a good time, having my crew from the past couple of seasons in Australia with me helped too. At Calistoga, the first night I took a little time to get used to the bigger race track but by the 2nd and 3rd nights I started to get really competitive, moving forward and mixing it up with some of the Outlaws. I was really happy with that, the experience of racing at a different track compared to what I have raced at before while in America, using a bigger motor and with such competition, we really didn’t go into that weekend expecting big things, so my results where a bonus. The next weekend, we were off to Chico in California for the Gold Cup. I think their was 90 plus cars turning up for the show. I was set to qualify on the Thursday night and had a great night right from the start. On the Thursday 45 cars were to qualify and my sprintcar was the last car out onto the track. Number 45 to qualify and by that time the track had deteriorated and it wasn’t where I wanted to be. Low and behold I set 10th quick time which I was very happy with considering when I went out. In the first heat I started 4th and finished 3rd, which put me into the dash, its really important to keep moving forward, then in the Dash I came out of position 6 and finished up 3rd, that was the biggest help to us through the night. I passed a few of the regular Outlaws in the Dash and by finishing third, the result put me out of the third row in the A Main out of position 6. Right from the drop of the green flag I was really good for the first 10 or 15 laps, passing Donny Schatz, Tim Shaffer and Mark Kinser and was running 3rd to be behind Steve Kinser and Brad Furr. I stayed there until lap 20 or so until we hit lapped traffic. I followed a lapped car into one corner and got caught behind the lapped car, that was all Mark Kinser and Tim Shaffer needed and they passed me back. I hung in there behind them until the end of the race and ended up with being fifth on the night. I was very happy with that, our qualifying night was competed. Once the two night’s points were put together, I was coming out of position 11 in the A Main and with 90 plus cars at the track, I was very happy to be in that position. I think they ran an A, B, C, D and even an E Main, so it could have been a whole lot worse! With 15 or 16 Outlaws in the 40 lap A Main, it was going to be a very fast and a very competitive race. Looking for a good finish, I was running 11th for the first 29or30 laps, not actually passing anyone but still no one got by me either. I was running behind Donny Schatz at a restart when another car got a little sideways in front of Schatz, he hit the car and rolled over, leaving me with nowhere to go but into the Schatz car where I ended up bending my front axle which put me out of the race. It was a shame I didn’t finish but overall I showed them that I could do it on my own. I was really happy with the way it went, racing wise. I now have the bug to get back into racing here in Australia straight away, I reckon the season should have started a couple of weeks ago!!!!! I’m all set to start racing this Saturday night at Parramatta, racing John Harts car, I believe he has all good equipment that is capable of winning and I’m looking forward to getting into the car. I will be racing at Parramatta for the first three shows in either John Harts machine or Peter Johnson EWT Avenger, the car I raced last year. When November hits, I’ll be in the Krikke Motorsports Avenger, with that deal I’ll be doing alot of racing from now till Christmas, then into the New Year right across the country. Well I had a good run in the States and that has got my blood boiling. I need to return to racing now! Hope to catch you at the speedway soon, Regards Robbie |