| Farr Goes For A Steady Start In America | ||||
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Robbie started his American trip with a few days of relaxation in Las Vegas before moving on towards California to prepare for his drives with the Outlaws in the Kinser car, courtesy of Parramatta Raceway and Brian Healy. A possible drive in a 410 wingless car at Antioch speedway was passed up for a few laps in a 360 winged sprintcar at the Placerville County Fairgrounds speedway. This semi banked clay ¼ mile track was a good place to get back into the swing of racing again, 33 cars lined up for the night’s events. At the completion of the time trials Robbie was a little over ½ a second of the pace in the 7T car, qualifying in 16 place, this gave Robbie a start in heat four out of P7, moving forward only one spot was not enough to move through to the A Main. Robbie started the from P13 in the B main and quickly started to move through the field looking to finish in the top 4 for the all important transfer spot, after moving into 5th place with a few laps in hand, Robbie started to challenge for 4th place when a brake caliper bracket broke putting him out of the event. From Placerville Robbie and his traveling companions moved on to visit Rod Tinner and his family for a day before going to Chico and having a look at the car he would be driving over the next couple of weeks. Ready to race Robbie arrived at the Calistoga track in readiness for the first of three nights of racing with the Outlaws in the annual Harvest Classic. As this is a track that Robbie had not raced at previously the plan was to take it easy at the meeting and try to move forward with each night of the Harvest Classic. Looking after the car and the equipment for Chico the following weekend was very important to Robbie, as the Chico venue is a track that Robbie likes and has had success at before. Night one at Calistoga went along smoothly, Robbie was happy with the way things went. With all the cars at the meeting being assured of a start in the A main on the night Robbie knew all he had to do was take it easy and finish the night in one piece. The results for the night consisted of 20th place in time trials, with a time of 17.759 and an average speed on 101.357 mph, 7th place in his heat and ending up in position 17 in the main event in front of Donny Schatz. Night two and Robbie improved on his first night’s performance, because of the heat during the day all the competitors were slightly slower on a slicker track. Robbie ended the second night of the Harvest Classic with 16th place in the main event after again time trialing in 20th place with a time of 17.788 around the ½ mile track, also once again 7th in his heat race. The final night of the Harvest Classic went well for Robbie and the team “overall things went better than I expected and I’m pleased to have had the experience on a ½ mile track like this. To adapt a style of driving required for the bigger track and learn what to do with the car was a big challenge, also having more power was certainly valuable experience and very enjoyable, one of the most noticeable things that took a little to get the hang of, was the little amount that you move the steering wheel at these speeds, well in excess of 110 mph” The race results for Robbie were once again a slight improvement from the previous night, a 5th place in his heat race then following that up with 15th in the A Main. After a few more days doing the tourist things it will be time to get ready for the Outlaw show next weekend at Chico. The race track at Chico is more like tracks in Australia so the team is hopping to be more competitive. |