| Robbie Farr, Australian's Call The Action Man | ||||
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After being Sydney’s top sprintcar racer over the past two seasons, Robbie Farr has set his sights away from the Parramatta City Raceway. It was recently announced that Robbie would be teaming up with Shane Krikke, making the Krikke/Farr duo one of Australia’s strongest sprintcar combinations with one goal in mind that is to win all the major Australia sprintcar events including the prestigious World Series Sprintcars. Greg Boscato caught up with Robbie to check out his plans for the upcoming season plus his thoughts on last year. Greg Boscato. Was this past 2001/2 season your most successful? Robbie Farr. Well not on total race wins but on the big shows I think we performed the best that we had done all year. So far as being happy with the season, well it was definitely one of the fondest season’s we’ve had. GB. You had a good package together with the EWT Team, everything looked to go well? RF. We have been together for a couple of years, even longer with some of the guys in the pitcrew. It was a comfortable situation and we went and enjoyed our racing. GB. What was the highlight of the season? RF. It was probably the Australian Title, well it was a track that people thought I wouldn’t be a factor on. It was a dry slick track and we came out of position six and ended up second, with a good chance of winning it. So I was very happy with that. We came back after flipping in the first heat and the rest of the weekend we spent trying to play catch up. We were actually came pretty close to getting it in the end. It was definitely the highlight of the season. GB. Was there a low point to this past season? RF. Yes you always have a low point and that was the Classic. We had a car good enough to win it but going around the outside of Schatz we touched and I tagged the wall and got a flat tyre. I really think that the race was there to be won and you don’t get too many opportunities at the Classic that is that good, so it was a shame but you do get over it. GB. Winning the PCR Track Championship with the prize being a drive in a Kinser car in a couple of World of Outlaws races, is that a dream coming true? RF. Its a dream to get into good equipment in America but its only a couple of races. Still its something I’ll always be able to look back to, plus to work closely with Steve Kinser, thats pretty awesome! GB What is your aim with those few races in the World of Outlaws? RF. I’m not putting to much on it, I’m just going to enjoy the experience. Calistoga being a 1/2 mile and I haven’t raced on a 1/2 miler before, plus I’ve had 5 months off and to jump into a 410 on a different track, well. My first experience with the car will be in qualifying so I don’t think you can wind yourself up too much about it. I’ll just see how Calistoga ends up and have some fun with that. I think the following weekend at the Chico Gold Cup will be different, its alot more like an Australian type track. I’ve run and won there before and its a good little track that suits me. And also having the race at Calistoga the weekend before I’ll be getting back into the groove and I think that will help me. We will have a good car and if we can all click together, I should be able to put it into the A Main, and you never know what could happen from there! GB. What is the challenge to move away from Parramatta? RF. I’ve always been Parramatta based and you know last year we had a few dates that clashed with the WSS guys. I didn’t enjoy racing when everyone else was racing 150 kilometres or so down the road, racing for $10,000 to win and I was racing in a club show. I just didn’t want to get locked into staying home, I just wanted to go travelling and run with all the good guys. I think its time to move the bar up and see where we are on the ladder. GB. You have been successful at nearly all Australian tracks besides Parramatta, do you have a favorite track? RF. I’m fond of Bunbury, we seem to have good luck there and its a high speed track. It can be alot of fun when the track gets alittle choppy and stuff, thats fun! Warrnambool is an awesome place but I have to probably say Bunbury, its definitely one of my favorite tracks. Kwinana, I’ve raced there once and had a win plus its a nice track, its very open and you can do alot of passing. But if I had to pick a track I would say Bunbury is my favorite. GB. Thats funny you say that because you are teaming up with the West Aussie team of Shane Krikke this season, how did that all happen? RF. I’ve known Shane and Ron for years and years, we have all been involved in speedway for quite some time and all become close friends. So when Skip and Shane decided to stop after Skip decided to stay home in America, Shane spoke to me and we were able to put something together for the season. We both think alike and I think we are in for a good season. GB. Who will be your main opposition in the WSS and are you excited about running the full series? RF. I think there will be a couple of guys, but you would have to say Max. He has had a couple of good years, been in good form and consistent. The two Americans Pittman and Furr running with the World of Outlaws week in and week out will be hard to beat, and If they can be consistent they will be tough. I know that they will be fast on their night and I think they are the three main threats at this stage. For us its exciting thats why I wanted to do the WSS. There are good guys in top equipment and this is my first opportunity to run the WSS in a team that is setup for running the series. Its hard to do this with teams that aren’t totally setup because you are racing against the guys with good gear who don’t do it in half measures. I now have the opportunity to do it with a team who has done it before, Shane runs a very professional team where nothing is done in half measures and thats the way you need to attack this series. Max, Pittman, Furr and those guys will be setup and will have all their gear together and we will have to be in the same position to compete against them, to give ourselves a good shot at taking the series out. GB. What is your race programme for this season? RF. We are still talking about it now but I would say we’ll start off with the Krikke team at the Masters in Adelaide which I believe is early November, and then its off to WA for the start of the WSS rounds. We will definitely do the Title, the Classic and the Krikke Boys race at the end of the season. Also we are going to pick up all the big shows that we can, anything with money on it we will chase! GB. What are your goals for this season? RF. This will be my first serious year on the road and I think we are capable of running a top three in the points of WSS and winning some races, well hey we could win it this year but thats depends on how things go. I’ll just go out on the road and see how it ends up. We will give it our best every night and I would like to think an Australian Title is coming our way but you know its just one race meeting and you go out and give it your best shot. GB. What are your plans for racing at Parramatta this season? RF. I don’t have any plans as such yet, but I would like to do some racing at Parramatta at the start and end of the season when my commitments permit me too. With the racing starting at PCR earlier than the WSS I do have 5 or 6 weeks that I can do some racing. I'll just see if there is some good equipment around and if someone is looking for a driver, I might just jump into the car. GB. Do you have any unfinished business to achieve this year? RF. Yes and no, Max and I have a pretty healthy rivalry and I sort of enjoy that side of things. I just think if we can win either the WSS or the Australian Title, I would be very happy. I’m really looking forward to doing the 15 races with Max this year. GB. What does the future hold for Robbie Farr? RF. I’m looking at a few things and I want to keep my commitments in Australia concrete and hopefully long term. With America I’ll go and do the few World of Outlaws shows and then I’ll assess it from there and you never know what could happen next off season. I’ll be racing for a long time yet, I’m not sick of racing, totally enjoying racing and still hate the off season. I’ll continue as long as I enjoy racing and not get bored with it. One thing is for sure Robbie Farr has built up a good list of commercial sponsors as well as a legion of fans across the country. Longtime sponsors of Robbie Standox Paints, Central Districts Smash and Avenger Chassis through Quick Race parts in Melbourne are back with Robbie this season, joining other sponsors of the Krikke/Farr duo which include Toyota Genuine Parts, Bunbury Toyota, QA1 Shocks, Mercure Hotel, Revolution RaceGear, A1 Signs with others still to be confirmed. |