Margaret River Mayhem

With the days of the XMAS break behind us the Outback Express team loaded up the Total Asphalt Rocket and headed to the coastal resort town of Margaret River for next round of the “Premium Drilling” All Star Series. This would be the first serious hit out for the newly crowned WA1 Driver Rob and the car looked good with the WA1 adorned on the front guards. Rob had chosen to continue to run the 25 roof number as this is his chosen competition number.

Rob, Corey & Russell arrived in Margaret River on Friday night from Esperance and Frank & Jim were to travel from Kal to meet up with them. The horrific bushfires that have caused the Great Eastern Highway to be closed for the last week left the boys with no choice other than to fly to Perth and drive to Margaret River on Saturday.

After getting to the track early and getting set up the team settle down to relax for the afternoon, just as the DVD is cranked up in the transporter to watch some racing the genset onboard decides that it has had enough and packs it in.  Oh well  back to what we came here for!!

Bear Chambers from BCM Marketing drops by and delivers the new Posters and they look great. Check them out on the website and drop by the transporter when you are next at the track to get one for you or the kids. Rob will be more than happy to sign it for you.

The format for the night is Hot laps, two heats and then the 20 lap final. Not a lot of time to get it right but “that’s Racin”  The track prep crew are having trouble getting enough water into the surface and it looks like it is going to be dry and slick.

17 cars roll out onto the track for hot laps. Split into two groups for hot laps Rob emerges from the car happy but wants a couple of minor changes.

Heat one and we are out of pos 5. The car looks a little sluggish off the turns but we advance to finish in third place. After race conference and there is changes everywhere! Gears,tyres and shock changes. Hopefully that will get the car off the turns better.

Heat two and out of pos 6.  the track had been worked over by the grader and the water truck and maybe should  be better. After a couple of attempts to get the race under way Rob is struggling to get the car to go forward and finishes in 4th. Well that didn’t work. The car did not respond as we thought it would.

Rob & Corey have a pow wow  in the truck and then we start looking at the changes required for the final. Figure we will be well back in the pack so will need to be strong early to get to the pointy end before the track goes away. Starting positions are up and it is a little better than we thought. Pos 6. The changes completed a few words and the car is rolling out to the track. Top six lineup is  Giancola, Lyall, Aylett, Mussara, Bale and Bawdon.

Start one and Rob gets through to pos 3 before the lights are on and a full restart, Start two and Rob drives around the outside and is into pos 2 out of turn 2 but then the ambers are on again and another restart.

After another 4 attempts and a very depleted car count the chief steward decided on a single file witches hat start which makes the job all the more difficult for Rob.

At the start Giancola and Lyall jump away and Rob starts a 15 lap tussle with Rick Mussara before he manages to get past and then swoops on Bale and Aylett who had skipped away by the length of the straight while Rob diced with Mussara. With the laps ticking away Rob manages to get into the battle but with little track to race on he has to be content with finishing 5th.

With this night done and a very battle scarred racecar to fix the team load up and head off on the long trip home to regroup and head back to Albany to do it all again next week.