Qld Title…
I wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t see the time sheet with my own eyes, the fastest lap we had done with the Triplex chassis, the fastest lap that we had done in over a season, a lap that would have time trialed top-5 on any normal points night… was only good enough for 20th. Such was the level of competition at this years Queensland title.

An unfortunate crash brought Martin Lawes’ weekend to a premature end, taken out after making the 2,000 round trip from Sydney, to not complete a single racing lap… or corner, for that matter.  This left us promoted to the front row for our first heat, which we went on to win comfortably.

With discretion being the better part of valor, we lost several positions after some un-sporting maneuvers by other competitors in both the second and third heats, we had gone forward, and back again, to be ranked 19th after the first night of qualifying.

On the second night of racing, we turned an even quicker lap time in hot laps. There were smiles all around in our corner of the pits. Then we managed a 4th place in our final heat race of the weekend, where we were un-lucky not to finish 2nd.
Finally started moving the right way in the B-main, after starting 8th, was 6th after the second lap, 4th at lap seven, and 3rd by the half-way point, happy to stay there for the rest of the race, safe in a transfer spot to the A-main.

Starting 15th in the A-main, it was heart-in-mouth from the very beginning, with the brake pedal going straight to the floor as all 18 cars poured into the first corner… and somehow made it out the other side. There were several stoppages in the opening laps of the A-main, and our progress was brought to a sudden halt, literally, after 8 laps. A couple of spinners in turn 4 left me with no-where to go. Bam. Fortunately we were able to re-start with only minimal damage to the front-end of the car. After a wheel to wheel, back and forth battle for last place, I came unstuck and went for a spin of my own, losing several seconds. After recovering from this mistake with a clear track ahead, a revelation – the race leaders were only making marginal gains as we caught up to the tail of the field.
As the leaders started breathing down my neck, another stoppage gave us a much needed reprieve, and let us re-start right with the tail of the field to battle it out yet again. And battle we did, keeping the nose clean (what was left of it) we passed a number of cars, coming home 9th in the 2010 Queensland Title.

Big thanks as always to Comstar Internet Services, and everyone who assisted over the weekend, plus the fans and the kind words afterward. Thanks also to the event sponsors and a big happy birthday to Sprintcars Queensland’s Mark Wode.

Cheers,

Dan.