Weekend of Woes

In what can only be described as a devastating blow to the preparation for his title defence, Rob and the whole Outback Express team are counting the cost after a first corner incident during the feature race at Kalgoorlie on the second night of the Summer Series double header has caused extensive damage to the WA1 A-Z panel and Paint Rocket chassis.

With the car only four meetings old the news for the team is not good. After removing panels, taking measurements and in depth discussions with the Rocket man Danny Smith, the consensus is that the car will need to be shipped back to Danny’s Lismore workshop for major repairs to get the chassis back to it’s best to enable Rob to be in a position to defend his WA title at Carnarvon later in the season.

As the story is written Rob and car Owner Frank are contemplating the repair bill that they face to get the WA1 Rocket repaired before the next round of the series in January. The choices are simple, spend a large chunk of the years racing budget to send the car to Lismore for repairs and compete a limited program for the balance of the season focussing on defence of the title, or sit out the remainder of the season and have a new chassis constructed for the 09-10 season.

DECISIONS DECISIONS DECISIONS will update everyone as we know more.

Esperance Round 7

Heading to the picturesque Seaside town of Esperance for round seven on Friday brimming with confidence that the gremlins that had inhabited the car since it’s arrival in WA had been excorcised from the car, the team had a relaxing day before getting down to business at the Esperance speedway.

While team chief Frank stood with everything crossed as Rob headed out to the track for the hotlap session, the various bits soon became uncrossed as the car appeared to have lost the gremlins and started to show it’s potential during the few hot laps.

After the three heats Rob had a win, a fourth and a fifth which would provide a second row start for the all important final.

During the preceding events to the feature race start Rob spent some time up at the fence looking at the changing track conditions to get a feel for what setup the car would need to be at the pointy end of the field at the end of twenty five laps on what would undoubtable turn into a one lane racetrack.

When the green flag dropped Rob was outgunned by his own spare engine which the team had loaned to Jim Holland in the no 75 car and went into turn one in fourth spot. Exiting turn two Rob planted the foot in the WA1 car and leapt under Holland to grab third spot behind the no 17 car of Carnarvon’s Travis Jackson. Rob appeared to settle the car for the next few laps while making the occasional foray into the side view of Jackson to let him know the WA1 car was there and doing a bit of defensive work to keep the 75 car of Holland at bay. With 10 or so laps down and after deciding that the outside was not an option for passing Rob executed a neat cross over on the 17 car and came off turn four like a bullet underneath Jackson and then set sail after Series leader Dusty Higgs who had skipped off into a commanding lead while the dicing had been going on back in the pack.

With his head down and the wind in his face it did not take the Outback Express long to haul in the #81 Pontiac of Higgs and settle on his back bumper while looking for a way though and into the lead. The saying ”Old Age and Cunning will always beat Youth and Skill” springs to mind as the remainder of the race saw the wylie old fox Higgs treat the young fella to a driving lesson in keeping the left front on the kerb.  Dusty did not put a foot wrong through a number of restarts and Rob and the team had to settle for second place and finally some feature race points in the bag and a straight car to boot.  Great night was the general feeling of most of those in attendance.

Kalgoorlie Round 8

After some shut eye and showers the team headed off home to Kalgoorlie early Saturday morning to ready the Rocket for Saturday night and the team were confident that the showing on the previous night bode well for another good showing in front of the home town crowd.

With confidence the crew went about washing, checking and setting the WA1 car for it’s first OFFICIAL hit out in anger on the teams home track.

After arriving at the track and unloading the car the usual track inspection took place and it was not the track that Rob and the team were hoping to see as the track looked a little (spelt LOT) on the dry side and but with the first race still a couple of hours away maybe it would be good.

From the start of hot laps Rob felt the car was good and the crew had little to do before the first heat of the night. Starting out of position two the WA1 car jumped top the lead and was drew away to a very comfortable win over the Ultratune Monaro of Murray Iwanow. The next heat saw a start from position 5 and within a couple of laps Rob was battling for second spot before a piece of metal laying on the tack sliced open the right rear and forced Rob onto the grass for the remainder of the race

Heat 5 saw Rob battling with his nemesis from the previous night Gary (Dusty) Higgs who was holding down second spot with the finishing order being Iwanow, Higgs, Bawdon.

The all important feature race line-up would see Rob start out of position eight due to the DNF in his second heat race.

Starting so far back the team knew the car would need to go out fast and try to get toward  the front quickly before whatever track was there disappeared entirely. As the car rolled out to the track Rob was quietly confident of a good showing and some more points into the bag for the series. As the green flew the car launched past a number of cars and into turn one to be confronted by the Ultratune Monaro of Iwanow facing the wrong way and with nowhere to go Rob slammed on the brakes and slid into the Ultratune car  before being hit by Blake Jackson who was still on the gas when he collected the WA1 car. 

The force of the impact from behind was enough to snap the battery hold down clamps and dislodge and short out the battery. While the crew looked on from the pit viewing area the car looked like it had not suffered serious damage and the officials were making attempts to get the cars cleared and restarted. As Rob was pushed away it appeared that he was being started then a collective sigh could be heard as the car rolled onto the infield destined to take no further part in the feature which was won convincingly again by Dusty Higgs.

The car showed minor exterior damage and initial investigation of the damage when the car returned to the pits revealed little of what would be exposed the next day when the panels were removed.  

Thanks to all our sponsors for keeping us racing

A-Z Panel & Paint
Reliance Petroleum
Goldfields People Hire
Boofs Bobcat & Truck Hire
Geoff Watson Autos
Goldfields Bitumen & Bobcat
Brewster Ceilings
Mini Metals
Hero Engineering
Speed torque Race Engines
Basket Bliss
Rocket Chassis
BCM Motorsports Marketing

Look forward to seeing you trackside soon

The Outback Express