On the 3rd of December the Biocycle 5s Team ventured to Charlton Raceway in Toowoomba, Qld. It was the first time the team had travelled to Queensland to race and it was definitely the furthest. The weekend started poorly with a 2 hour delay at the airport for the flight from Adelaide to Brisbane. Fortunately this delay was the only real hiccup for the weekend.

The time trial trolley was loaded up and the 5s headed onto Charlton Raceway. After engine start and hot laps I was ready for time trials. Drawing the 8 of diamonds (that’s right, 8 of diamonds) meant I would be time trialing in 18th spot. After a couple of not so great laps, so I thought, I ended 7th fastest, which was a good result.

After qualifying 7th it meant that I had a 5/6 start for my heats. Heat 1 rolled out with Clarke on the pole and Graham alongside me in 6th. I had a good start and worked through to 3rd behind Edge (“the purple car”). After a few laps on the tail of Edge I managed to pass him, which left Clarke to go for the win (tongue in cheek). I did gain on Clarke a little bit but run out of laps. After returning to the pits it was observed that my new SD35 Right Rear Tyre’s tread had disappeared. In for an expensive night I thought, a quick trip to the American Racer Truck saw the acquisition of the last SD38B (which I had to remove from one of Cooper’s rims). I fitted it up to a rim and filed it away for the feature. The truly second hand SD35 was turned over and I headed out for heat 2.

Heat 2 I lined up out of P6. I remember rolling down the back straight after we had formed up and this is what I saw. Draney out of 1 (Current Qld champ), Clarke out of 2, Stanaway out of 3 (Previous Qld champ), Bourke out of 4 and Graham out of 5. I thought to myself, “What am I going to do with this lot” as I pulled down my belts for the start. I got Bourke early and was about 3 car lengths behind Draney, Stanaway and Graham. The blue brigade were having a great and battle and it looked fun (you can see highlights of their battle in ‘The Best 6mins of Your Life’ film clip on the SSS site, link below). Although wanting to join in on the fun but for 5 laps I could not make any ground on them. I changed my line a few time and eventually got one that worked. I caught them and passed Graham out of turn 2 on the bottom and was right on Draney’s tail as we passed the finish line.

2 good heat results and after heat 2 a rare thing occurred… I hopped out of my car and went and watched the other 2 heats. This being unusually as my usual practise for this season so far has been to hop out and work frantically until the next race. I like option 2 better.

After time trials and 2 heats I was the 6th highest qualifier which meant I was in the pole shuffle. In 2002 I competed in the SA State Title for Alf Kamilow Racing in a one off drive. On that night I was 4th highest qualifier, which meant I was in the pole shuffle. On that night I put in a poor effort, one which I did not want to repeat again. My truly second hand SD35 had turned into a slick after heat 2. Not wanting to risk my feature tyre I left it on after a lot of indecision. Rolling out the gate into the middle I noticed Graham had a new tyre on, lucky bugger! I lined up against Jordan for my first shuffle and I got a good jump and won. That secured a Top 6 start and also got rid of those 2002 demons. Next shuffle I lined up against Darren Jenkins who was driving Mark Cooper’s car for the night. Jenkins got a good jump and as we crossed the Knoxville line he was already in front of me on my line. Into turn 1 he entered slowly and slicked up a bit as I went to the top and out of turn 2 we were side by side. Jenkins must have not known I was there and proceeded to drive me into the wall. I backed off to avoid an accident for both of us and tried to pass him again but to no avail (the highlights of the shuffle can be seen in ‘The Best 6mins of Your Life’ film clip on the SSS site, link below). 6th place is where I would start the feature and the pole shuffle was a great experience.

I started the feature well and was holding down 6th place. McAllan passed me on the inside in turn 3 which meant I washed out in turn 4th and Jordan got me as well. Into turn 1 Wanless tried to take advantage of the passing action. He slightly tagged my Left Rear and ended up going up and over (again you can see Wanless’s roll over in ‘The Best 6mins of Your Life’ film clip on the SSS site). The reds came on and we all stopped. If you go back on lap from the incident I should have been in position 6. Instead I was told to line up in position 9. How did Clarke end up in front of me? Confused but still focused I got back into the feature.

The feature seemed to take forever with a fair few rollovers and slow vehicle removals from the track. One stage mid race I was faced with a rolling Jordan on the back straight. I managed to avoid him, which was a good result. On an ever-increasing slick track I managed to hold my position and cross the line in 5th. A great result for the Biocycle 5s. With 4 of arguably the best Midget drivers in the world just in front of me it was a very satisfying result.

All in all it was a good weekend. When I drove into Toowoomba at 2:30am on Saturday morning and it was pouring with rain I wondered if we would get to run at all. The Biocycle 5s performed well and the team worked well all night (Thanks Guys). I would to also like to say a big thanks to John from Biocycle who towed the car to Queensland for me. Without his support I would not be able to compete in the entire Super Series. I would also like to thank Jason Rose, an old uni mate, who came down from Brisbane to help. Cheers mate. It was also nice to meet the McAllan crew and I look forward to seeing you all in Mt Gambier on the 7th of Jan for Round 3. I am glad that Bishop got his car running on the night and I wish him better luck in the next round.

Please check the following links for video footage and photos from the round.
http://www.welovedirt.com/series/video/SSS%20R2.wmv
http://www.benwiese.com/private_gallery.asp

The Biocycle 5s will be running at Murray Bridge Speedway this Saturday night (10/12/05) and I will be wanting to put up a better showing then last time there. See you at the Bridge and feel free to explore my site.