Toowoomba Sprintcar

Thunder On The Downs

Thunder on the Downs race meet – Saturday 18^th September. Hi-Tec Oils Toowoomba Speedway was a great race meet for Ryan. Starting off with a practice night on Friday alongside 8 other cars, Ryan got 4 practice runs in over the course of the night, with the goal of trying every different line possible. Run high lines, run the pole line (around the bottom) and run middle track – just feeling the car out and working out what it does when, as he’s been out of the car for the 3 month off season. Practice was really important to just have a shake down and get his eye back in. It was an awesome day at Toowoomba, a bit chilly once the sun went down with an icy breeze all night coming in from the West, good for the engine but not the greatest for us all in shorts!!! Practice finished around 10 pm and once we’d loaded the transporter we got back to the motel around 11:30 pm.

Saturday, race day. We got up around 8 am, had breakfast at the motel which was amazing, then headed to the track to wash the car and get it ready for the race meet at 5 pm. The gates opened early at Toowoomba so the spectators could come into the pits and have a look around before the race meet. This normally doesn’t happen, so it was great to see the spectators in and around the cars whilst we were getting them ready.

After washing the car we went over it to ensure everything was right (nuts and bolts still done up and a general inspection), put on some new American Racer Tyres and Hoosiers Racing Tyres in readiness for the race meet. Around 2:30 pm we put the engine heater on to start heating up the engine (raising the temperature to help start it), we then roll onto the track for engine start and wheel packing (roll around the track and smoothen it all out after the grater has been around and churned up all the soil during the day).

The engine starts perfectly and rolled around no problems at all. Then we went to our time trial number which was 11^th in the infield (this means we are the 11^th car on the track for Time Trials, picked via random computer generated draw). We keep the car idling for around another 10 minutes getting it up to racing temperature.

It’s then time for Hot Laps (which is just full speed laps with 4 other cars simultaneously). Again no issues to report and Ryan ran the 2^nd fastest time of 11.021. Coming back in we switch off and wait for our turn to Time Trial. Ryan goes back out on the track and his first Time Trial lap was fast, 2^nd fastest overall so far with a 10.720. Second lap was slightly slower, back in he comes and we watch the rest of the field do their laps. After every car had finished Ryan was still 2^nd fastest so therefore qualified in 2^nd.

Heat 1 saw Ryan off the front due to his Time Trial time – we didn’t change the car at all just topped it up with fuel. He didn’t get the best start and was beaten to the first corner by the guy that started in 2^nd place. Ryan settled in, found his groove and was going around nicely managing to catch 1st place on the last lap, he had a little look up the inside but couldn’t quite pull the move off and we had to settle for 2^nd place in Heat 1.

Heat 2 saw us start from 5^th place – Ryan got a good start but with 4 cars in front of him couldn’t find his way through them so he stayed in 5^th position, brought the car back in one piece and bagged good points.

Due to his great Time Trials and good points throughout the Heat Races, we ended up 5^th overall in points meaning we made the Dash (Top 8 cars racing for starting positions for the Feature Race). This particular time it was winner stays on format, meaning 7^th races 8^th for 2 laps, looser leaves the track then 6^th joins the winner and then they race, looser leaves and 5^th joins. Ryan had never done this before and was in 5^th – he went onto the track and was racing to move on, he picked the high side of the track (the car that joins the track picks which side he would like to start from, high or low), he went into turn one a little behind but not much, stumbled a little in the corner giving the lead to the other car. Ryan couldn’t catch back up and that saw us leave the track and starting the feature in 5^th position.

We prepare for the feature and to start from 5^th in a 35 lap race. We filled the tank all the way to the top to ensure enough fuel for the whole race. Ryan started well and went to the bottom but we only got 1 lap done due a large crash in turns 3 and 4. On the restart Ryan started well, going to the bottom again. He was doing well but just missing some drive out the corners which saw him drop back to around 7^th position. There was a second restart with Ryan deciding to go to the top and that was where the speed was. After finding it he made up some ground producing some good slide jobs and overtake moves to get himself back into 4^th position. On another great re start, with only 5 laps to run, Ryan was in 4^th when the car in front slowed a little into turn 1 enabling 5^th place to overtake both Ryan and 3^rd place. On turn 3 and 4 Ryan got past 4^th place and was fighting for 3^rd with 3 laps to go. He traded position going from 4^th to 3^rd back to 4^th – in the space of a lap he was on the bottom then on the top, sliding the car around and over each and every corner and bump, coming out of turn 4 side by side with 3^rd place but not quite getting the drive off the corner, coming home in 4^th place by a car length.

After an exciting start to the racing season we loaded the car and mule back into the transporter, congratulated Ryan on a great drive and race and good result for the 1st Race meeting. Packing up the transporter we headed home, arriving around 2:00 am. Sunday was a much needed rest day for the team, before washing and servicing the car on Monday, preparing it for the next race meet on the 2^nd October at Archerfield Speedway.