It was great to finally get back into the race car on the weekend at Hi Tec Oils Toowoomba Speedway where Round 1 of the USC Championships was held on Saturday 24th September 2022.
There was a really great field of drivers and cars for the first race of the season. The format has had to be changed at Toowoomba for this season due to a tyre shortage in Australia. The new format is qualifying, then 1 heat race, top 2 from each heat go into the dash, then b-main and feature races. I think this is a good idea as it doesn’t wear our gear out as much and we will be able to actually race more for the same costs.
Qualifying was hot laps and qualifying together on the track with 4 other cars. I was in the last group to go out (which isn’t ideal) but nonetheless that is racing and you have to do the best you can do with what you have at the time. I managed to get 1 good clean lap in out of about 5 and that was enough to get me 10th quickest qualifier overall, which was great considering I wasn’t happy with my qualifying driving and positioning of the car.
Heat 1 I started from 4th position, managing a good start and getting into 3rd place which is how I finished. There was a yellow late on in the heat and on the restart I had a good drive out the corner but it wasn’t quite enough to get me into 2nd place, so I came home in 3rd. This put me straight into the feature and starting from 7th.
Feature – I started in 7th position. The race was very fast and up on the top of the track there were a few bumps in turns 1 and 2. I found them a couple of times but most of the time I missed them which was good. I managed to fight my way up into 5th position but as the race went on and with 10 laps to go I was tired and just simply couldn’t push anymore. So, I just missed out on the top 5 and came home in 6th place.
I am happy with that given I haven’t raced for over 3 months.
Hot Laps time: N/A
Time Trials: 11.326 10th overall
Heat 1: started 4th finished 3rd
Heat 2: N/A
Dash: N/A
B-Main: N/A
A-Main/Feature: started 7th finished 6th
We are racing at Archerfield Speedway on Saturday 1st October, so hopefully we can see you all there!
As always a massive thank you to my sponsors:
Sprint Shack
Englis Race Engines
