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Wagga Raceway
13/03/2004 N.A.S.R Australian
Open Street Stock Title A
strong field of 40 cars greeted a nice sunny day at Wagga speedway for the
running of the N.A.S.R Australian open street stock title to be held over
4 heats each of qualifying then the all important 30 lap final. The track
looked very wet down low to mid line and very dry up top; however after
some wheel packing it started to come up not to bad. Heat 1 I
drew position 11 for my 1st heat so it was straight into it
from turn 1, the track was very challenging to say the least with a severe
push in 1 corner and massive over steer in another, I had managed to
battle my way up to 3rd or 4th when I got driven
into which in turn nearly turned me around and lost me a heap of track
position, by the drop of the chequer however I had managed to struggle my
way back to 7th or 8th. Not really how I had wanted
to start the night though. Heat 2
I lined up out of position 6 for this
heat and wanted to make amends for my poor start to the night. There was a
lot of paint swapping and close racing through out the entire race but the
best I could do was 4th with a car which had improved in set up
but still needed a few more little tweaks to match the front runners in
outright pace. Heat 3
I had drawn position 5 for this heat
but due to the pole car not being able to start it bumped me up to 3rd
on the grid. From the minute the green flag dropped it was on for young
and old for 1st place and after slight contact on numerous
occasions I managed to finally get a good run coming out of turn 4 only to
be driven into from the car on the outside which sent me spinning wildly
down the main straight and coming to rest facing the on coming pack of
cars. Most missed but unfortunately just 1 car could not pull up in time
and crunched me in the left hand front. Luckily I was still able to
continue although with a some what bent car. The yellows all came out and
to my amazement the offender was not sent rear of field and we where all
put back in the position. I missed the green when we finally got another
start and was swamped by cars but kept my head down and managed to get
back into 2nd position by the time the chequer came out. This
race was 1 of the best I have had and is why I go street stock racing! Heat 4
Coming out of position 8 in this race
was going to be a bloody hard task with some of the best drivers in front
of me. They had given the track a sprinkle of water before we came out
which if anything helped with the dust. It was a pretty un eventful heat
with me getting up to 4th and not being able to challenge the
front 3 guys as the car just was not handling but a spin a few laps from
home by the 3rd placed car trying to take second allowed me to
sneak up to 3rd and overall complete not a bad night of heat
racing. Final
After all the points where tallied I
ended up qualifying 8th for the all important title final. This
was the race I had been waiting for all year and I thought a top 5 spot
was defiantly not out of the question. The big question is could I stick
it out for 30 of the hardest laps that where in front of us. We came
around to take the green and I set sail into the 1st corner
making up good track position only for the yellows to come on entering the
back straight. On the second restart I did not get as good jump but was
holding my position but was getting constant hits in the left rear. The
race went on like this for another lap or so but my car started getting
real lose coming off the turns and after smacking the wall on the entry to
the main straight and losing a heap of positions I new something was not
right with the car. The yellows came on for another incident in turn 1 and
that’s when my problem showed itself as an inside rear punctured from
the many hits I had received in those 1st few frantic laps. My
race was literally over before it begun but I had a blast of a time racing
in my 1st Australian Title and hope to go back next year
faster, fresher and wiser from my experience this year.
Hopefully I can get the car straight
enough to make the final round of the PCR track championship on the 20th
of this month and be the highest point scoring rookie for this season and
it would be even better if I can get that elusive 1st feature race win.
See you at the track! Leigh Bourke #9
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