After making the 4 day trip to Darwin the team set up on Thursday for a weekend full of promise. After performing well last year on his first trip to Hidden Valley and at the last round, in his home state of Tasmania, Ben Walter was ready to take on the world! Both Jesse Dixon and Nick McBride were at Hidden Valley for the first time and after track tours with Walter and their driver coach on Thursday they all hit the track early Friday for practice. In this practice Walter, glad to be back up North, completed the session a competitive 6th. Jesse loved his first taste of the north, feeling his way at 15th, and McBride showed promise of a good weekend sitting 12th.
Gridding up Walter #25 and Mc Bride #74 Pit shot
Qualifying came on a morning the locals descrided as freezing - it was only 16 degrees! The southerners thought this lovely after 30 the previous day. As the day warmed up so did the action on the track. Unfortunately our pace did not come as the session went on only finishing 11th, 14th, and 15th. All of our cars were under the old lap record but we had some work to do!
Race One was an exciting affair for all the drivers again in 30 degree temperatures it was a bit of a game of snakes and ladders, each time the boys moved up the field they camea cross another issue and slipped back finishing 10th, 13th, and 14th. Dixon commented afther the race " I love the track, I just can't quite get it right, but we are close". Mc Bride commented "With the straight being so long (over 1km) the tow is so important and I lost the guys in front and then struggled to get back".
Race Two was run on a lovely Sunday morning with it feeling like some action was coming soon. The team arrived early to finish some set up changes to Walter's car. These changes workded on the track with Walter moving up quickly for 10 to 6 in the first 2 laps and looking "racey". Unfortunately, while moving through the field he was pushed off the circuit by Englishman, Joesy Foster, putting Walter back to last. Dixon and McBride had cleaner races finishing 10th and 11th, and Walter ending up 12th. Still we needed more pace, so the team set to further changes to gear ratios and suspension settings.
Race Three, the final for the weekend promised so much. Walter bolted off the line making up 6 places by the first corner, however this was to be short lived, with him tangling with one of the CAM's rising stars and putting him out of the event with suspension damage. Dixon also had a great start and ran as high as 6th, only to run wide at the tricky hairpin thus dropping back to finish 11th. McBride had pushed up the field but also made a small error on turn 5, resulting in a spin and after being clipped by another car also retired from the race. After such promise the weekend finished with only a few championship points but a huge amount of experience was gained for the drivers and team.
Next weekend the team will be fielding ten cars at the State Championship at Sandown July 17-19 which include Duratec and Kent Formula Fords as well as a GT3 Porsche 996.
The next National event is at the team's home track Sandown on July 31-Sept 2, where in recent testing we were very quick. Team principle Bruin Beasley commented "Roll on Sandown, we will be back with some pace there".
