EJW RACING

Update from the JP Racing Eighth Mile Championship at Ironbark Raceway Roma.

Oh my goodness what an eventful weekend this one turned out to be! We left in the wee hours of Friday morning to tackle the 6 hour drive to Roma. Stopped at Chinchilla for breakfast - it was a tad chilly but nothing like what we faced when we drove to Wagga the weekend before! The roads kept us under 100km/hr but we saw some lovely sights.

We drove past the turnoff to Ironbark Raceway before we realised and did a quick tour of the lovely township of Roma, finding our hotel The Outlander on the outskirts, before heading back out to the racetrack to setup. Dad, Mum, Skylah and I have never been to Ironbark before so Dad had us walk to track so I knew where the finish line was and the braking area. It was a pleasant stroll after being in the car for 6 hours.

After a discussion between Dad and Mum about where to set up, they finally decided near the scrutineering shed. After we had finished setting up, Skylah and I made fairy houses :D (I am still a kid). We headed back into the hotel to get ready for the big day on Saturday, and OH what a day it was!

The weather was beautiful, the sun was shining and hardly a cloud in the sky. During the warm-up stage one of my competitors car broke, which was upsetting for both her and her Dad, unfortunately we didn't have any bits to help get her racing (but I still got to race her big brother - I'd raced him in Warwick and beaten him, which his Dad pointed out to him just before we raced again, and guess what, I beat him again). It was time to start racing. My first two qualifiers went without a hitch, my lights were great (0.131 and 0.143) mph (55.45 and 56.04) and times were pretty good (12.210 and 12.336) then the car decided that it needed a bit of attention and the chain came off on the 3rd qualifier. Dad ran out and pushed me back to the pits where we did some thrashing to be able to present for the first round of racing.

Qualifiers are out of the way and it's time to start racing. First race was against Kirt Moreton (Magical Element), the car still wanted some attention so threw the chain, our lovely friend Johnny helped Dad push the car off the track, the closest exit point being the finish line and then Dad pushed me all the way back to the pits (he got loads of exercise this weekend). After more thrashing in the pits we presented for race no 2 against Isaac Luke (Blue Thunder), this time I managed to get to the other end of the race track and ran 12.26, beating Isaac for the 2nd time (we had a laugh about it at the finish line and I suggested best out of 3, who knows what will happen when we meet in Gladstone on the 26 September, which by the way is my birthday). Race no. 3 ended up being a bye run as the other racers car broke on the 2nd round of racing. The car didn't want to go to the other end this time and stopped just past the start line, another Dad helped my Dad push the car off the track and we went back to the trailer to pack her away for the night, before watching the last of the racing, heading back to the hotel and driving home on Sunday.

When we finally got home my big brother Brian was back for a visit from Puckapunyal so he helped Dad unload the car and do all the heavy lifting. After taking the engine out they found that that chassis was broken in one place which caused a lot of flex when the clutch engaged resulting in the chain coming off. We are very thankful that it didn't happen on the track, that could have been quite messy. Mr Mike Inwood came to the rescue, welding up the chassis and offering Dad some suggestions on what could be done in the near future to prevent anything further from happening. Dad has also made a chain tensioner (he is quite clever), to hopefully stop the chain from coming off, along with putting on a new rear sprocket and chain. We are all set to race at Willowbank on the 22 August and all going well head back out to Willowbank in a couple of weeks then off to Gladstone on the 26 September for the final of the JP Racing Eighth Mile Championship. Despite all the upsets at this race meeting I am fourth in the championship points which I think is pretty fantastic considering I haven't raced before.

Thank you to Roma and the people of Ironbark Raceway for putting on such an excellent race meeting, we look forward to coming back next year.