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TKR Wins At Oran Park!!!! |
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Tuesday, 15 August 2006 |
Racing for the first time at what would be considered a home round for Kipper and team. As Oran Park is the only track TKR’s gun driver has raced at previously the team were always looking for a great result to help boost their championship.
With Kipper and Team arriving at the track early for the racing on Thursday, with the race car being based in Sydney at the motorsport and road car specialist’s BEL GARAGE everyone was looking to put on a good show for the local crowd.
Friday morning brought about a beautiful sunny day with forecasts for the weekend to be sunny and fine however all the best preparations can sometimes fall foul of the best plans!
Friday practice was greeted by team TKR with expectations of some serious lap times and being able to come up with a setup for Qualifying in the afternoon, however only a few laps into bedding the car in Kipper was involved in an incident with the young up and coming Lucas Dumbrell. “ I was side by side with Paul Kemal coming into turn 1 and we were
rapidly approaching Lucas, but it looks like he was caught up in an
incident with a pit exiting driver and had to spin to avoid him…I
basically just took avoiding action and spun the car to the infield and
held on!” said Kipper.
On finding the dust settled kipper tried to restart the car but found
to his misfortune that the starter motor had failed in the spin and
that was all the laps TKR were going to get in the 20 min session with
the rear of the car damaged in the process.
With only 40 minutes to fix the car and come up with a setup from the
limited miles covered in the practice session Kipper and team were
always going to be pressed for time. But the team came through with the
goods with both the repairs to the rear of the car and the starter
system all being completed in time for a Qualifying setup to be placed
on the car.
Qualifying was always going to be about going for the ultimate lap, and
Kipper was well armed for the task with the car now perfectly poised
for a top position with the number 55 MAKO TRAC racer instantly into
the top position by lap 3.
However, as so often has happened in 2006, Qualifying was interrupted
with a red flag situation and time was lost in the pit while the track
was cleared…
“I had a great car early on in the session, however after the red flag
I just didn’t have the car speed to hold off the top few” said Kipper,
who eventually ended in 5th for race 1. Pole was taken by VIP Pet Foods
Driver Paul Kemal with a stunning sub-lap record time.
Saturday Morning brought another fantastic day at Oran Park with the
crowd streaming into the circuit to enjoy the racing on offer…
Race 1 had Kipper looking to consolidate his championship with another
strong result, and it was a clean race for most, with Kipper bringing
it home 7th “ I didn’t have the speed to challenge the leaders but we
will work hard for race 2 to see if we can get some more speed”
Race 2 was almost a night race with the race being slightly later than
planned due to other race categories running over time, so as the sun
set, racing began in difficult conditions.
“I was having a real hard time just seeing out of the screen and then
there was a lot of oil over the bridge section of the race track” said
Kipper bringing it home 6th as always running to a race plan and
looking after the mechanical’s which is becoming a Kipper trade mark.
Sunday was always going to be TKR’s race day, but what was to unfold
was something both Kipper and the team surely couldn’t have expected.
Race 3 began well for Kipper, getting the early Jump on Dingo Driver
Phillips before putting his head down to equal his best ever result of
3rd.
“wow that felt great!” said Kipper after race 3. “We really have made
progress over the weekend and I am feeling very confident for the
double points final”
Kipper and team had a fair amount of work to do after the race as they
discovered a lot of damage to the rear bodywork caused by a lap 1
incident with Brad Ward riding over the left rear of the car as the
field compressed for turn 3….
Race 4 was held in the middle of the day, infront of possibly the
biggest crowd Oran Park has seen, and they were treated to a classic
battle.
Kipper starting from the points derived 5th on the grid, was always
going to have to drive hard and fast to get that Podium finish.
Off the line Kipper got a good start, but in the shuffle for turn 1
ended out 7th for the first lap with things not looking good with the
top 3 making a small break from the group that Kipper was left in.
“I was just pushing as hard as I dared! We were carrying so much damage
from race 2 and 3 that we couldn’t afford any more hits for fear of a
DNF” said Kipper.
However in true fighting form, showing that he is made of real racer
material Kipper charged back through the field picking each driver off,
1 by 1 eventually joining the top 3 to make it a group of 4 extending
away from the rest of the capacity 40+ grid.
With just over half race distance covered it was looking to go down the
to the wire with the lead swapping between Kemal, Brad Ward, and
Simmons, with Kipper keeping a close watch from 4th.
Then Kipper made the move that had the commentators and spectators
alike step up and take notice, as he cleanly and effectively cut
through each of these leading trio to finally pass VIP Pet Foods Kemal,
starting the final lap to win his very first Aussie Racing car race!!!!
“I am just thrilled to do it for my guys, they have just worked so hard
all year and to have all of them here plus the workshop’s support it is
a great end to the weekend” said Kipper
Kipper and Team are now looking forward to consolidating their
fantastic result at the next round, with team and driver growing in
speed and confidence with every race meeting!
The next Aussie Racing Cars meeting will be held over the weekend of the 1st – 3rd of September at Sandown raceway.
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 06 January 2007 )
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