MVB Racing Heads North, South, then further South!
Dean Kavathas posted Tuesday December 13, 2005.

After a solid showing in the Sprintcar Masters at Speedway City in Adelaide and a few big nights in the workshop it was time to finally hit the highway for the first of many World Series Sprintcar road trips. As in other seasons the series was commencing in Sunny Queensland. After a media launch, we had the first three rounds to attack. Starting at Brisbane International Speedway (Sat.night), followed by Rockhampton Speedway (Wed.night) then winding up at Charlton Speedway in Toowoomba. (Sat night)

WSS Round 1, 2 & 3
The tracks in Queensland all started very racey for time trials and then quickly went away there after. At all the Queenland events we struggled in time trials with our smaller engine which put us behind the eight ball from the outset. At BIS we failed to progress from the B-Main into the A-Main and were forced to sit and spectate from the turn three hill! In Rockhampton & Toowoomba we fared better during heat racing and posted some decent results, enabling us to qualify directly into the A-Main on both nights of racing. We managed to finish 10th at both of these events, earning us some much needed Championship points.

WSS Round 4
Onto Adelaide and we had a little more confidence heading to tracks that we had done plenty of laps at and had tasted some success in the past. Upon arriving in the pits at Speedway City and walking the track it became very clear that the track surface was much more “Juiced up” then when we were there for the Masters weeks prior.
Mick managed to post 9th quick time and the car and driver were looking good! Mick started out of starting position 4 in our fist heat and managed to move forward a spot to finish in 3rd. Our second heat race saw a reverse of our first heat starting out of 3rd and finishing in 4th position. In the dash we had missed the set up, as the track by that stage had sealed over quite considerably. Starting on the back row we couldn’t manage to move forward any positions which meant Mick had booked himself a 12th starting position in the A-Main feature race. The track curators decided to “rework” the track surface for the A-main which had us madly swinging some spanners before heading out for 30 laps of warfare! On the first lap or so it became immediately clear to Mick that unless he tried running the high line this was just going to be a very fast “Freight Train” with all cars running the bottom and making passing very difficult. That was when our bad luck continued! Whilst running the top on the “Heavy” track a massive chunk of clay smashed our Mud Cover off our right rear wheel, which inturn, sliced our tyre valve and tyre bleeder line off the outer rim. Amazingly with air gushing from the wheel, Mick kept the Action Blast Cleaning/ Foster running around as we were desperate for the all important WSS Championship points. With the tyre finally giving away as we crossed the checkers, a sigh of relief came across the team for at least we made the best of a potentially very bad situation to finish in 14th and at least grab some points before heading home to Avalon the next weekend.

WSS Round 5
Pulling into our home stomping ground at Avalon complete with the fresh “Stump Puller” Maxwill motor bolted in, the air of expectation was positive. If we were ever going to turn things around this was going to be it! Time trialing in the middle of the pack Mick posted an 8th quick time with the car once again fairly hooked up and racy. Starting off the second last row the crew were a little nervous as in the previous heat race the track looked super fast, very hooky and was coming in more and more with every lap completed. On the start it was evident that the car was much, much too “Tight!” (This means that at times the car was looking more like a pogo stick or a praying mantis!) With Mick hanging on like he was competing in a rodeo and not a Sprintcar race, we had to make some decent changes to “Loosen” the car up and make it more drivable. Swinging tools again was the order of the night and the changes were rewarded with Mick moving forward through the pack to make up some good qualifying points. In the dash we were starting out of 6th and got the jump on Danny Reidy whom started alongside. With the cars all on a very similar pace the 6 laps disappeared all too quickly! For the A-main feature race we were starting out of position 10. On the start fellow Victorian WSS tourist Ken Veal managed to storm past Mick and this developed into a three way Victorian battle between Mick, Ken Veal and Matthew Reed. Two thirds of the way through the race the Titan machine of Robbie Farr brought out the red flag when he road a wheel and got upside down. On the restart Mick put a move on Ken Veal heading around the topside of him and then he set his sights on Matthew Reed who was in his own little dogfight with Luke Dillon. After Matthew found his way past Luke, Mick also managed to scoot past Dillon with two laps left to complete. The meant we finished 7th as we crossed the finish line.

WSS Round 6
After putting in some hard yards and having the race car, truck and trailer loaded onto the boat by 8:00am the morning after the Avalon round, it was time for all of us to jump on board some wings and get to the next two rounds of WSS at Latrobe Speedway in Tasmania. We had never raced there before and we were not really too sure what to expect. Word off the grape vine suggested that this track is one of the fastest tracks in the country and the rumours proved to be true! In time trials we were way too tight again. With quick time set at 10.81 this place was only going to get quicker as the night wore on. We time trialed 14th out of 32 cars and headed back to the pits to change many things on the car. In the first heat race we were similar to our first heat race a week earlier in Avalon, although being a bigger track with wider corners, Mick did well to hang onto the car! I am sure we will make it onto some highlight moments on channel 9’s Speed Machine! Before the second heat race we made some BIG changes to the car and we got around much better in our second heat. With our heat race finish positions well below par, we were to start out 7th in the
B-Main. We got caught out in the B-Main as the track held much more juice than we expected it to. We finished in 7th position, thus not qualifying for the A-main.

WSS Round 7
The next night back at Latrobe had us concerned due to the heavy rain the area endured overnight. This wasn’t to be the case as the track resembled a black racing line with the top of the track still very wet and slippery. With our 4 wheeler now deciding that it didn’t want to play any longer we were very limited as to what we could drag onto the infield. We got caught out expecting a hooky track and received an absolute slicker! This meant we time trialed very ordinary and once again, time to head to the pits basically to change everything back and then some! We left nothing to the imagination hooking the car up for the first heat and Mick was easiest the fastest car on the track with the car hooking up and grabbing the slick track very nicely. Mick won it easily. Even though we kept altering the car for the second heat race the track was starting to get away from us. Starting in 3rd and dropping back as far as 7th Mick managed to fight his way back to 4th. This put us out of starting postion 6 in the B-dash. With not much passing in the dash Mick had the luxury of trying nearly every racing line as he had no one behind him. With only a few laps to go Mick had tried the bottom in turn 3 and 4 and had made up some ground on Redpath who was running in 5th. On the last lap going into three and four Redpath left the door open on the bottom of the track and Mick “Slid” into the gap. With the two cars wanting the same piece of the track, unfortunately the cars just touched wheels in the wrong spot which sent Redpath over to bring out the red lights and see the race get declared. The amount of times I have seen two cars bump wheels square and both cars keep racing, it was just a racing incident. We started out of 12th in the A-Main and managed to finish in 13th position. Far from the result we wanted and indeed needed, but we figure things can really only get better as we head back to the mainland to compete at speedweek.

MVB Racing Team greatly appreciates the support of;

Action Blast Cleaning
Shine Hand Car Wash
National Rod Ends
CSR Methanol
Quick Race Parts
D&F Racing Products
www.sprintcarworld.com.au

See ya at the skids,
Deano

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