8th March - 6th of March was the North Island TQ Champs at Western Springs
with 32 Entrants it was going to be very fast and furious to make the final let alone have a shot at the front end of the
title.
The format for the title was to split the 32 entrants into two groups to qualify where
they would both have 2 Qualifying Heats and the top 9 cars from each group would go straight through to the North Island champs
Final. The final 4 competitors for the final would come from the B Main and make up grids 19 - 22.
In our first heat we drew grid 2, and got off to a good start slotting in behind 3NZ Dylan
MacGregor for the first 6 laps and then the first caution came out. Off the restart we managed to hold our spot briefly before
the 15A car pushed passed us and into the lead. Another caution came out and the 3NZ car pulled off with a fuel leak which
put us up to 2nd again, with 5 laps to go we pushed hard for the lead but made a small mistake with 2 laps to go and Ross
Linklater slid underneath us and took 2nd away. 3rd place finish in the first heat was a great start to the night and what
we need for the Championship Event.
Heat 2 saw us start off grid 14 and we needed to make as many places as we could to make
sure that we made that top 9 out of our group and straight through to the final. Flag dropped and we missed the start a little
but with the track getting bumpy we had set the car up to use a higher line and try to make some passes. We made it up to
about 9th and challenged for 8th with some strong runs off the turns but couldn't quite make it stick. With 2 laps to go we
tried a higher line through turns 3 and 4 and hit a hole which put the car on 2 wheels and had it "biking" up and then bounced
down and lifted the rear of the car way in the air, luckily we saved it and managed to finish the race in 9th place.
With the bouncing in and out of holes in Heat 2 we had twisted our Chain Tensioner Plates
and had to tighten them for the final and also had knocked off a vertical sensor off the fire wall and had to tie that back
up also.
For our 2nd ever Championship Event we qualified for the final direct from our group with
17 points. This gave us a grid 10 start and was an amazing achievement for the 7A "4 A Good Cause Fundraising", CSR Fabrications,
MR Motorcycles, Reduced to Clear TQ Midget and also for the crew. As this was our best qualifying rest of the season at Western
Springs and to do it at the North Islands was amazing.
After a couple of small changes and putting on a brand new tyre for the final we were
ready and thanks to Chris Street from CSR Fabrications for the setup advice and giving us a great plan of attack all night.
Grid 10 was still a little bit back but the key was to get a good start and as soon as the green flag dropped we had passed
2 cars on the 1st lap and another car on the 2nd. We wanted to try and make a couple of more moves before settling to the
pole line for the middle period of the race, unfortunately coming off turn 4 we ran a wider line looking for another pass
and hit a big dirty hole in the track which spat the car through the air and into the concrete wall flipping it and end our
race and North Island Championship sadly.
It was a sad way to finish what was a very good meeting for the whole MSB Motorsport Team
but heads were high and we are looking forward to the next outing knowing how competitive we can be. At a case of what could
have been was the car that was behind us at the time of the crash ended up finishing 3rd in the race and North Island Championship.
10th
December - Huntly Speedway close to Hamilton holds a couple of Invitational TQ Meetings each season as the TQ Midgets
are not a full time class down in Huntly. The MSB Motorsport Team and the 7A TQ Midget was one of the cars entered for this
event.
15 Cars were there for this meeting and a pretty high quality field
as well. After the disappointment of the week before with the clutch slipping etc it was a strip down and check the problem
then test it before we went to Huntly. Everything seemed to go alright in warm up and were excited for a better night.
Heat One we started off grid 4 and dropped back to 8th early but then
slowly got in the groove and found a line that worked and passed a couple of cars back in the dying laps, Daryl managed a
6th place finish.
Second Heat we started off grid 13 and need to pass some cars to get
a good starting spot for the Feature Race. We started better but still a little cautious but quickly found that groove again
and started to catch and pass cars with ease. Making passes coming off the turns where everybody else was struggling for grip,
the setup for Chris Street at CSR worked a treat and we finished 8th.
This had us starting out of grid 6 for the Feature. A couple more changes
were made and dropped some stagger with the track getting even slicker and this work really well from the word go. We managed
to get around the 3 cars ahead of us in the first 3 laps and this put us into 3rd place. We battled for the next 10 laps with
the 18a car in 2nd and nearly had him at a couple of different stages, unfortunately we just ran out of laps finished only
half a car length behind in 3rd place.
A great result and our 1st Feature Race podium. Can't have done it without
my great crew on the night Jason and Mike, also the awesome set up and advice from Chris Street from CSR Fabrications and
Shane O'Connor my team mate from last year.
Car is now stripped apart and getting a rebuild and freshen up before
the next meeting at Western Springs on Boxing Night.
2nd
December - With a new CSR TQ Chassis and new generation engine for the season the MSB Motorsport TQ Midget has plenty
of promise for the 2010 - 2011 Season.
With all
new cars there are always the teething issues as well. 1st Meeting was a big learning curve with the chassis performing very
well but the driver taking a while to catch up on how good it handled and how consistently fast the engine was. Daryl qualified
for the feature in 17th but on a slick 1 lane track there was very few opportunities to pass so finished where we started.
Second
Meeting we decided to loosen the car up and see if this would let Daryl learn quicker and get more settled faster. This was
very evident with being able to catch cars with no problem at all it was just managing to get around them that was the challenge.
Again the track was very 1 laned and fast on the bottom. In the second heat Daryl tried to run higher up the track to pass
cars but there was nothing there and got freight trained by the field. Qualified 21 for the feature and tried to pass cars
early, got a couple but then unfortunately the drive chain snapped and meant a DNF.
Meeting
3 was just a big learning experience of the new engine etc. With the damage created from the broken chain we thought everything
had been checked but when going out for heat 1 realised the clutch wasn't disengaging and no drive, tried everything to no
luck. After fixing this we made it out for heat 2 and as soon as the race started Daryl knew he had a problem, this time it
was the clutch slipping due to the replacement clutch push rod being different from the original. Only a finish down the back
eventuated. Not a good night but plenty learnt for the team.
With
the car all fixed and ready to go again we race at Huntly Speedway on Saturday 4th December, then strip the car apart for
a big rebuild and busy season at Western Springs starting with the Boxing Night Spectacular!!!
7th November - The first
kart update in a while comes after the first dirt kart meeting of the new season at Te Aroha.
This was the club’s second scheduled meeting, but the first was rained out three weeks ago.
Sunday’s
weather was blue skies and sunshine with no repeat of the previous events overcast and rain.
Reasonable sized fields in most classes and a hell of a lot of fun. Jase, Scott and Dad piled into the Bryant Road
courtesy van and headed off to the great little Te Aroha Dirt Kart Club for the day.
Somehow
we managed to draw midfield grids for all four heats in the nine kart field, but this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Heat
one started with a hiss and a raw, and we managed to pick our way through a few other guys troubles to record a solid third
place on a track that was already proving difficult to overtake.
The
second heat had us get a much better start and up to third early on our own merit but a half gap left into the first corner
had another competitor forcing his way in and the resulting contact had us sitting sideline care of Te Aroha’s no restart
rule.
The
third heat was a bit of a battle with a fifth placed finish (still bang on mid pack) after trying to line up a run on the
kart in front left too much of a gap for the guy behind to slot through – quickly followed by another.
The
fourth and final heat was probably our best drive of the day, again quickly moving up to third place and then managing to
pull a comfortable gap on fourth place (although not realising this till race end care of the absence of mirrors). There was
a bit of two and fro with second place whereby we’d close the gap and then it would open out again.
Overall
a very good day, particularly considering this is only our second meeting on the dirt. We certainly learnt a lot, both in
terms of setup and driving style. By our maths we think we were likely fourth overall for the day – result hampered
only by the second heat DNF.
28th July - It has been a couple of months since the last update
and plenty of work has gone on in the background in that time. I am glad to annouce that the # 7A TQ Midget will be back out
on a Speedway Track near you this season, thanks to some hard saving and picking up a few NEW Sponsors we should be better
than ever.
Firstly we have to introduce the NEW Sponsors for the team this year and who have confirmed
at the moment, "4 A Good Cause" Fundraising, Reduced to Clear, CSR Fabrications and MR Motorcycles have all jumped
into the MSB Motorsport Family with a couple still to be confirmed soon.
But now on to the more exciting updates with the NEW Engine turning up only a couple of weeks ago it will
be exciting to see what we can do with this and how the package looks. Also the new MSB Motorsport Team Trailer is slowly
getting constructed with the only part left to do is panelling to enclose it. Looking very smart a good finish. The next steps
for the off season are working through the options on a car and then Uniforms and Pit Setup which may seem like minor pieces
but still important to our overall image.
2nd May - As part of the Speedway Season similar to karting,
Daryl had organised a day out with a few other cars for all the family and friends of MSB Motorsport to have a go in the 7A
TQ Midget so they got to enjoy the rush of what Daryl had been driving all year.
In total over the whole day there was 7 different drivers of the MSB Motorsport 7A TQ Midget. Everybody who
jumped in had an absolute ball. There was a few bumps during the day as one of the guest drivers had a bit of a slip up and
ended upside down. But very little damage was done and the car was quickly repaired and out again with a different driver.
Unfortunately in the last run of the day the engine decided it had enough and poked one of the rod's out of the front of the
motor. Luckily this was the last meeting for the TQ for this year. However it is going to be a long and difficult Off Season
rebuild but hopefully some exciting news and developments to come.
I would like to thanks my team on the day of Jason and Graeme Corbett. Also to the guest drivers for the day
Jason, Graeme, Hayden Webster, Andy Kimber, Mike Newland (first time in a speedway and going fast!!!), Colin Samson and Jason
Brown. I hope you all had fun and a good time. Also a big thanks to Scotty Wilkins from MR Motorcycles for organising the
track and day. Looking forward to what the new season may bring.
