VELOCITY RACING’S RALLY SA CURSE CONTINUES

The Velocity Racing team’s first SARC event of the season got off to a good start around the Angaston Super Special Stage on Friday night. Despite their times not being hugely spectacular, the drifts around the hairpin were a lot a fun, and put the team in a good mood leading into Saturday’s gravel stages.

“Tweeden was definitely a good way to get into the groove,” said driver Lewis, “the stage just kept going, and going, and going! Being the first stage of the event and our first time in the car together this year, our plan was to stick with 80% commitment.” “We were very satisfied with our performance, despite taking it easy we still managed to set stage times that we were happy with. This is a long event and consistency is key to a strong result,” said co-driver Sarah.

The team were very anxious when the Mawsons Row stage was cancelled due to an accident involving another SA crew. “It’s always concerning to hear that a friend has had an off, so we were relieved to hear that Matt and Bernie were mostly okay and would certainly make a full recovery.”

Unfortunately the team had their own off later in the day. Though a much less significant one it was still enough to end their rally. Lewis explained “we came over a fast crest towards the end of the Mount Crawford stage, and I knew that we didn’t have enough room to make the next corner. Rather than trying to turn in I decided to pick a gap between a gate post and a large log, but the car didn’t quite fit.” “The left rear wheel clipped the log and the impact spun the car around” added Sarah, “unfortunately it was enough to break the suspension and push the wheel up through the boot floor.” While the damage was mostly cosmetic, damage to a suspension point which was not repairable in the time available forced the team to retire.

It was a frustrating end to the event for the team, after crashing out of the same event in 2009, they had been looking forward to a strong result in 2010. But they have already commenced repairs on the car and hope to be back out in time for the next round of the SARC at Robertstown in August.

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