|
|
There are currently 97 news articles in the news database.
Thursday rolled around and the weather seemed to be fairly stable for once. It had threatened to rain around 4pm, but thankfully the rain stayed away to allow the full nights racing to take place uninterupted. Warm Up A bit of a farce for Stevie as he had problems keeping the car in the right direction. A throttle stop problem was causing the car to idle too high leading to Stevie spinning the car multiple times on the slippery track, before finally parking it on the infield. At one stage he had clipped the wall lightly as he spun, no damage. Heat One Grid One for Stevie. Right from the start of this race Stevie had problems. Although his start was not bad, he struggled to find any grip and quickly fell into the clutches of the rest of the field, eventually finding his footing on the 4th or 5th lap. Unfortunately by that stage he had dropped to last and it was too late to make any headway. After getting the car back to the pits, it was noticed that the Jacob's ladder had bound up, and was bending slightly towards the front of the car. An attempt was made to straighten it using spanners and a lot of elbow grease. It appeared to free it up somewhat so the crew decided to run the car as it was. Heat 2 The night went from bad to worse for Stevie in this one. Approximately three laps into it, the steering tie rod started to bend and eventually both of Stevie's front wheels were pointing in different directions to one-another. Not an easy car to drive, Stevie limped home a lap down on the field. Back in the pits the tie rod was changed and the jacobs ladder was also replaced (it had shown signs of binding again). Feature With the track still providing a lot of drive, it was going to be a fast and furious race. Stevie likes the heavier track conditions and he was hoping for a better run of things. Again, luck was not on Stevie's side. A short distance into the race, Stevie's front wing worked it's way loose and eventually broke clean off. This left Stevie with not quite enough turning force to make the turns easily enough. To make matters worse the brakes were playing up and when Stevie approached Pine Tree bend on the 13th lap, the brake pedal hit the floor. Stevie went across the track and into the wall with quite a lot of force, extensively damaging the car in the process. Thankfully Stevie was unharmed. It had really been a trying night for Stevie and the crew, and one that had given little reward (if any). A post race inspection of the car identified the damage as being all front radius rods, front axle, front wing, main wing, motor plate (on right hand side) and possibly a bend in the chassis on the right hand nerf bar mounting point. All this will probably see Stevie out for a few weeks while the car is stripped and looked over fully to ensure there is no other damage. In the mean time, Stevie and the crew will be visiting the Springs to catch all the international events. Hopefully we'll see you there.
[Home] [Meet Stevie] [Stevie's Career] [The Car] [The Crew] |
Last updated 6/1/2004
| FEATURE ARTICLES |
|
|
|
| NEXT MEETING | |
| NEW SCHEDULE AVAILABLE SOON - FORECAST :- Not Available as yet. |
|
| PHOTOS | |
| All photos used on this website are used with permission, if you wish to obtain a copy of any of the photos please email Cliff. |
