Oskaloosa Front Row Challenge.

Hi all

Well they have finally banished me from driving, whilst listening to them whining about wanting McDonalds to eat before we got to Oskalooska I turnes into the wrong lane, no one coming or anything but it got their minds off McDonalds for a while.

The Oskalooska front row challenge started to fill in a couple of days that had no racing between the 360 nationals and the 410's. Terry McCarl or Tmac as they call him here and his wife Lori promote and run the event.

It is the usual lay format, time trials, one heat and the mains.

Australia was represented by Greg Hall, Mr Speed Matt Reed and Skip Jackson.

After the heats we got about 5mm of rain, we sat around while they ran their trucks around the track to get it back in, interestingly we would have put the sprintcars on and wheel pacled the track and been ready to go racing inside an hour, but here they don't like to get mud on their cars so we waited about 3 hours while they ran the trucks and a golf cart around, at 12:30am they put the B Main on as the crowd was getting very vocal.

No curfews here and the house are within 50m of the edge of the track.

The B main had Greg Hall and Matt Reed in it, Matt from the second row and Greg from row 3.

Mtt went through easy to the A but Greg did not, the first 5 or 6 laps Greg struggled with the track conditions but really got on the gas after that.

The a main line up had Slaamin Sammy Swindell on pole with Joey Saldana on the outside, Niether of these guys took the 50k us challenge to start from the back, Donny Schatz was on the second row with Craig Dollansky.

When the green flag fell Sammy drove away from the field, there were 2 restarts but he pulled away each time, second was Joey Saldana and third was Dollanski.

There were about 10 passes made during the feature, Dollanski passed Schatz with a slide on turns 3/4 and a couple made in the mid field, Matt Reed passed about 6 cars and was starting to come to grips with the track.

Matt is looking faster each time we see him, he has been the fastest of all the Australian including Skip and Lynton Jeffery, not quite at Kerry Madsen's pace though.

Tonight we are back at Oskaloosa for the 410 wingless sprints.

Well domestic duties and breakfast are calling.

Bye for now

Another update at last!!!

Hi all,

Well all is going well over here.

Night 2 of the 360 Nationals saw an Australian Brad Foster from Victoria running in the 360's.

He went ok but did not show up for the final night.

Gavin arrived and slept on the bench for the first half of the racing, don't know how as the noise is deafening.

Terry McCarl won the night 2 A main in a canter, not many crashes as the track is wide and cars spread out half a lap before the end of lap one.

Night 3 and the final night saw the 410's running 4 heats and a b and a main.

Greg hall from Albany was running and got into the B main, he was running well but had some handling issues with his new Schnee chassis.

Terry McCarl won the 410 a main and then went on to win the 360 A main making him the 2009 360 Knoxville Nationals champion and 10k us richer.

Sunday we headed off to look at a Schnee roller in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, 520km away.

The car looks good and comes with heaps of spares, we then went over to the Schnee factory, about 15km further out of Sioux Falls, we met Brian Schnee and he seems like a great guy, we spent an hour chewing the fat and looked at some of the gear he builds, he has a CNC mill lathe centre and turns out some trick bits, without even playing poker he had around $800 us out of Gavin and I, look out for the trickest looking brake pedal you have ever seen in my car come October. I have the full list of components Schnee make to bring home, the items are the best made you will find and prices are cheap. Also have picked up the latest XXX catalogue which I will bring to the races this year.

After the tour of the Schnee factory we went to Hussets Speedway, this would be the shortest and highest banked track you will see.

The 410's get around here at an amazing speed, we watched in amazement at half time when a grader came out, do not believe the stories you here about not touching the track once the meetings start in the US, we also witnessed this at Oskaloosa on our first night.

Caught up with the Hall Motorsports team at Hussets, had a beer and a good laugh with Brian, Greg and Kent Roberts. Greg made it through to the A main and had a good run in the final, the Schnee chassis was working well, Greg prefers the Schnee to the Maxim's, Brian says David will keep running the Maxim's.

Tonight (Tuesday morning your time) we are off to Oskaloosa for the front row challenge, this is the start of the real racing for us.

The trip through the back woods of Nebraska and South Dakota was interesting, Glen just closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep, my American driving is getting worse, only ran several stop signs, several red lights, drove on the wrong side of the road for a few miles, but no one else wants to give it a go, I just keep telling myself at each intersection, turn short or turn long, while I remember to say that we are almost safe.

Well got to go, we can hear Oskaloosa calling.

Night one of the Knoxville Nationals 360's

Hi all,

Well night one of the 360 nationals has been run and won.

Got to the track at 5 pm and looked at the merchandise, gates opened at 6 pm and up the stands we went.

Sat in block D row 39 for those who look up the track layout, seats were great and we had a fantastic view of the track.

Engine starts happen inside the pits on a separate sort of track and then the cars go back to their transporters to warm up, first time on the track is hot laps in groups of around 12 cars, which is strange because they only run 10 in the heats.

Well the green flag dropped and so did our jaws, it is just flat out, at ground level when the cars come past going into turn 1 they are travelling faster than the 410's at Kwinana, they go around with not a lot of sliding just driving so hard the engines bog down on the turns.

The best time for tonight was 16.2 secs, the 1 lap track record is held by Brooke Tatnell (Aussie Aussie Aussie) at just over 14 seconds set in 2006.

Each car got a time trial, 3 laps with 2 timed, then each car got a heat, heat positions and time trials determined starting positions for the C Main over 6 laps, B main over 12 laps and the A main over 20 laps.

Tonight's winner was Wayne Johnson, he drove away from the field, Jason Johnson ran the B Main and finished 3rd then transferred to the A and ran 7th out of 24 cars, not a bad drive, he had engine problems and had to change his engine out after his heat.

There were about 4 rollovers, nothing major.

Even at this level there was at least 6 cars that did not start or expired before the night started, it must be shattering to go to the trouble to come here and have that happen.

We went out to Newton to look at Kustom Sprintcar parts, this is a new shop owned by the father of Lynton and Paul Jeffery of Vortex wing frame, Karl is his name, seems like a nice guy and has a lot of frames and parts, he is also the XXX dealer around here, I have his contact details and will post them latter this week.

Gavin phoned from LAX around 7 pm, lucky guy has a 5 hour wait there, he should be leaving LA about now, midnight and we are picking him up at 7:45 am Friday morning our time, 8:45 pm Friday evening your time, he tells us he has had some sleep so he should be not to grumpy, which is good as he has to sleep in the car for a couple of hours as we are going back to the Smokey Creek Mall to play in a couple of Nascar simulators after we pick him up, if he stays awake we should be able to beat him as he will be tired, if that fails we can arrange a broken arm.

Just before you get into Knoxville from Pella where we are staying there is a Sprintcar/Gokart track, we will be off there as well during the next week to test our skill.

Well got to get some sleep, post again tomorrow folks.

Happy car preparations ready for the season ahead.

Steve

Knoxville at last.

Hello all

After much flying and not a lot of sleep we arrived at Des Moines, Iowa.

We picked up a hire car and after loading it up drove to Pella, a small town 20 miles out of Knoxville.

We didn't even get out of the car park before a disagreement on which side of the car park boom gates we should be on started, there was a big sign saying left side was the exit but the nervous amongst us wanted to be on the right, so we ended up parked on an angle between the two gates, after much laughter and slandering about my road driving abilities being as poor as my track skills we reversed up onto the left boom gate that I had lined up on to start with. Talk about a bunch of dumb Aussies.

Day 2 in Iowa came and went with a trip back to Des Moines to check out the local Malls, only 1 red light run (Who puts lights above the road anyway) with no casualties, then only 1 stop sign run (they have 4 way stop signs at intersections here) but this one was only a 2 way, wont fall for that mistake again, no locals shot at us so they must know we are tourists.

We are disappointed Brooke Tatnell has broken his leg, 3 places just like Norbert, the story in the press says he has told the crew to get the car ready for the nationals, that will be a true test if he goes through with it.

We are off to Knoxville tomorrow to look at the track and then down to Oskalooska to pick up our tickets for the show down there between the 360 and 410 Nationals, then we will probably take in a game of golf as the rules for that are the same as in Aus so we should be able to get it right, although the carts may have different rules.

Well it is after midnight and time for bed, will update on the days events tomorrow evening US time.

Steve

On the Road to Knoxville

Hi all,

Well we have arrived in Los Angelas and are resting ready for the next leg in the journey.

Tomorrow, Monday evening your time, we fly from LA to Fort Worth- Texas then on to Des Moines- Iowa and we are there.

Glen and Annette managed to get a lot of sleep on the plane while I stood at the rear for 9 hours, went shopping in LA today (for Annette) Glen and I just admired the view.

We intend to head to the Schnee chassis factory whilst in Des Moines, we want to get some set up tips or Mick Doble as he has the only Schnee chassis in WA I know of, however the Hall brothers from Albany have 2 new Schnees complete ready to run in the Knoxville Nationals.

Looks like the Aussies are having a good run over here at the moment, Kerry Madsen is going well, we really hope Brooke Tatnell has a competetive car for the Nationals.

Well folks that's all for today, hoe this post finds you all well over there, we are all ok but tired, looking forward to keeping you all updated with the latest happenings from the 360, 410 Nationals and the Oskalooska front row challenge.

Hi all,

Just thought I would add this to make sure I knew what I was doing before we headed off to Knoxville Sunday morning.

Martin is back and is in the process of firming up the race schedule for the season, it is a busy one with lots of options for different race meetings.

Lillian is undergoing a knee operation and we wish her a quick and speedy recovery.

Gavin is still in the bush and when he heads for Knoxville next Thursday I think he is going to set a new World Record for the most continuous hours spent on a plane, by the time he gets there he should be very tired and need a couple of days sleep to recover.

Norbert and Martin are the only people who have requested shirts etc while we are there but I will have my laptop if you want to email me to get you something.

So folks, the next blog should be from the USA on Tuesday, will upload some photos and any other interesting things we see.

Steve

2009 - 2010 Race Calendar.

Knoxville Nationals 2009

Hi All,

Team SJC are off to the Knoxville Nationals on the 2nd of August.

Steve, Glen and Annette are going.

Team Davis (Gavin) will be joining us for the 410 nationals, I'm sure Jenny will be looking forward to another Doug Esh "The Hammer" shirt.

Do any of you want a signed shirt or other bit of memorabilia while we are there, we do expect to be paid for it, we can also get our web guy John Bell to frame any of this for you, he runs Byford Photographic and framing with his partner Barbara, phone 0407423819, John can also take great photos of your car and team.

We can only try for gear, no promises. Small alcoholic type fees will apply.

Send email to steve@sjcrushing.com.au

Watch this space, we are going to be sending back lots of photos and info.

Trophy Presentation 2008 / 2009

LIMITED SPRINTCAR ASSOCIATION

TROPHY PRESENTATION 2008/09

Replicas presented for trophies awarded in 2007/08:

Club Person of the Year Michael Doble

Club Champion Michael Doble

Most Feature Race Wins Gavin Davis

20008/09 Winners

Most Improved Driver - Chris Jones (Trophy Donated By: Dave Hankey Memorial)

Rookie of The Year - Robert Watson (Trophy Donated By: John Hatton Memorial)

Most Feature Race Wins Anthony King (Trophy Donated By: John Green Fabrications)

Club Champion Steven Crabbe (Trophy Donated By: LSA Perpetual)

Points Winners:

1^st Place - Steven Crabbe (Trophy Donated By: Davis Family)

2^nd Place - Carolyn Sotiroff (Trophy Donated By: Crabbe Family)

3^rd Place - Chris Jones (Trophy Donated By: Moreton Family)

Club Person of the Year: Martin Laughton

Welcome to the WA Limited Sprintcar Association.

Our club is comprised of approximately 80 members consisting of over 30 drivers with the remainder of the members being family, support crew and club associates.

The majority of our members reside outside the Perth metropolitan area so the club regularly races throughout Western Australia, including south down to Manjimup, north as far as Carnarvon and of course east to Kalgoorlie. 

The club committee meet regularly each month to plan and co-ordinate racing events and general club business. In addition to this the club members set aside time for a general club meeting a couple of times a year to share ideas and a few cold drinks. Each year on the last Saturday of June the club holds it's Annual General Meeting which also coincides with the end of seasons Trophy Presentation and Awards evening.

Our club proudly supports a strong social atmosphere with many a cold drink and a hot sausage bun being consumed after the conclusion of each race event.

If you have ever considered racing sprintcars or even just have an enthusiasm for sprintcar racing and would like to be associated with the club as a member, please feel free to contact us at club@limitedsprintcars.com.au or come along to one of our racing events and have a talk to any of our friendly club members to find out more about us.