Latest news from the Boulton Racing Team ...
24 June 2009:
Hi Everyone. Just a quick update before we head away to the states for a holiday and to bring back some goodies for the new car of course. Cheers Josh.
This Years Achievements:
Modified:
2nd Club points
Most improved driver
Best presented car
Hard luck award
Lead foot driver award
1st = Remembrance Champs
1st King of the Coast
Superstock:
3rd Easter Champs
4th Palmy Teams Champs
4th Auckland Nationals teams champs
Supersaloon:
3rd Feature points 881
Best Presented Team
3rd Champion of Champions 891
2nd Champion of Champions 851
3rd Hoopla 891
2nd Hoopla 851
2nd Gold Cup 891
2nd Club points 881
3rd Club points 891
2nd South Island Champs 891
21 May 2009:
Hi Everyone
Well hasn’t winter come with a hiss and a roar. We’re officially still in autumn but it sure doesn’t feel like it. Looks like feeding out may start earlier this year!
We have already started our off season work on the cars and pulled some motors out. Josh’s new car should be well under way by now and we have started working on some new design ideas too. There is so much to do and a lot of it is very time consuming and with us heading away for six weeks in June we need to get sorted before we go.
Well our first end of season party went off real well and there was a good turnout. We had around 70 show up and all seemed to enjoy themselves judging on the feedback we received. We had the Spit Roast Company do the catering and it was pretty good. We also had some great entertainment in the form of acetyline bombs (Matts creation) which got bigger and louder as the night wore on. They looked impressive as they drifted off into the night tied to an assortment of coloured helium balloons! Great atmosphere and everyone behaved themselves and we’re all looking forward to next year!
Not much else to report this time so will finish off here.
Keep warm and enjoy the off season.
17 April 2009:
Hi Everyone
Well where do I start. The seasons over but there is always heaps to do through the off season (will elaborate on this further).
Since my last blog we have had four nights of racing.
The first show was a trip to Nelson for the two Super saloons on the 4th April. We had a lot of fun and probably enjoyed this meeting more than any we’ve had all season. The trip up was cruisey and very enjoyable for the nine of us in the Big Kahuna. Both cars went really well and the guys had a ball. The night was capped off nicely with Josh setting a new lap record previously held by Ian Burson. This was a pretty big achievement considering it was the first time on the Nelson track for Josh’s car.
The following weekend was the Easter Meet at the Glen in Christchurch. Friday night we had a bad run, with Josh having a DNF after a tyre was taken out. And same again on the Saturday night which meant a back start in the feature. However we didn’t get our set up right and that, coupled with Josh feeling off colour meant we didn’t progress much at all.
Bruce did a lot better and was peddling well, when in one of the heats as he was making a superb inside pass on Huddlerock, Huddlerock tried too late to defend his line and came down on Bruce clipping his right front rim, losing the steering wheel and spinning himself into the wall real hard. His car was a wreck. Unfortunately the referees didn’t see what happened so Bruce was put to the back. This cost him valuable points. Just a shame video evidence can’t be used more because it would save a lot of the wrong calls that are made when the referees don’t see clearly what happened. Wouldn’t instant replay on a big screen for all to see be awesome!
Luke also had a weekend with mixed result in the Modified. A good field of quality cars lined up for the Modified Invasion and the racing was pretty intense. On the Friday night he won one heat, got to about 2nd or 3rd in another and had a DNS in the next due to a shattered rotor which we couldn’t fix in time. On Saturday he started 6th on points meaning 6th on the grid. He did extremely well in both heats with another win in one of the heats where he came from midfield to blitz the frontrunners and pull a decent gap to win easily. He came in 3rd in the pole shuffle and was looking like the hot favourite to take out the final. The flag dropped and he shot past Bunter Pierce (3NZ) into 2nd place then the orange came on and there was a re-start. Unfortunately on the re-start Bunter drove down onto him taking out his rear tyre.
So that was the end of that. After the final finished we couldn’t help feeling pleased in a way that we hadn’t run because there was so much carnage and we could have come off far worse than a flat tyre!
Sunday we shot up to Blenheim with the Super Saloons for our final run of the season. Good trip up but didn’t enjoy the meeting. The meeting was extremely slow starting at 5pm and still going at 11.15pm and when you have travelled a long way and have to travel all the way home again after the meeting, you kinda want to get away a.s.a.p. Josh just didn’t have his heart in it, mentally his season was over, but Bruce went okay, he even had a run in Matts Superstock which he seemed to enjoy. Then we couldn’t find any food for our trip home. Couldn’t find any food at the track, KFC closed early, the Service Stations were on lock down and MacDonalds had a queue that stretched almost around the outskirts of the town. Consequently we didn’t get home until 4.30am and were stuffed the next day. Not exactly a great finish to the season!
Then we decided to have one last go with the Modified so we headed to the Coast for the King of the Coast. What a beautiful day it was, warm and not a breath of wind. The atmosphere was very relaxed although there was mud everywhere and the track looked like one of our ploughed paddocks! Jared and Amanda kindly saved us a seat with them at the top of turn four, so we were able to sit back and enjoy the racing. There were good fields of cars over seven grades and racing was interesting. The first Super Saloon race saw the 17 Lovelady car slide into the wall in front of us (because of the ruts in the track) followed in by Paddy (46e). No real damage and they re-started the race. After that it was pretty much one lane racing. Luke drove well and went into the final 2nd equal on points . He drove well to leave the field behind, taking the race win and King of the Coast for the Modifieds. So we did end on a good note after all.
Now we’re looking forward to a break and a chance to catch our breath before diving into another season. There will be the motors to do, strip and re-build the current cars, re-paint and sign write, work to do on the Big Kahuna and Josh is talking about a new car for himself. All this has to be done before September and preferably before we leave for a six week trip to the States on the 24th June. So there won ‘t be much lazing around at BRT this winter. Ricky and Matt are still deciding what to do with their cars for next season so will keep you all posted on this one. Until next time.
Take care everyone.
2 April 2009: Hi All
Just a catch up since our last update.
NZ Superstock Teams weekend in Palmy was awesome as always and we had a ball. We had two BRT cars in the Stratford Team (Ricky & Matt) and the team did really well taking two wins (one for Ricky and one for Matt) in the heats and finishing fourth overall. The racing was awesome but still looking forward to the day the Panthers topple off their perch!
Woodford Glen series...generally been fun with Josh finishing 2nd overall and Bruce 5th. Bruce has had no end of trouble with his magneto and this has affected his results considerably. Josh had similar issues for two of the rounds of the series. We have only just found the problem and hopefully can get it fixed for the last few meets.
Battle of the Stocks...only Ricky racing at this one and he sucked big time...due to motor issues (not a Protech)...missing and popping etc. He and Matt also went up to the Superstock Teams Nationals in Auckland with the Stratford Team and got 4th overall, again. Unfortunately Matt got knocked out but is okay...as okay as a Superstock driver can be!
Last weekend we headed to Dunedin for the SI Super Saloon Champs and the Sth Pacific Grand Prix.
Good trip down but it doesn’t get any shorter! Don’t know how we did it all those years and wouldn’t want to be doing that again. However we did it in five hours and it was fine all the way...until we hit Dunnas ...and it began to rain! By the time we reached the track it was fair hosing down. Bummer. Could have stayed home in the warm. Then to add insult to injury we got struck in the pits somewhere around the scrutineering pad...like right in the middle of the road...and there we stayed for the next few hours. Well you can imagine the fun we had...nine of us sitting together real cosy like in the motorhome with nothing to do but watch some geriatrics racing geriatric Super Saloons from way back in 1999! Oops i think one of them was a BRT car! Haven’t we come a long way since then, or maybe not, that’s a matter of opinion. Next day was fine but cloudy so it took all day to dry the track enough to run the meeting that night. Even so it had to be track rolled but the result was a very drivey track all night. This made for some excellent racing. Bruce still having mag problems so he only did two of the four races. Josh had a good run and equalled Burson for making up places in the first heat. He went from 9th to 2nd and Burson went from 10th to 3rd. The second race Josh started on pole beside Richie and finished 2nd again. Going into the final for the SI Champs Josh was leading on points by 2 spots from Burson. Josh started at the rear on grid 13 and Burson started on grid 9. Consequently Ian had a better chance being further up on the grid and took the win overall with Josh doing real well to come in 2nd overall and Dennis Bolt 3rd. Not to take anything away from Burson as he drove clean and well all night and deserved his win.
The final race for the night was for the Sth Pacific Grand Prix and the format was reverse grid from the finishing places in the SI Champs. So Josh and Ian started at the rear with Ian on the outside. This was a very fast 25 lapper and awesome to watch. Ian got a good run down the outside with Josh not able to get clear quickly enough to keep pace with him. Mark Carey drove a good race to take out the win with Ian 2nd Martin Harcourt 3rd and Josh 4th.
Next weekend we are heading to Nelson for a spin. Will keep you posted.
Luke has been firing well in the BRT Modified and has brought in some good results. Unfortunately at his last appearance he took another tumble when one of the novice drivers Nigel Niven ran over Lukes front end sending him up and over. Hopefully the powers that be will finally do something about this kind of thing happening. Lets face it novice learner drivers should not be allowed to race in the field until they have proved themselves skilled enough to do so without continually wrecking other cars. This grade (and a couple or more of other speedways grades) are too expensive and too dangerous to take these risks with unskilled drivers mixing it up in the field. Anyways we have re-built the car again and will be at the SI champs this weekend in Greymouth.
Well that’s about it for today. Only a couple more meetings and it’s all over for another season. Looking forward to the break although you never really get a break in this game what with re-building cars etc. but we would probably go nuts if we had nothing ‘speedway’ to do for the rest of the year!
Cheers
Lynda
4 February 2009:
Only four more sleeps to Palmy. Can't wait. This year we have two BRT cars in the Stratford Scrappers, Matt and Rick are both driving for Stratty so guess what colour my face will be this weekend! Matts car left here last Friday night really late after a complete re-build in our workshop and I must say she looks great. Matt trialed it last Saturday in Nelson and loved the way it handled, Rick also took it for a spin and said it was the best handling car he had ever driven, so hopefully Matt will be able to put in a good performance at Palmy.
As for our Supers, we ran last weekend at the Glen in the third round of the series, but due to a lot of blocking and bashing, we didn't have very good results. Bruce got taken out in one of the heats putting him well back on the grid for the feature. Josh was blocked several times from passing in the first heat which was pretty frustrating. Then in the feature drove really well from the back to second place. He then attempted an outside pass on the leading car on the last corner but due to unforseen circumstances ran out of room and ended up in the wall. Unfortunately the car sustained quite a lot of damage and was unable to finish. The frustrating thing is that this sort of problem is becoming all to common and deterring a lot of drivers from continuing in the sport. Hate to moan on about it here but how else do you vent pent up frustration? Anyway we will return after we calm down and keep doing what we love. I just hope the powers that be get these problems sorted while we still have a class.
On a more positive note, our Modified had a good run winning two out of three. Well done Luke. This car is going extremely well and with a bit more experience should be up there with the best of the class. We decided not to run it at the NZ Champs this year as Luke really wanted more time in the seat before taking on anything major so roll on next year!
Happy racing
Go the Scrappers
Cheers Lynda.
13 January 2009:
Hi Everyone
Well we have just got back from the NZ Super Saloon Champs in Cromwell and glad to be home!
The trip down was long and seemed to take forever. When we arrived at 1pm on Thursday it was stinking hot and blowing a gale. Conditions at the track were unbearable, hot and dusty as. Had our practice but it wasn’t enjoyable because of the weather. Went back to the motel we had booked and the folks at the Golden Gate kindly allowed us to park the rig in their grounds and allowed all our guys to use the showers. Thanks Golden Gate. Had a cruisie night Thursday and got to bed reasonably early.
Friday morning we didn’t have to go anywhere as scrutineering was done right beside our rig in the car park. No real problems with the cars except for having to move the transmitter a smidgeon on 881. Then at 3.30pm we headed for the track and were so thankful that the day was way cooler and calmer than the day before.
Qualifying was eventful to say the least. The track was really rough but reasonably drivey. Bruce had bad luck from the start when he got taken out when coming fourth in his first heat. Second heat he went okay but then in the third heat got spun again, so did not qualify. He did however post the third fastest lap time for the night.
Greg got taken out in one of his heats too, but just managed to scrape up enough points to qualify. Josh had the best run, winning two of his heats and finishing highest on points in his group. He finished up second highest qualifier overall for the night. But because of the roughness of the track and hairy driving by some desperate drivers we decided not to do the Shootout, saving the cars for the next night.
Had a lazy day Saturday after washing the cars in the morning, then headed back to the track for the finals.
Bruce started fourth on the grid for the repercharge and got up to second before being spun yet again and hit by everything that moved, so that was his last chance gone. He did the first two non qualifiers races then had to retire due to a stuffed battery and no water pump. We were happy with the car though and it showed some excellent speed, just had bad luck.
Greg was pretty consistent through the finals heats and was looking to finish maybe in the top half a dozen when he too became the victim of another tyre cutting episode.
Josh also became the victim of desperate driving suffering a big hit in the first heat of the finals resulting in his first DNF, then in the final heat got taken out yet again and you can’t win races sitting on the infield!
However their were plenty of other guys in the same boat as us and you just have to get over it and keep tryin!
We would like to congratulate Shane McIntyre for his win, Dean Waddell for second and Dennis Bolt for third. Well done guys. As for driver of the Champs our pick would have to be Andy Erskine who drove extremely well and could have been on the podium, but became yet another victim of desperation. Maybe it’s time to look at how things can be improved in our grade to stop all the unnecessary carnage that happens at Champs, because it doesn’t result in a true picture for the public to see who are the better drivers out there. Not taking anything away from Shane, Dean and Dennis, but so often the true champions are the ones left sitting on the infield at the end of the night.
That’s all from me. Next stop is the Hoopla Wednesday night at the Glen.
Lynda.
News Archives (Older Stuff) here
|
