BAD LUCK ENDS CAMPAIGNS OF BOTH ABC REALESTATE CARS

The ABC Realestate Racing team were in full flight on Saturday night (November 24) at Warrnambool’s Sungold Stadium for the second round of the Eureka Garages and Sheds Sprintcar Series and the 34th running of the Formula 500 Jack Willsher Cup. It was the first meeting for the season where both the Sprintcar of Simon Amato and Formula 500 of Kate Searle were racing at the same venue and there were both positives and negatives taken away from the night from both parties.

It was Amato’s first outing for the season aboard the immaculate ABC Realestate / Power Loan V86 and in his two qualifying heats he finished first and fifth, which was enough to qualify the 36-year-old in the top six time trial.

“I started off pole in my first heat and really, you should win every heat you start off pole so we made the most of that. In the second heat I started from the back and it was very important to move forward, which I did. “I really enjoyed the second heat, I was passing cars and the car felt good all over the track. It was more of a confidence booster than the first heat,” said Amato.

Amato began the 25-lap A-Main from sixth position, but on the first turn he spun after making contact with another competitor in the hurly burly of the start and was forced to the rear. The night turned further sour for Amato with some steering problems, which ended his promising evening. “It was a frustrating way to end the night, but looking at the positives we did well in the heats and to qualify in the top six with 40 odd cars in the field is a fine effort.

“We put ourselves in the position for a good result and hopefully I can do that on a consistent basis. I’m looking forward to my next race at Avalon Raceway on December 15,” said Amato.

Searle’s night in the Jack Willsher Cup also ended on a frustrating note when the chain sheered off while in second place in the B-Main. In Searle’s opening heat, there was some set up problems with the car that stopped her from making any progress forward. “We had some small tyres on and the gears weren’t quite right, so we were sitting in fourth gear and the car was going as fast as it could, which wasn’t quick enough,” she explained. “In the second heat we put on some bigger tyres and the gears were a lot better, which resulted in a better result,” Searle said.

The B-Main provided both the highlight and lowlight of the night for Searle. Starting from third position, she swooped to the lead early in impressive style to lead for a number of laps. However, after a restart she shuffled back to second and still looked comfortable for a transfer position into the main event, until the chain problem occurred.  “It was very frustrating,” Searle admitted. “Last season we continually had chain problems. It’s an ongoing thing with Formula 500 racing - they are very temperamental.

“I would like to thank Jamie O’Neill and my Mum Mandy for helping me on the night. It’s hard to have a full crew when Simon and I are both racing and it was good for them to give me a hand,” Searle said. Searle’s next meeting will be on December 8 at Simpson Speedway.  

ABC Realestate Racing would like to thank the following sponsors for their support throughout season 2007-2008: ABC Realestate, Power Loan, Summa Auto Parts, Mainline DynoLog Dynamometers, Leading Car Care Centre, Dyno-Mite Performance, Red Ed’s Sheds, Gantek and VACC.

Release by Jarryd Stokes Stokesy24@hotmail.com