For the last time in 2020, Golding Motorsport hit the track on a Boxing Night and after some big hours spent in the shed prior, it became a case of so close yet so far.

During maintenance on the car as the team prepared for the show, a problem was found, leaving them with some work to do to get everything ready for the 26th.

“We found a problem with the car after the John Day Classic” says Rob. “We discovered the car was only getting around 60-70% throttle, so something had slipped in the linkages. I’m not sure when it happened, but it might explain why we looked to be down on power a bit, or if it was just that race. Either way it was a good thing to find and shows just how important the maintenance is on the cars!”

The team made it to the Perth Motorplex on Boxing Night after a great Christmas and prepared for a big run.

“At the start of the night, we went through our usual process which was to start the car before Engine Starts” says Rob. “During that we found that a Crank Sensor had failed. The guys did a great job to get that changed out in time for Engine Starts but we then found the throttle problem wasn’t fixed. We thought we had it changed enough for the first heat, but once my foot came out of the throttle, I couldn’t lift my foot high enough to push the throttle down. I ran for a couple of laps but it was dangerous in the end so I pulled in.”

Indeed, Rob started from the back of the field in that opening heat before recording the DNF, while in the second race he would start from position two.“We worked hard during the break, again the guys did an awesome job to get the throttle into a position where I was comfortable. Its still not 100% but it was good enough to race with.”

“In the second heat we started well and I was able to sneak up the inside of Trav and Ross who were battling and led for a few laps. I was watching Trav on the big screen and I could see he was running the top. I knew that if I hit my marks, the car had the speed coming off the corners. Unfortunately, I missed the line coming out of turn two and that was it, Travis had all the momentum and I couldn’t catch him.”

Ultimately, after leading for five of the eight laps, Rob had to settle for second, which was enough of a points haul to see him starting from position eight in the thirteen car field. As the race went green Rob was aboard a rocket ship, racing into third place by the end of the third lap and even grabbing second momentarily on lap six before a spin proved costly.

“We were fast in the feature. After missing the first heat we started down the back and I think by the third lap we were in the top three. To be honest, I think this might have been the one that got away. We were catching Alfie pretty quickly; the car was on rails down the bottom, but I hit a big hole coming out of turn two which upset the car and around it went. I was pretty angry with myself, I saw the hole for six laps but hit it once and that’s all it took.”

From here, after restarting from the rear, Rob had to fight hard to get back through the field and would do a great job to ultimately come home with a fourth place finish when the race was declared.“

After that spin I was pretty mad at myself so probably over drove a bit, but to come back to fourth was a good result. I was praying for a green, white, checker finish as I think we had something for Crackers, but after Pottsy had his accident down the back straight the race was declared.”“

On another note though. I am glad to hear that Pottsy will be ok… it looked like a pretty wild ride!”

Courtesy of the nights results, Rob now sits in fifth place in the Perth Motorplex Track Championship, with four of the ten scheduled shows now completed.

The next event for Golding Motorsport will be in the New Year at the Perth Motorplex where the team will contest the time 49th annual New Year Speedcar Derby. This time honoured event is a big one on the WASDA Calendar and Rob and the team will be looking for another big result on Saturday, the 9th of January.Golding Motorsport is proudly supported in season 2020/21 by Quantum Collective, My Race Setup, Dasco Supply Group, QVEE, Thermal Dynamics Engine Heaters, Asteel Powdercoaters, AG Composites, Dominos Spearwood, Hyper Industries and Mills Drainage.

Release by DTN Media.

Pic Courtesy Mel Parker.