FOR NEV!

The weekend just gone was a big one for Rob Golding and the Golding Motorsport team.

The meeting was the fifth annual Neville Lance Twin 14’s event, not just seeing the Speedcar drivers contest two feature races at the Perth Motorplex in the one night, but also racing in the honour of ‘Big Rev Nev’ Neville Lance.

As has been well documented, Rob debuted a striking tribute car in honour of his childhood hero Lance, and he was hoping that the change of colours (and one night change of number!) would serve him well.

The night started off well, with Speedcars contesting time trials, a bit of a rarity for the division. Rob was in the second group for qualifying and recorded a 16.682 second lap, good enough for third in his group and fifth overall, just three tenths behind the leader. This put Rob in position three for his one and only heat of the night, which he held for half the race before losing one position to come home fourth.

“Time trials aren’t usually the strongest part of the night, but we’ve certainly been improving” says Rob. “The heat wasn’t too bad, running well but made a couple of mistakes missing the line about halfway through and ending up in the marbles which meant Robbo was able to get past me with a lap or two to go. We had good car speed keeping up with the leaders, but you can’t make mistakes in the fields we have now.”

With the points tallied, the first feature would be a throwback to Neville’s day with fastest to the rear, so despite being sixth on points, Rob would start from position ten in the race. It would be a tough one.

“Racing wise, it was a bit of a night to forget” laments Rob. “Unfortunately, we were missing our crew chief for the night so setup changes were up to me and it’s safe to say I stuffed it for the features. Those sorts of tracks I usually go pretty well at, but it just didn’t click at all. The track was slick in the first feature, and we haven’t had a track that slick since we’ve had the new motor, and unfortunately what we have run in the past didn’t seem to work at all!”

After coming home in position twelve in the first feature, Rob would then line up in ninth for the second attempt, but unfortunately would come to a stop early in the feature and have to rejoin from the tail. where after fourteen laps, he would finish in tenth place.

“We had a bit of an issue during the first feature race which I think was electrical. Every now and then the motor would cut out and then start again straight away. I checked everything I could in between the races but didn’t find anything significant.”

“I made some changes to the car in between the feature races and it did make the car better but the track went away more than the changes I made so it was tough to drive. I was umming and ahhing whether to change another thing and I decided against it. As soon as I completed the first lap I knew it was the wrong move, but by that stage it’s too late!”

“The motor shut off mid-corner going into turn two and stalled the car which left me to start from the back. The rest of the race was just fighting the car to the finish.”

Back at the workshop that night the team went over the car and found the ignition switch to be the culprit for the gremlins throughout the night. That has now been changed and the team are now ready for their next meeting, which is scheduled to be the John Day Speedcar Classic event in a few weeks’ time. Rob is keen to get back on track and looking to some improved results.

“We’ve got the car speed, but we’re still just chasing the consistency and that comes with laps!”

Golding Motorsport is proudly supported in season 2024/25 by Quantum Collective, My Race Setup, Dasco Supply Group, QVEE, Thermal Dynamics Engine Heaters, Asteel Powdercoaters, AG Composites, Hyper Industries, Coverall Sheet Metal, Lance Auto Electrics, Sprint Lubricants and Mills Drainage.

Release by DTN Media.

Pic Courtesy DTN/JSP.