With the end of the 2007 season drawing near, the McKern Racing team take time to reflect on the year that has been.

Although the 2007 year lived in the shadow of the extremely successful 2006 racing year, the team learned a lot about themselves as a team this year and still competed to the highest level at events attended. The year started off with a fresh livery that blew the Sports Compact scene away. The Custom Bodyworks designed “Lime Green” paint was a fresh new look for the team which had adorned the “Barbados Lime Green” for many, many years. First event at the AC Delco East Coast Nationals saw the team testing the new 33 inch ladder bar rear end setup. The 17^th Annual Castrol Edge Jamboree graced the Willowbank surface, however due to some torrential rain in the days leading into the event, it was postponed until October 2007.

The next event on the calendar saw the team attend the ever growing Boostcrusing.com/McKern & Associates Drag Time event. Although the team used the event as a test session, the crowd were treated to some big burnouts, resulting in some more tyres heading to “tyre heaven”. Following this, was the postponed Jamboree, dubbed Jambo 17 ver. 2. However, in the first time in 5 years, the Grump2 machine ran without long time crew member and crew chief Arron Skillen…but reinforcments flew in, in the form on Shane Flabian’s crew chief Anthony Faro. But the car performed faultlessly in battle, claiming the world record MPH speed run by a small tyred rotary at 170.87MPH. Also making the semi final, saw the team claim the 2006-2007 Street 289 National Championship.

Starting to now get a handle on the new rear end, the team made its second appearance of the season at a Willowbank Saturday night Test N Tune running an 8.39 which was the best run so far this season. The following week saw the team attend yet another, but severe wheelspin caused by the excessive torque figures pushed out, resulted in a change in turbo spec in readiness for the first round of the 2007 Sports Compact season…Toyo Tyres Summerslam. The change in turbo seemed to work, with the car producing a gearbox splitting burnout to claim “Biggest burnout” award at the event, and also recorded a new PB speed on 172.61mph and new quickest time of the season in 8.23, but the Lenco was in dire need of upgrading. So it was taken to Shane at Thunder Road to weave his magic and upgrade the box to “Pro Mod” specifications.

The NRMA Summernationals was the next event on the calendar at WSID. The event held special significance as Grump2 became the first car in Australia to run a Toyo drag racing slick. Toyo are keen to break into the drag racing market and the team were used to test the 28x9 inch slick on the sticky WSID surface. A couple of 8.2’s later, the test was a success and the team were starting to find some of that 2006 form again. But the next three meetings were not kind to the team. At a test and tune, the gearbox had again had an issue which was resolved again by Shane at Thunder Road, the following meeting, a wastegate had failed as well as a coil pack resulting in the loss of power and the following meeting, the Tin Top Titles, the clutch had burned itself to smithereens.

But in keeping with the tradition of the past 3 years, the team raced on yet another new track for the season (2004 – WSID, 2005 – Meremere, NZ, 2006 – Heathcote Park) being the Kwinana Motorplex in WA. As special guest of the track, the team ventured across the Nullabour to Perth to compete at the season ending Hi Tech Titles. But as luck would have it, the team’s bad luck followed them across for the 4^th meeting in a row, the team struggled with a little issue, this time, blistering tyres due to wheelspin.

But all in all, another 32 passes over 13 events for the season sees the team as still one of the top profile and top attended teams in the Sports Compact scene. The 2008-2009 season kicks off soon with the Boostcruising.com/McKern & Associates Drag Time on July 6 followed by th 18^th Castrol Edge Jamboree on 23-24 August 2008. Come along and support us and the PAC Performance team as they set to debut the all new Mazda 6 pro car.

Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register.

Powered by AkoComment 2.0!