Copy and paste from my FB page.
Finally arrived home last night after heading to S.A. for the Dirt Kart National Championships at Yorke Peninsula and the Master’s Games in Alice Springs N.T.
On the way Neil Morrell’s trailer shit a wheel bearing and he had to limp 800 k's on 3 wheels before getting repairs at Ceduna.
We stopped at Streaky Bay for a couple of days where, on arrival I performed a 5 point turn to park and exited to find Michelle splayed out on the ground behind the bus with a huge gash and lump on her leg and her pants torn to shreds.....I didn't even feel a bump. Turns out she was trying to help guide me and sprinted into Dolby's trailer hitch. She was pretty upset at the time and in lots of pain and worried it might affect her racing.
While we were there a few legends of the sport and some homeless guy thought it would be a great idea to carry Tony Little's kart out in the low tide and get some photos that they knew he would appreciate. :P
Little.jpg
We left Streaky Bay a day early as we heard the reports of the inclement weather coming in........Jeebus they weren't kidding. I had to pull off the road at one stage as I couldn't see 2 metre's in front of me one we had water pouring into the bus from all over the place.
Many thanks to Steve and Sandra Paddick who put us up for the night at their farm in the height of storm, the Luv Bus was rocking all night long and not in a good way.
The Nationals were unfortunately rained out in the worst storms seen in the area in 50 years but the YP Club did a fantastic job salvaging what they could in the conditions, and they held a club day in its place.
Come race day at YP, Craig McIntyre generously offered me his KT to run in Stateos which was just as well because I couldn't get a handle on my 125.
The Stateos were the only class to run a final and although I believe I should have started from P2 or P3 my points were messed up because of a number change and I started from the back. I didn't bother kicking up at the time because it sort of felt like a bit of an anti-climax with the Nationals being cancelled and I thought I should just enjoy the racing. I know I should have cried about it at the time and not now but I regret that I didn't really give myself the opportunity to publicly thank Craig for his generosity for lending me what was the best handling dirt kart I have driven to date. Thanks also to Neil Robertson and Dave Mac for looking after the kart between races.
Onto Alice Springs for the masters games and we hit a snag 40ks out of Coober Pedy when the bus went into limp mode. I couldn’t clear the code and no help could be found locally. We ended up limping all the way, 13 hours, 700ks, approx. 60kph all the way into Alice. I reckon having my left testicle removed would have been more fun.
When we arrived in Alice, Tony Connor booked the bus into Auto Sparky to have it looked at. They scoffed when we suggested that they would probably need the bus for at least a couple of days…they ended up having it for 9.
On my way to pick up the bus I received a text that I had a windfall of $1,250. Yay!! Got the bill for the bus $1,263. Ha-ha, easy come, easy go.
Had a pretty decent Tuesday night at the Masters, qualified quickest and had a win from the front and two 2nds from the back. I was feeling quietly confident/cocky
starting the final from pole knowing that ex Aussie champ Neil Morrell who was starting out of two was giving me quite a few kilos. We gave each other the thumbs up heading up the back straight on the rolling lap and I chuckled to myself as Neil hit the gas entering the final corner before the start straight. I held back, thinking to myself, I’ll be setting the pace at the start thank you very much.
Green light, WTF!! I gesticulated madly at the starter and called him a bunch of names that your nanna wouldn’t know before getting down to it. Neil already had a decent lead heading into the first corner and it took me 4 laps to close that gap. I followed closely for the final two but Neil didn’t make a mistake and I couldn’t get by. I was almost tempted to *Chodder him but thought better of it.
Exiting my kart and removing my helmet I wondered WTF just happened?
When I calmed down I accepted that I just got out smarted by the cannier driver on the day and I look forward to a rematch in 2 years’ time. A silver medal is pretty decent too!!
* Chodder
Verb - Pronounced – Chod Der
A term used in dirt karting to describe a complete disregard for anyone’s safety or even one’s own, to remove any obstacle by any means possible, that may impede one’s progress by even the slightest of margins.
May or may not be coined on the driving style of S.A. young fella Chad Rodder.
Thanks heaps to Tony and Kathy Connor who put us up for our stay in Alice. Two of the nicest and most generous people you could ever meet.
And thanks to Kevin Rawlings and Jamie De Brenni for the use of a couple of KT karts to help make our awesome trip even more worthwhile.
We held our collective breath all the way home praying that the bus would make it and we were very relieved when we eventually did.
Currently waiting on a quote from Toyota to replace the full wiring harness which seems to have gone brittle through being driven on corrugated roads in its previous life.
Now to prep the karts for the “States” next weekend.
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