Champion Again!

Last year Brad had won the APIRA championship but wewere a lowly 6th in the championship and needed some of the contenders above us to exit early and Brad to win the meeting to have any chance of retaining his title.

The crew had worked on the car during the break and had changed the torque convertor in an effort to increase the cars consistency so we were eagerly waiting to see how the car would perform. We had also fitted a cross brace in the chassis to improve the car’s stability so the teams expectations’ were high.

Our first qualifying session went well and Brad was in 7th position, unfortunately it then rained and we didn’t get any further runs in on the day. We had the company of Lucas Oil UK’s MD Les Downey and his wife Mo with us for the weekend and Les kept us laughing (as always) with his wit and anecdotes.

After studying the data we changed the launch chip and looked forward to Sunday, Sunday was a great day with really good weather, we had 5 qualifying runs, and Brad reported that the car was running “strong & straight”, we had a great day and Brad finished the day in 11th place.

Monday was again a great day with the weather being hot and sunny,

In the 1st round we were drawn against Jack Brewster, an ex Super Pro champion, Jack red lit and gifted us an easy win on what would have been a tough race, Jack was also one of the competitors in front of Brad and also Ian Powell went out in round 1, another competitor in front of Brad in the championship, so this helped Brad’s cause.

Round 2 we were drawn against Pete Walters but unfortunately Pete had holed a piston so was a no show, we had an easy round, but hey, you have to take them especially after the bad luck the team has had this year!

The championship now looked a real possibility with Chris Parker leading and Rick Cook in front of Brad on points, Brad drew Rick Cook in the semi finals, Chris Parker was racing Bob Doyle.

In the semi’s Brad beat Rick Cook and Chris Parker red lit leaving the final between Brad and Bob Doyle, a quick calculation showed if Brad won the meeting he would also be the APIRA champion for the second time, if Bob won then Chris Parker would take the championship and Brad would be runner up!

Brad and I had a discussion and we decided on our dial in together. Brad cut a great 0.04 light to Bob’s 0.13 so Brad had the edge and drove a great race to take the win!

The calculations show that Brad winning the event had taken the championship by just 80 point’s, less than a round win!

So Brad Jackson Racing love “Shakey” with 2014 runner up spot in the championship and 2015 & 2016 winning the championship, this is now a track the team really have a handle on !

We had a great weekend with Les and Mo, and it was great to see them both enjoy a race meeting in a quieter venue where Les was able to relax and just be part of the team for the weekend.

We would like to thank Nick Good and Cristiann Carlo for their dedication in preparing a great car for Brad, and of course a big thank you to all our sponsors, we couldn’t do it without your support!