Consistent Weekend For Musarra
Author : Jason Crowe - SSA Media
Going into the double header with the series lead, Musarra Motorsport just wanted to keep it straight and collect as many points as possible, in the West Australian Super Sedan Summer Series.
The weekend saw some great racing and plenty of carnage, luckily team driver Rick Musarra would avoid most of it. The weekend would also signal the end of the Dominator Monaro making way for the new Rocket chassis.
Night One - Esperance
The track that presented it self to Musarra and the other drivers in his heat, was a slick and dusty one that would like drive. In the past the team has tried everything to get the right setup on a slick track but have never got it perfect, still Musarra made the best of the situation finishing third. In his second heat he would battle all race long with Bill Gibbs and Jim Holland, unable gain the edge the yellow #12 Monaro would finish in fourth.
After the second heat the team decided to change the right rear shock and spring rate, to help with the slick conditions. Musarra would start out of position four for his last heat, at the start going into turn one the leaders came together and cause a restart that would see Rick start in second, by race end Rick had slipped back one spot to finish third. "The car seemed to have preformed better in that race, but that was mainly because the track got a water" said Musarra after the race.
With all the heats out of the way the team got the car ready for the 25 lap feature with Rick starting out of position six. The main event for the #12 rocket machine was an uneventful one, despite several late cautions Musarra was unable to capatalise at the restart and would finish the feature where he started in sixth.
Night Two - Kalgoorlie
Having left the Bay of Isles with consistent form, the team look forward to the second nights racing on Rick's home track. The cars rolled out onto the track and racing began with Gary Higgs and Musarra battling the entire distance with Musarra finishing second. It was a carbon copy of their first heat for both though mid race the CTE Mechanical sponsored Monaro dropped a few car lenghts, but with three laps to go caught Higgs again but was unable to get round him and finished second again.
In the third heat Rick Musarra would struggle with the car as they had expected the track to go slick but it just happened quicker than they thought finishing in fifth.
In the feature the Musarra Motorsport car would start out of position four, as the field went through turn one Murray Iwanow would spin causing Musarra to push down and rub panels with Dustin Higgs, but would escape the incident with a few scratches to line up on the restart in position two. Once the field had settled down Rick would be in third and set about chasing down Dustin Higgs. In the last remaining laps he got onto the back of Higgs but just ran out of time to make the pass.
Musarra Motorsport wasn't quite happy with the preformances over the weekend but were glad to keep up the points tally with consistant results and a good result in the Kalgoorlie feature.
The team now look forward to a well earned break, they will organise the new Rocket Monaro over the Christmas break and take it to a couple of practice nights at the Motorplex to make sure everything is in working order for the next round on the Australian Day long weekend.
Musarra Motorsport Sponsors
CTE Mechanical
Goldfields Cranes
Premium Drilling
Kalgoorlie Signs
Details and photo provided by Sheldon Nouchy
Rick Musarra at Kalgoorlie
|
