What a year...

Well, it's been... interesting so far.

My car was destroyed in a crash in the final race of round 1 of the SA championship at Mallala. The old Saloon Car was like a member of the family so it was very sad seeing it stripped & crushed afterwards. There were tears :o(

We have recently finished the new car, and the aches & pains have nearly gone away. We already had a spare VN shell, but had to fork out for a roll cage, new seat, harness, etc which certainly added up. Fortunately the engine and gearbox were ok to go into the new car.

I raced at round 2 of the SA championship in June and then headed over to Winton for the Shannons Nationals where I came 2nd in Trophy Class. I set a new personal best of 1:22.1 first time out at Mallala so I'm pretty happy with that. We have learnt a lot in the 6 years since building the old car, so we did the new one a bit differently and it will be a rocket with some minor fine tuning.

Cheers
Naomi :o)

2011 season preview

We are now one week away from the first round of 2011. It's been a difficult and expensive off-season with lots of damage to fix. Naomi has had one run in the modified speedway sedan and will probably be doing a few more meetings before the end of the speedway season.

Our first Saloon Car round is at Mallala on 19th February. This is a one-day twilight meeting. After that, we are off to Wakefield Park for the inaugural TASCCO Classic enduro. This will be a 2-driver endurance race in two parts, totalling 250km. We have recruited Improved Production champ Scott Clements as co-driver and we are really looking forward to this meeting. Hopefully we will be in the running for the VN/EA trophy.

2010 season review

Well... it's been a season with a few ups and downs. From the rained-out debacle of the Bathurst 12-Hour in February to big crashes at Winton and at the final round at Mallala. Both driver and car are a bit battered and bruised, and in the garage for repairs. We only just missed out on the 3rd place trophy for the 2010 SA Championship.

Naomi will be doing a few speedway meetings as guest driver in a modified sedan. She is also regularly coaching with V8 Race Experience, so if you want to learn how to drive on the track, go to www.v8race.com and help us earn some $$$ for repairs to the saloon!

Stay tuned for a website facelift over the summer break, and see you in 2011!

2009 wrap-up

2009 was another great year for Maltby Motorsport. We finished 3rd on overall points in the SA Championship despite missing one of the four rounds. The final round for the year was extremely hot with 40+ degree temperatures so lap times weren't great, but everyone was having the same problems.

We finished the year with the Mallanats at Mallala Motorsport Park. Craig drove the saloon in the burnout competition, go to whoa, dash for cash and the track cruise. We also entered the car in the dyno competition and won the trophy for the naturally aspirated 6-cylinder class. We put a video of the burnouts on YouTube.

After this, the car was due for an engine freshen up and general once-over. Craig put in a lot of hours getting it ready for Bathurst 2010 - and it was worth it! :o)

Cheers,
Naomi

SA State Championship round 3 - Mallala, 12-13 September 2009

The weather for this meeting was dry but warm and humid and VERY windy. It was extremely hot inside the car, and the head wind down the main straight was taking 1.5 - 2 seconds off everyone's time.

In these difficult conditions my qualifying times were quite slow - in fact, back in the low 1:25s! I was a bit put off by these low times when the car felt quite fast, but everyone else was having the same problem. I qualified 5th out of the 6 saloon cars. My times were slightly slower again in race 1, and I finished in the same position. I was 4th in race 2 after Nelson Brown had mechanical problems and didn't finish.

Conditions were better on Sunday and I finished 3rd in race 3 with a best lap time of 1:24.0075. Race 4 was a bit more normal with a best lap of 1:23.4828 and I finished 3rd again.

I finished 3rd overall for the meeting and got my photo in Auto Action issue no. 1359 (September 23-29 2009).

Our next race is back at Mallala on 14 November for a 1-day twilight meeting.

(There may possibly be another 'big' race in Victoria before then, but I can't confirm it at this stage... stay tuned!)

Victorian Motor Racing Championship Round 2 - Wintom Motor Raceway, 29-30 August 2009

In between Mallala rounds we decided to go 'south of the border' and play with the Victorians. This state championship meeting had a healthy field of 11 cars - including 4 female drivers in the one category! :o)

We attended Friday practice to familiarise ourselves with the track. Despite some threatening weather, the rain stayed away and I had a great time learning the new track and getting to know the other drivers (many of whom I have raced against at Bathurst & Sandown).

I really enjoyed this track and the competitive racing. We got to do a one lap 'shootout' for qualifying which was great fun and made me feel like a V8 Supercar driver! I was 7th in practice and qualified in the same spot. This put me 2nd out of the 6 old cars and 2nd out of the 4 girls. The only faster female driver was Meg Carra in her new model AU Falcon.

I finished all 3 races in 7th as well, and the last race was a great battle for 6th position between me and Kane Millier in his EA Falcon. At the end of the last race I was only 2/10ths of a second behind Kane who is an experienced Victorian competitor - I was quite happy as it was my first time at Winton!

There are a couple of videos on YouTube taken by fellow competitor Kelli Stephens here and here - enjoy!

Shannons Nationals - Mallala, 5-7 June 2009

This was another successful meeting for us. After a very wet Friday practice, I qualified 10th with a best time of 1:23.6949. I finished race 1 in 9th place with a new personal best time of 1:22.8801 - this was the first time in the 1:22s and we were very happy.

Unfortunately ours was the only 'old' car at this meeting, so despite the great lap times we weren't very competitive.

Sunday was better with two more 9th place finishes and another personal best of 1:22.4743 in race 3 - only 2/10ths of a second slower than some of the new model cars which is a good achievement. I got very close to being in a passing position several times but couldn't quite make it 'stick'.

All things considered we were quite happy with this meeting, and looking forward to mixing it with the faster competitors at the next state meeting!

Bathurst 2009 & SA State Championship round 2 at Mallala, 2-3 May 2009

We had another great experience at Mt Panorama on 20-22 February 2009. It was amazing to have the chance to race there once in 2008, and fantastic to have the opportunity to race there a second time in 2009.

This year we are allowed to use the 17" wheels and tyres on our older model car. We are also using E85 fuel which is 85% ethanol and gives the horsepower of expensive racing fuels for a fraction of the price. These two changes (coupled with 12 months more experience driving) resulted in lap times almost 4 seconds faster than 2008.

In practice I was 36th out of 51 competitors with a best lap time of 2:53.9331, and I qualified 41st with a time of 2:56.6296 early in the session before damaging the car by side-swiping the wall at Forrest Elbow. A few hours of repairs were needed to patch up the right front suspension for the races the next day.

I finished race 1 in 38th place, setting a best lap time of 2:51.7163 in the process. Race 2 was even better with a 36th placing and lap time of 2:51.1286. I finished the weekend by volunteering for flag marshall duties during the 12-hour race on Sunday. I had a good spot on Conrod Straight and saw some good racing.

After this event we flew from Sydney to Argentina for a 3-week holiday. Unfortunately we missed round 1 of the SA State Championships while we were away.

We headed back to Mallala for round 2 of the state series on 2-3 May 2009. I was more excited than usual about this meeting, as it was the first time to try the 'new improved' VN Commodore at our home track.

The lap times lived up to the hype: most of the weekend I was doing 1:23s, including one race where every lap was a 1:23.2. I finished 4th out of 5 cars in qualifying and all 5 races. This was the first time I had managed to beat Scott Clements' time in my car from last year, although of course the car is a bit better than it was 12 months ago.

Shannons Nationals Round 10 – 28 – 30 November 2008

After the success of the last 2 rounds at Mallala, we made a last-minute decision to head over to Melbourne for the final round of the Shannons Nationals for 2008.

It was a challenging weekend – ours was the only old car competing, and I was having some previously-undiscovered problems with 5th gear (we don’t get past 4th at Mallala, but at Sandown I was using 5th gear twice every lap). This resulted in problems with both top-end horsepower and gear changes. The Sandown track is also quite difficult for newcomers so I spent the weekend working hard at figuring out the circuit.

Despite all that, I was able to knock almost 2 seconds off my lap time from the last time I was there in 2006. I finished pretty much last for the weekend, although I did manage to beat Mark Pilatti in a VT Commodore in the last race.

It was a fun trip and a good chance to socialise with some of the Victorian drivers. It was also a great learning experience – even though the races were difficult, I came back to Adelaide with some valuable experience.

Thanks to everyone for your support in 2008 and we look forward to getting back on the track in 2009! Our next meeting is Round 1 of the Shannons Nationals at Mt Panorama, Bathurst on February 20 – 22 2009. We will unfortunately have to miss round 1 of the SA State Championship as we will be overseas for a few weeks, but we will be back for round 2.

Happy holidays and see you all next year :o)