2009 Awards Dinner

Well last Saturday was the 2009 Awards Dinner and a final chance for the teams to get together this year and receive any awards they had won. I will be doing a full article on this on the main news page and should also have the photos up by tonight but i just wanted to do a quick entry here to say a personal Well Done and Congratulations to Barry Fishburn our spotter who won the Spotter of the year award. If anybody who goes to Rockingham has not heard him yet then you must try and get access to a scanner and have a listen as it can be quite entertaining at times. I am going to attatch a small recording of Barry in action to this entry. Well Done Barry!

2009 Season Over & Done

Best blow away the dust and cobwebs, did not realise i had not posted here since September. Well the 2009 season is now finished and the final standings are available on the race dates page of the site. I have to say that after the first race at Brands Hatch today myself i was quietly concerned that any further issues like that of race 1 then we would lose our 3rd Place in the Championship to Stevie (Dance), But i had not even considered what happened in the second race could of happened, For Whatever the reason, Phil (White) did not finish the second race whilst we managed a 3rd, Suddenly things had turned around we found ourselves finishing the championship in 2nd Place behind Pete Stevens, And Phil being relegated to 4th with Stevie Dance moving up to 3rd. Well i would not of predicted that!!! SO after a long and hard season which has been fraught with Highs and Lows, Like other's we have had our share of bad luck but as a team we are more than happy with our final championship position, And Michael has enough to be pleased about, 1 Fastest Lap, 2 Fastest Qualifying Sessions, 3 Wins, 1 Second & 2 Thirds! All in all i feel that is a pretty good season and is testament to all of the hard work that everybody involved at Smith Motorsport puts into making this happen. Finally i would like to say Congratulations to Pete Stevens 2009 Oval and overall Championship winner, Steve Dance who has been very quick all season and finished 3rd, And Commiserations to Phil White who missed out on 3rd in the championship at the very last hurdle. Last but not least, Congratulations and well done to all involved with Smith Motorsport!!!!

Oval Championship

Well that's the Oval Championship decided and what an excellent day of racing it provided. The day started off with qualifying and everything seemed to be routine until the first session was red flagged due to Steve Pearce in the #29 truck losing the rear end and ending up in the wall on the exit to turn 4, Qualifying resumed when the truck and debris was removed from the circuit and continued without further incident. We were happy with our qualifying and did not feel the need to change anything for the race. Race 1 got underway with Carl Boardley & John Mickel on the front row leading the pack through turn 1, By the end of the first lap Antony Hawkins had moved into the lead followed closely by Nic Grindrod, Pete Stevens and the rest of the pack. By the end of the second Lap Nic Grindrod had moved into the lead but before this lap was over Phil White had moved from 3rd to 1st which he held onto for a couple of laps before Michael Smith moved into the lead for a lap, The hard charging Phil White retook the lead from Michael and held onto it for about 8 laps and once again passed by Michael Smith, Once again this lasted one lap before Phil resumed the lead. Michael And Phil once again swapped positions only for them to swap back again! On lap 25 Pete Stevens in his #4 truck decided he wanted to be in on the action and took the lead from Phil, This was only to be short lived for 2 laps as Phil White took his lead back until lap 33 when Pete Stevens who was 5 points ahead in the Oval Championship passed Phil again determined not to let him gain any ground in the championship. Unfortunately for Pete, Phil was determined to keep hold of his lead and passed him again and took the chequered flag in what was one of, If not the best Oval race of the season so far. with the first 8 cars crossing the line within 3 seconds of each other.

Race 2 started with Phil and Pete tied in the Oval Championship standings with this race deciding the champion it did not disappoint. Nic Grindrod led the proceedings for the first 2 Laps as Phil began to climb up the positions and Pete slowly slipping down them, by the end of lap 3 Phil had taken the lead which he held onto until lap 12 when he was passed by Nic Grindrod and Pete Stevens who carved his way back through the pack,this lasted 2 laps before Phil retook the lead and Pete was pushed back down to 7th. At this point on lap 15 the top 10 cars were all within 1.5 seconds of each other and providing so spectacular close racing with plenty of position changes. On Lap 16 Gavin Seager managed to pass Phil and proceeded to pull away from the chasing pack. By Lap 20 Phil was down to third but Pete was still back down in 7th, fast forward to lap 32 and Phil was second with Pete still down in 7th it would seem Phil was going to take the oval championship But, This being Rockingham nothing can be predicted and within 1 lap Pete had jumped up to 3rd and Phil moved down to 6th, at the start of the final lap Pete was 3rd and Phil still was in 6th, Both drivers were charging hard and Phil had managed to catch Pete by the entry to turn 3 and both drivers charged on towards 4 but Pete managed to hold off the challenge from Phil and take the Rockingham Oval championship in a race that Surpassed the first race in terms of position changes and great close racing, This truly was the race of the year! In the Pit lane Nic Grindrod climbed from his truck with a smile so wide it would normally be reserved for a victory, He was truly impressed with the level of racing and this showed on his face, Well Done Pete and commiserations to Phil.

Final Rockingham

Well just over 1 week to go until the final Rockingham of the season and for the Oval championship to be decided. Phil White & Pete Stevens have 1125 & 1130 points respectively and then there is Simon Carr with 1060 and Antony Hawkins with 1035, I imagine as always all of the drivers will be battling hard especially with one of the titles up for grabs. No fresh news from our garage, we are all ready for Rockingham, Truck is setup and scaled off the only thing we have to do is load up. Well i imagine this will be the last post before Rockingham so see you all there!

Oulton Race Update

The day started out very wet and it looked like we were going to be in for wet races, Qualifying was just after 10AM so we set about changing tires to suit the conditions, spanner checking the truck and giving it a final clean. Michael went onto the circuit for qualifying which was wet to say the least and proceeded to set some lap times, first lap was off the pace but as Michael set more laps he was getting quicker, he completed a total of 7 laps and ended up starting the first race in 11th and the second race on Pole. By the time we were ready to go out for race 1 the circuit had dried out but as they all assembled in pit lane it started to drizzle again and it seemed the possibility of rain was upon us again, The weather soon passed and the trucks rolled out onto the grid. No race is easy but this seemed more difficult by having Phil White, Pete Stevens, Nic Grindrod and more ahead of us. Race seemed to start well and the truck felt good but an incident on lap 2 which resulted in Michael going off track dropped him to 17th, The next 14 laps Michael battled really hard to try and work his way back up the grid and finished the race in 7th position, Nic Grindrod took the win in a very good race. The Team worked on repairing the damage picked up in race 1 so that we would be ready for another strong race late in the afternoon. We Started race 2 on pole with Paul Saunders alongside, Steve Dance on the row behind and Gavin on the 3rd row this was once again going to be a difficult race, Pace truck pulled off and the race was on for the first corner, Paul Saunders followed us in very closely but Michael managed to hold off his charge, This was to be the story for the rest of the race, From the start to the finish Paul Saunders pushed so hard challenging constantly for the lead in what was to be an excellent and cleanly fought race, As the chequered flag dropped Michael crossed the line followed closely by Paul Saunders and Mark Jones who had also had an excellent day of racing.

Rockingham over & on to Oulton

Well what can i say? Things seemed to start so well at the Rock, fastest in qualifying, the truck so i am told felt great, not too bad in the first race taking into account that the first 9 crossed the line within 1.4 seconds, then the second race came and we were very strong then on lap 5 (i think) we got a nudge off Pete Stevens and it all seemed downhill from there, This week we have scaled the truck off from the Rock, stripped it down and identfied a problem that hindered us at the weekend, SO now that we have put that one to bed we moved onto the Circuit truck ready for Oulton, We started to work on the set up and have a couple of things left to finish off such as scaling the truck ready for the meeting. Well thats all for now. Thanks for Reading

Ready for Silverstone

Well Silverstone is looming on the horizon, little over a week away now and the Truck is all set up and sorted. We are looking forward to this meeting as i am sure other teams also are being that it is a circuit we have not raced at before. Hopefully we can have a strong showing at the meeting but i am sure there will be familiar faces at or near the top, Certainly one to watch out for will be Steve Dance, It would appear no amount of ballast can slow him down so this has taken me to put my imagination into overdrive on how to slow him down, maybe replace the ballast with an anchor of the same weight dragging behind his Truck, If anybody has any better suggestion feel free to leave a comment below, If nothing else it will give me a laugh, So please all comments below. See you all at Silverstone.

Late Post

Well i guess this post is slightly overdue! The last post was of the new engine and since then it has been fitted and won a race! So im guessing i need to be posting here more often, Cannot really keep posting about building a second truck which is built so i guess this blog now becomes about the Smith Motorsport team itself. So i will endeavour to make more regular posts about the team and what's happening here. Well i guess i can start that now, Rockingham coming up this weekend and we should be finished off and ready tonight, Put the truck on the scales, Make sure the wagon is all packed up with everything we need ready to load up for when we leave. I think this could be an interesting weekend with Ourselves, Steve Dance, Simon Carr and Gavin Seager all carrying success ballast from Brands Hatch, It will certainly be interesting to see what effect it has on performance. Well thats about it for now but i will endeavour to make a post over the weekend.

ENGINE!!!!!!

New Week & New Post, We picked up the new engine from B&J Race Engines on Saturday afternoon and fitted it on sunday. The Engine went straight in and fired up straight away with no issues at all, Not that we expected any from a new engine but i have known stranger things to happen! So i have put a couple of pictures here from when we got it back on Saturday. Well my next post which will be in a couple of days will be the truck with all the graphics on and ready to go so check back soon. Thanks for reading.

Finally, A New Entry!

Well no pictures this week, Thought i best post something up as it has once again been a very long while since i posted here. Well as far as i am aware the panels are all to be fitted over the coming days, We sprayed them over the weekend and i have to say they are looking nice, And as soon as they are fitted and have all the graphics on then i will be putting the pictures up here so watch this space for the new pictures. Thanks for reading.

Another Week, Another Entry!

Another week another blog entry, Well the truck is now on wheels, fire extinguisher is fitted and the dash switch panel has been fitted. We are awaiting the seat which is coming from the States along with the new helmet which is currently being painted by Beam Designs who are a leading helmet painter in the states and paint the vast majority of helmets for Nascar drivers. We are awaiting oil lines then the truck is ready for the engine and drive train. All of the body panels are in the body shop and should be back with us soon, We have decided that the new chassis will be the Rockingham Truck and the old chassis will be the Circuit Truck. As per usual i have included a few pictures, Thanks for stopping by.

A Little More Done!

Sorry about the time between the last post and now, Not quite been every week but hopefully we're back on track, So we have had a little progress along the lines of Starting to put in the oil lines, We have fitted the dashboard and all the wiring behind it, We have gotten further with the steering and the coil is on. We also have 1 engine currently with B&J Race Engines and another ready to go to B&J. 7 weeks to the start of the season and it still feels forever away, At present we have 2 trucks in pieces, 1 engine not back and 1 still to go, it's amazing to think that in 7 weeks both trucks will be finished, both engines will be fully finished and fitted and that we will be at Brands Hatch. Well that's about it for this post, If there is any specific thing you would like me to take a pic of or anything you would like to know more about then feel free to email me (Mark) from the contact page on the website, Thanks for reading.

A Little Progress

Well we have had a little progress on the build, We spent some time in the garage and we have got the the front corners built up to the extent of Wishbones, Suspension and brakes. To the rear we have the axle in, Suspension and brakes. We also have the fuel pump on, The oil tank in, and made a start on the wiring harness. I will include some pictures here so you can see our progress. Check back soon for more updates.

New Parts!!

Finally, new parts for the 2nd truck arrived yesterday so it was like christmas day in the garage last night, Tearing everything open, checking them all, then putting them away to put on the truck as and when we reach each stage in the build, So i took some pics of the bits and pieces before they go on the Truck, then we will have pics when they are fitted.

The Start

Well i realised it would be a good idea to post a picture before we started on this project so all going well it should appear here, I decided on this pic as it shows what it is now and what it is going to become, So all pictures from now on should show progress on the chassis in some way, shape or form. Stop by again soon for more updates.

Pickup Build

Well there is going to be no building happening on the new truck this weekend, It is that time of the year again (Autosport Show) So it is going to be a weekend away from the garage and off to Birmingham, We will be bringing you an update with pics on the build next week, Stop by again to check for updates.

New Blog

We aim to provide updates on this new build as often as possible including the pictures, Please Check back regularly to see the progress.