For Murray O’Connor and his Carbon Central Network-supported XM Falcon, it has been a season in which the team has struggled to find the tuning sweet spot.
That was however, until the last meeting of the season, where the most unique Top Doorslammer in the country set personal best times.
A candid O’Connor was deadly honest in his assessment of his team’s performance.
“It’s been a frustrating season of racing with not enough positive results.
“The decision was made to change the rear suspension in the car. Our Falcon was originally constructed with a ladder bar type suspension, however this was proving to be very inconsistent, especially as we made more power and started to feed it into the car.
The team went into action immediately following the Westernationals, where they started the task of procuring the necessary components to reconstruct the rear suspension and a week later began the huge task of fitting it all up.
O’Connor, who looked relieved with the results the team managed to achieve reflected on the rush to get the car to the meeting.
With work on the Falcon only finished at midnight on Friday, the team was anxious but excited at the prospect of Saturday’s first round of qualifying.
“We were pretty confident with the base set-up in the car,” said O’Connor with a smile.
“We managed a 6.2-second pass with a hint of tyre shake and a .1 second pedal, which was proof that we where heading in the right direction.
O’Connor smiled as he explained the highlight of the season so far.
“The six o’clock compulsory qualifier had us taking just a little power out of the engine and gave the team an outstanding 6.003-second pass at 241mph. It was smiles all round.”
The team backed up the performance by making a few small adjustments, which resulted in another promising pass with a 6.02 elapsed time and a berth in the finals.
The end result was a very happy driver and crew with and a Penrite protected XM Falcon ready to take on a new season.
O’Connor Motorsport would like to thank Carbon Central Network, West Coast Siteworks, Penrite Oils, Dananni Haulage, YBI Creative, all the O’Connor Motorsport crew and all the team’s supporters for their help this season at the Perth Motorplex.
