Darren Parker had a successful Western Nationals in Perth and he is hoping that his good luck continues this coming weekend in Sydney.
Making it to the Super Stock final in Perth, Parker lost a tough race against G/GA racer Colin Mortimore, there was drama earlier in the day that made even making the final an achievement.
“We qualified well in 7th position running 7.457sec (0.002sec over the national B/APA record); however during the warm-up on Sunday afternoon before eliminations we found the transbrake solenoid in the Pontiac GXP had fried itself and left me with no reverse gear and no transbrake to launch off,” Parker said.
Making the decision to ‘foot brake’ the car, Parker was going to be happy to get through Round 1 knowing it would take some ET out of the car not being able to launch as well as it normally could.
“Well, three rounds later in the final of the Western Nationals, who was I to complain,” said Parker. “My driving style had to be adjusted to launch off the foot brake, but I treated it as a clutch pedal and remembered the days racing Super Street in my old VP Commodore and it all came together.”
“The only problem was getting enough heat into the tyres as I couldn’t cross the start line with no reverse gear,” said Parker “With short, sharp burnouts I didn’t get enough heat into the tyres in the final round and suffered a lot of wheelspin when I left the line.”
A very slow reaction time in the final and the GXP couldn’t catch Mortimore’s Cutlass, but did reset the speed record to 182.92mph on that pass.
With the transbrake solenoid replaced, engine serviced and ready to go racing Parker is heading up to Sydney confident of a strong result. The Super Stock field this weekend is looking very tough with a large handful of cars capable of running well under their records. With cooler conditions and a well prepared track Darren is hoping to lower his PB and go a few rounds of racing scoring some points in the Australian Super Stock Championship.
Darren would like to thank the following people for their on going support of his racing efforts;
Peter Ridgeway and Arthur Sagiaris (Custom Engines).
Neil Hendry at Cryogen Industries
Nick Xerakias (ERC Fuel)
Paul Rogers Snr and Matt Ramsay.
For some history on the build of the GXP or just to follow Darren and his efforts on the track you can follow his blog at Darren Parker Blog Link where you will be kept up to date with the latest news out of the Parker Motorsport Engineering GXP Camp.
