SCSA Stock Cars Season Review 2005

2005

At the beginning of April 2005 Duncan was approached by Team Catchpole owner Mr Phill Weaver with an offer to drive the teams second car in the SCSA (Days of Thunder) Championship. Duncan gladly accepted Phill Weavers offer and was reunited with the blue and yellow Team Catchpole car at the SCSA (Days of Thunder) press launch in April 2005.

Duncan's First race in the car was on the 1st May 2005 and with limited finance Duncan's first opportunity to get back behind the wheel. As the car went out to qualify and as you would expect in a cars first outing, a few minor problem's where found, hindering both Duncan's qualifying times and track time. Never the less the Team Catchpole mechanic's worked hard on the car and had things fixed by the time of the first race on Sunday Morning.

May 1st - Race 1

With the atmosphere buzzing the customary 'Gentleman Start Your Engines" was announced. The ground shook as all the V8 Chevy's engines fired up. Duncan had taken his place on the starting grid for the new 2005 season!

The race started with an incident on the very first lap. Fortunately Duncan was able to avoid 2 spinning cars and continue on. By half distance Duncan had worked his way up from 21st to 15th and was continuing to move up the order. By half distance the cars were ready to enter the pits for the compulsory tyre change. As Duncan pulled up into his pit box the team catchpole guys set about changing Duncan' s tyres which, incidentally, were last October's and not brand new like most of the other teams. The Team Catchpole lads did Duncan proud and changed his tyres so quickly, he managed to pick up another couple of positions, atruly great job. As Duncan left the pits he got straight on with the job of reeling in the cars ahead of him, which he did, over taking his team mate in the process. As Duncan took the chequered flag he had made his way up to a 10th place, which considering his time in the car, old tyres and no testing, made the Team and Phill Weaver absolutely delighted.

May 1st - Race 2

Duncan was starting this race from 10th and was really looking forward to this race as he said before the start "The car was feeling great and the was doing a great job"

As the cars all went out and lined up again behind the pace car for the 5 pace laps all was looking good for Duncan, but as the car started their last lap behind the pace car Duncan received a message from his pit crew "Duncan you will have to come in its been reported that there is oil or something coming out the back of your car". Duncan then had to peel away from the line up and head straight back into the pits. He pulled in and stopped in his pit box, one of the crew members climbed under the race car to investigate and Duncan was then told over his radio "Sorry Duncan your race is over, the differential is leaking oil" The Team didtheir best to fix the leak but to no avail.

June 5th - Race 1

Duncan had not had much time in the car since his last race in May, but he now had the assistance of ex Nascar Driver from the USA Mr Ron Barfield. Duncan's race car had been set-up totally different than before, so as Duncan went out he was told "take it easy and get used to it before you start to really push"

Duncan did just that and dropped back a little at the start of the race to give himself the chance to see how the car was going to feel. By lap 3 Duncan radioed "the car was a little lose at first but its feeling better now" to which the reply came back from the pits "OK lets start picking up the pace then".

Duncan caught up Mr Tony King very quickly and was about to go around the outside of him when all hell broke lose. Tony King's engine blew up and put Tony spinning directly in front of a helpless Duncan who had know where to go. Duncan hit Tony Kings car at over 150mph and then flew into the air backwards into the wall. Both cars were badly damaged and were out for the weekend.