2013, and the championship that wasn't.

It’s been rather an eventful end to the 2013 season. I thought I would try to do the right thing and get out to a couple of practice days before round 4 on Saturday 2 November. We took the car out to Mallala on Saturday 26 October and broke the gearbox, diff housing, and blew a head gasket.

Tried again on Friday 1 November and the car started running like a hairy goat. Craig was tearing his hair out and replaced all the usual culprits like coil pack, crank angle sensor, and throttle position sensor... then on race morning discovered a loose earth wire under the dash. Problem solved. 

With these problems behind us, the car didn’t miss a beat all day. I qualified 3rd outright, which was 1st in class, and finished in the same position in all 3 races - 4th outright, 2nd in the early model cars. That was enough to clinch the 2013 state championship. Or so we thought, according to the points that were published online all year during the series.

A rule change this year meant the final results were recounted and reallocated after the racing was over, and I finished 2nd in the SA Championship instead of 1st. I didn't find out about this until a week after round 4. To say it's been a depressing experience is an understatement - I think this is how it would feel to marry Patrick Dempsey and then have him run off with his blonde secretary a week later. I still finished with the highest points overall out of the 15 competitors who took part, so I think that's an achievement to feel proud of. Congratulations to Mark Bryan for taking out the championship & Peter Holmes for finishing 3rd overall.

On the up side, this is my equal best result in the South Australian Saloon Car Championship. In any other circumstances I would have been very happy with it. We will put this behind us and move on to better things in 2014. The new VT is slowly starting to take shape and both Craig & I are keen to get it happening.

The Australian Saloon Car Series 2013 points have also been finalised. I finished in 35th place out of 47 cars. As I only competed in one round, I’m quite happy with that result.

Here's a short video from race 2, round 4:

As always, stay up to date on the Naomi Maltby - Saloon Car SA 91 Facebook page. See you again in 2014!