By Daniel Powell
After fourteen Rounds of racing action around the nation, Bryan Mann closed out his 2009/10 Performance Wholesale World Series Sprintcars Championship campaign with a ninth place finish in last Saturday night’s Series Finale at the Perth Motorplex, earning himself enough points to hold on to eighth place in the final Drivers Championship standings.
In just his second full season as a Series contracted driver, Bryan ran as high as fifth on the points ladder for much of the first two thirds of the Championship before slipping in points through the final few Rounds. However Bryan and the Performance Wholesale Motorsport team are satisfied with how the Championship eventually panned out for them, preferring to take all the positives out of the Series rather than dwelling on a couple of “what if’s” that had a substantial bearing on their Championship points chase.
“Ticking boxes, that’s what we’ve been concentrating on and that’s what we’ve been doing.” is how Bryan summed up the team’s Championship assault with the #16 Capalaba Wreckers/Qld Speedway Spares J&J.
“We had a lot of confidence going into the Series after winning a couple of races at home in Qld early in the season and I think the first part of the Series showed that. There’s no doubt that World Series is a tough thing to do, it does wear you out a bit especially if results don’t go your way but it also makes you a better racer and it helps the whole team become stronger and more in tune with how to get the best out of these race cars.”
“The Round in Toowoomba last month was probably a bit of a turning point for us, we failed to finish the Feature there and then we tore up the following weekend at Parramatta.” Bryan explained. “From there we struggled a bit with the car after it was repaired so we elected to put a new one together and got things heading back in the right direction again but unfortunately we got caught up in an incident at the Sprintcar Nationals in Adelaide and did some damage to that car as well.”
“We ran the J&J we started the Series with for the final few races over in the West and brought it home in the top ten the final night in Perth which kept us eighth in Driver points and I think we might have finished ninth in Car Owner points. Drew (Gessner – Crew Chief) and the boys have done a great job for us so far this season, they’ve been working really hard on the cars and covering a lot of miles in the truck, it’s not an easy job to do week in and week out.”
Bryan’s goal with the team for World Series this season was to qualify for as many A-Mains as possible and bring the car home consistently in the top ten, something they have achieved fairly well. From seventeen nights of racing across the fourteen Rounds of the Performance Wholesale World Series Sprintcars Championship, Bryan qualified for eleven of the fourteen A-Main events plus two Preliminary Features, posted five top ten finishes and failed to complete the distance on only two occasions, amassing a total 1872 points along the way.
“Yeah, for sure that’s what we wanted to do; keep making A-Mains and aim for some consistent results, they’re the boxes we wanted to tick as much as we could this season. Being out on the road and racing against guys like Brooke Tatnell, Max Dumesny and Robbie Farr each week plus the American drivers like Jason Johnson and Danny Smith you get to see what’s needed to get to their level and how long it takes to get there.”
Although the Performance Wholesale World Series Sprintcars Championship has been decided for the 2009/10 season, Bryan’s western swing is not yet over with the Hydraulink Southern Thunder Sprintcar Series at the Collie Speedway on the team’s schedule this coming Saturday night.
Bryan also returns to Perth the following weekend for the King Of Wings event at the Motorplex on February 19/20 and the Krikke Boys race at Bunbury Speedway on Saturday night February 27 before his Qld schedule resumes with Round 8 of the Qld Speedway Spares Series at Brisbane International Speedway on March 6.
For additional news and information on Bryan and the Performance Wholesale Motorsport team, we invite you to visit the team’s online presence at www.performancewholesalemotorsport.com
Performance Wholesale Motorsport Team Partner And Supporters:
– Capalaba Wreckers
– Redline Oil
– Qld Speedway Spares
– Performance Wholesale Australia
– X-Static Balancing
– P&M Body Works
– Oval Express
– Jacks Bar Pittsburg