By Daniel Powell
There were plenty of positives to come from Danny Reidy’s Christmas / New Year campaign over the World Series Sprintcar (WSS) Championship, but unfortunately there were not the results to reflect it.
On two separate occasions Reidy was denied podium finishes in the harshest of circumstances. In the seventh round of WSS Championship at Mt. Gambier’s Borderline Speedway in South Australia he was running strongly in third place only to have a lapped car in the closing laps spin in front of him and this saw him forced to flick the car sideways in order to avoid a collision. As a result of those actions Reidy lost two spots on the track and finished back in fifth. The second occasion Reidy had another probable podium finish, if not potentially a victory, taken away from him on New Year’s Day at Warrnambool’s Premier Speedway. After he had started from position four in the field, Reidy had quickly moved into second place behind leader Jason Johnson. He was chasing after a US import quite impressively only to suffer an engine problem and be forced to retire.
“When we qualified strongly we were right up and I guess that is a reflection of how important it [qualifying] is in such a tough competition such as World Series,” commented the NT # 5 Desert Palms Resort supported Eagle driver. “We were denied two potential podium finishes and although it is both disappointing and frustrating it’s comforting to know that we have the speed and all we need now is a bit of luck.”
Aside from those two performances over the Christmas / New Year period, Reidy had a 10th place finish during the Avalon Raceway round and then failed to advance into the feature race line-up out of the B-main at both the Speedway City and Murray Bridge Speedway rounds. On both occasions where he had failed to qualify into the feature race there was a touch of misfortune. At Speedway City he had collided with another car that put him out of the running, while at Murray Bridge round he was in a transfer spot only to make a mistake and spin out of contention in the later stages.
Due to amount of wet weather in Queensland recently, the WSS Championship rounds at Brisbane International Speedway over the weekend were postponed despite numerous attempts to get the race meetings run.
This Wednesday night (January 12) Reidy will contest the inaugural Mildura Sprintcar Scorcher event at Mildura’s Timmis Speedway in Victoria before taking part in the resumption of the WSS Championship on Friday night (January 14) at Murray Bridge Speedway and then Saturday night (January 15) at Speedway City in South Australia.
The current WSS Championship standings have Reidy sitting in ninth with a total of 1734 points.
Reidy would like to thank Desert Palms Resort in Alice Springs, Camden Neon Signs, P & M Motor Body Repairs, Gonzo’s Race Pipes and Inglis Race Engines for all their support throughout the 2010/11 season.
The official Danny Reidy website can be viewed at: www.dannyreidy.com