By Daniel Powell
A mechanical failure unfortunately denied Cameron Gessner of a solid feature race result in last weekend’s $10,000 to Win Australian Sprintcar Open at Brisbane International Speedway.
After he had made a solid start in the 40-lap feature race from his position nine starting spot in the field, but it all came unraveled by the 10th lap when his right front torsion arm parted ways with the QLD # 68 Metalcorp / AUS Fuel supported J&J. After running a further 20 laps with the damaged car, he continued on before he retreated to the infield.
“Off the start my car felt great and I moved inside the Top 5 quite quickly and I was confident that we were going to be in with a good shot of winning,” commented Gessner. “On the restart after 10 laps the car just went off and I battled from there onwards, as I was unable to run where I had run on the track previously.”
Gessner retreated to the infield and once he came out of his car, he discovered that his right front torsion arm had departed from the car, much to his amazement.
“I was shocked that I had been able to continue in the car for as long as I did,” he admitted. “After the race meeting I went back out onto the track to look for the torsion arm and managed to locate it, but I still couldn’t believe what had happened and it was no wonder the car handled so badly. I think that the damage had occurred over time due to the two crashes that we had suffered from the previous weekend”
Earlier in the night, Gessner had qualified 13th in time trials, followed by a victory and a second place in his two heat races, and then earned his feature race starting spot via a third place finish in Dash 2.
In what is going to be their final appearance of the 2010/11 season, Gessner and the CG Motorsport team will hit the track this Saturday night (May 7) at Brisbane International Speedway for the annual Crispy Memorial. Gessner is shooting for his fourth victory in succession of the $5,000 to win event.
“It was a disappointing weekend, but we knew what went wrong with the torsion arm breaking and it was as a result of running the past couple of race meeting on rough track,” said CG Motorsport car owner, Peter Green. “We’re all looking forward to this weekend and we’re confident that we can continue our dominance in the Crispy Memorial and finish the season on a high.”
For the 2010/11 season Gessner and the CG Motorsport team are proudly supported by Metalcorp, AUS Fuel, Titan Plant Hire, TC Drainage, Centastate Civil Contracting, Direct Haul, QLD Speedway Spares, Greenies Tippers, NRW Civil & Mining, Action Drill & Blast, and Inglis Race Engines.