VAN BREMEN RACING NOT SHORT OF DRAMA AT HEARTLAND
13/11/2006 - MVB Racing

A split oil tank during heat racing at Moama's Heartland Raceway in the second round of the SRA Super Sprint Series on Saturday night (November 11) saw the Mike Van Bremen Racing team face a number of dilemmas, but the final result in the 25-lap main event was enough for ‘The Flying Dutchman' to have a smile on his dial.

The Action Blast Cleaning / CSR Methanol V#6 Maxim Sprintcar crossed the line in fourth position in the A-Main event and it is a result Van Bremen says had an element of luck to it, with a risk being taken by the team before the feature race.

“In the heats, we had an oil leak from the engine, we had a split tank and as most people could see, we were releasing a fair bit of smoke,” said Van Bremen. “It was leaking quite badly and I was concerned that if the feature race had a few stoppages, we would not finish.”

The MVB Racing team qualified second highest on points after the heats - even with the split oil tank - and they had an important decision to make leading up to the top six time trial, as Van Bremen explains.

“The dilemma we had is we could have changed engines and put our smaller one in, but because of the wet weather on the way the program was getting hurried along,” Van Bremen said. “We could have forfeited the top six time trial to put the motor in and start the final in sixth and be confident of actually finishing the race.

“However it wasn't guaranteed we would have the motor placed in the car and be ready to go racing when they called us up for the final,” he added. “It was too much of a risk and if we had of decided to change motors and not make it to the starting grid on time, it wouldn't have been nice on our points tally.”

In order to compete in the top six-time trial and A-Main, the team turned its attention to minimising the oil leakage with some bandaid measures including using plastic and other materials to rap around the split in the oil tank. With the focus solely on this, the car failed to receive the consideration it needed for it to be set-up appropriately for the changing surface of Heartland Raceway.

“Consequently, because we were fixing the oil tank, we only got the car half set-up and it wasn't right where we wanted it to be for the final. If the car was set-up, we could have done much better,” explained Van Bremen.

On the best track Heartland Raceway has produced, Van Bremen started the Action Blast Cleaning / CSR Methanol V#6 Maxim from fifth position. It was vital that stoppages was kept to a minimum for Van Bremen to complete the 25-lap journey and fortunately, just one stoppage occurred on lap 15 and Van Bremen was able to finish in fourth place.

Just before the yellow light period with 10 laps remaining, Van Bremen was chasing down third placed Brett Milburn via the highline and with minimal set-up work done prior to the final, the Maxim was working well with Van Bremen looking to mount a passing move that could have given him a podium result.

Earlier in the evening Van Bremen took a heat race victory and in doing so he also set the quickest lap of the night, 14.003 seconds. This lap had an average speed of 133 kilometres and as the night progressed, the track slowed down to turn into a multi groove racing surface that Van Bremen describes as the best yet at Heartland Raceway.

“It was easily the best track Moama has produced in my opinion,” he said. “The highline was superb in the final and you could do slide jobs, drift high and catch the cushion. It was an enjoyable track to race on and probably the reason why there was just one stoppage.”

Saturday night's A Main was the first feature race Van Bremen has contested this season and he says he is not driving as smoothly as he would like to in this early part of the Sprintcar season. Nevertheless, Van Bremen is currently placed third on the overall ladder of the SRA Super Sprint Series and with the next round at Sungold Stadium-Premier Speedway on November 25 he is keen to make further inroads in the points chase.

“We'll fix the big Maxwill engine up during the week by welding the oil tank together again and at this stage we will probably use it for Warrnambool. I'm really hoping the track can be fast and hooky at Warrnambool, so hopefully it's a cold night with plenty of moisture in the surface,” concluded ‘The Flying Dutchman'.

The MVB Racing team would like to thank the following sponsors for season 2006-2007:
Action Blast Cleaning
CSR Methanol
Wholesale Automatics
National Rod Ends
Speedway Motors Australia
www.sprintcarworld.com.au