The Eagle Ignition Team was back in action last Saturday night (February 20) at the Brisbane International Speedway as they contested round 7 of the QSS Series. Following a rain out the week prior in Sydney Ricky and the team were eager to get back to their home track and despite a set back mid way through the A-Main it proved to another competitive outing as Ricky finished the night in seventh position.

“It was not a bad night in the end for Ricky and the Eagle Ignition team. We qualified straight into the A main in tenth spot and managed to finish in seventh” commented Peter Mitchell at the completion of the night.

A total of 30 cars fronted for round seven of the QSS series with the format for the event including time trials, two heat races per car, and the B and A mains. Time trials were conducted during the hot lap sessions and with the recent rain in Brisbane the later sessions proved to be the ones to be in as the track was extremely heavy early. Ricky was in the third of the six groups and he produced a terrific time of 12.490 to time in tenth.


After starting his opening heat in fifth Ricky was involved in an early race incident and as a result the #19 Cheetah sustained some minor damage. “We had nowhere to go when a car rolled in front of me through turn four. I was determined to keep the car going so as not to go to the rear. Unfortunately the front wing was flattened on the car and the left front torsion bar tube had been pushed back and it jammed the torsion bar” added Ricky.

Following the incident he dropped back to sixth with an ill handling car, however after a couple of laps he worked out the quickest way round and he clawed his way back to a valuable fourth place finish. During the break between heats the team replaced the front wing and corrected the torsion tube the best they could. Ricky then went on to finish sixth in his second preliminary heat.

When his qualifying and heat performances were tallied his results qualified him straight into the A-Main. After starting from position ten Ricky drove a great race working his way up to sixth before a spinning car left him with no where to go and he stopped on the race track to avoid damage. As a result he was sent to the rear of the field, which was at that stage fourteenth. Once the race got back underway Ricky fought his way back to a very credible seventh place at the finish.

"The team did a great job tonight getting the car back to somewhere close after the incident early in the night. It was just unfortunate that we had to stop to avoid the spun car and start our run all over again. We look forward to Brisbane again on the 20th March" added Ricky as he reflected on his night’s performance.

The Mitchell Motorsport Team would like to thank the following corporate partners for their association with the 2009/10 Sprintcar season:

• Eagle Ignition Leads
• Wesfil Filters
• Penrite Oils
• Performance Wholesale
• Dayco
• Phil Michell Motorsport Media