Last Saturday night Ricky Mitchell fought back from a first heat crash to finish inside the top ten in the latest round of the Queensland Speedway Spares Series at the Brisbane International Speedway. After being out of the race car for close to a month, and the fact he dropped a heat along the way, a ninth placed finish against the field of 26 cars was an encouraging result as the Penrite Oils / Eagle Ignition Leads supported team prepares for three big nights of racing in the next two weeks.

The format for the event last weekend saw an opening round draw with a complete invert for round two, with Ricky starting from position four in his first heat and from six in his second. After the initial start of Ricky’s first heat was called back the second attempt saw Ricky involved in an argument over territory in turns one and two with Ricky ending upside down and out of the race. “That was not quite the way we wanted to start the night. To drop your front of the field start really makes it hard for the rest of the night” said team owner Peter Mitchell.

Luckily most of the damage was relatively easy to fix, with very little damage other than both wings and the rear nerf bar. However, the team was concerned with the fuel tank which had pulled out both of the bottom anchor points. After some hasty repairs, with a few ratchet straps, Ricky was back out for the next heat, where he finished fourth from his sixth starting position.

Due to dropping a heat race the #19 Cheetah Chassis started deep in the last chance B Main field. With only the first four cars transferring to the back of the A-Main field it was always going to be tough starting from position ten. But a spirited, well driven race allowed Ricky to finish in a very creditable third, qualifying for the final by a mere one spot.

After an impressive start in the final which saw Ricky execute a number of exciting passing moves he was up as high as seventh with a couple of laps remaining, when he made a slight mistake in turns one and two which saw him drop two spots to ultimately finish in ninth. “To achieve a top ten result after starting out of tenth in the B, only goes to show me that with a little bit of luck, which is all so important in racing, will ultimately give Ricky a reasonable starting position in an A and an even better result”.

“He was really trying hard to make a move late in the race, he could have just sat there and finished seventh but it was good to see him giving it a go. It was just a shame he lost those two spots but overall he drove really well and it has given him a lot of confidence going into the next couple of weeks” said team owner Peter Mitchell.

Remaining Events in the 2009/10 Season:

• APRIL 24th Brisbane QSSS
• APRIL 30th Brisbane QLD Title Night 1
• MAY 1st Brisbane QLD Title Night 2
• MAY 8th Brisbane QSSS
• MAY 27th Darwin AUST Title Practice
• MAY 28th Darwin AUST Title Night 1
• MAY 29th Darwin AUST Title Night 2

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