By Trevor Jackson
IT has been a hit-and-miss start to the speedway season for Mount Gambier Wingless Sprint race Mitchell Broome.
Broome has shown plenty of pace in two meetings at Murray Bridge, with three heat wins from four attempts, but has not been able to convert that pace to a feature victory.
Speaking to Broome this week he joked it was “pretty much the same story each week, qualified on pole, finished fifth”.
“I’m good over about 10 laps then it turns to water,” he said.
“My heats races have been good … I came second in my second heat on the weekend by 0.03 seconds, so I nearly won both heats again.”
Broome said the competition was tough and consistent and he has led the majority of laps, including in Saturday night’s 20-lap feature.
However, he has not been able to stand on the podium at the end of the night.
“I am pretty stoked with how my heats are going, I am confident about it all, I just have to pull it off in the final,” Broome said.
“I have probably led the most in the features of anyone this year but I haven’t been able to put a final together.”
Broome suggested a couple of “driver errors” were behind the results.
“In the first race I was a bit cautious behind a lapped car and that brought me undone,” he said.
“On the weekend we had that many cautions, it all came undone after a caution.
“I got passed for the lead by two at a time, which slid me up the track and I lost a bit of momentum.
“I can’t complain, we are going all right and the car is still straight, we just have to wait for some results really.”
Broome said his car was basically the same as last year, with a new shock absorber package.
But a new car is in the pipeline, once the Victorian/South Australian border opens due to the coronavirus restrictions.
But even with the South Australian Wingless Sprint title fast approaching – December 11 at the Borderline Speedway – Broome has no plans to run the new car for that event.
“We will keep the same car for this title, but will hopefully run the new car for the Summer Slam in January where we go to Simpson, Warrnambool and Mount Gambier,” he said.
“We are trying to get some speed and hoping it carries into here as well for the title.
“The car hasn’t missed a beat really, so we are on track for a result soon – we just have to put it all together.”
