The 2009 season has started well for the RacegearWA Motorsport Team with the running of Round 1 of the 2009 West Australian State Championships, held over the weekend 28 Feb to 1 Mar 2009. The team entered all three cars, Mal Yeardley with his son Blake navigating, were in the Buggy, Darren Russell had Chloe Russell navigating in the Comodore and Dave and Alex Cowan were racing the Gemini. The prologue was not great for the team, Mal had troule with a tierod end that siezed and Darren suffered a flat tyre in the Commodore. The Gemini had a trouble free prologue but even so all three cars were towards the end of the 37 car field.
Section One was held on the Saturday afternoon and consisted of three 33 kilometre laps. Mal once again had trouble with tierod ends but after many stops managed to battle through to complete the section. Darren and Chloe also had trouble in the Commodore when the rear swaybar snapped on the second lap. After a quick stop to remove the swaybar, Darren nursed the car home to complete the section. Dave and Alex in the Gemini had a trouble free run in the little Gemini and come home second in class (though there were only three cars in class, Darren was in third). A special thanks to some of the locals (Matt) who provided a swaybar suitable for Darren's Commodore, which was fitted and his car was ready for Sunday. The Gemini simply needed to be fueled whilst the Buggy needed a little attention to the front end.
Sunday morning saw all three cars head out on Section Two, which was further three laps of the track. The Commodre ran well, managing to make up the nine minute gap to overtake the Gemini and move into second in Class behind the Rohlach's vehicle. The Gemini suffered a flat rear tyre with about twelve kilometres to go in the section, but limped over the line to complete the section with no other major problems. Mal and Blake however had further issues with tierods, managing to complete the section with 72 seconds to spare of the two and a half hours running time. So all three cars set off to tackle the third and final section. The Buggy after welding in the tierods had a trouble free run in this section to complete all three laps and finish the event. Dave and Alex in the Gemini however had a rear trailing arm seperate from the car on the second lap which put them out of the race with only 43 kilometres to go. Darren and Chloe in the Commodore however were able to ease off the throttle a little when the Rohlach's vehicle had transmission problems on the first lap. They bought the Commodore home safely to collect their first Class win in Performance 2WD and take the lead in the State Championships.
Thanks to Nissan Car Club for putting on a great event, and a special thanks to the teams sponsors for making sure the cars ran so well.