Getting Started

The advent of the Sports Racer Series with the first event at Clipsal in Adelaide early in March 2010, meant that the Meridian team had to get the SPEADS finished and tested. Our inaugural pilot was Meridian's Wayne Howe who is not only a good engineer but a pretty fair steerer. The car proved to be a jet out of the box with a few minor glitches including a very rapid puncture resulting in the loss of a wheel.  This fortunately happened before Wayne had a permanent neck injury from the high cornering and braking forces......! Check out the engine note on the embedded video.

Our second test session was on a damp and miserable day with a new driver Neil Mcfayden. Neil is seriously quick, with many Australian Championships under his belt. He has kindly offered to drive the car througout the Sportsracer Series.

His initial laps in the car were on a very cold and wet day at Winton. He complained that the Avon wets had absoloutely no grip, until we showed him pictures of the car aquaplaning on its floor across the flooded track. His few laps at Winton was all the prpearation he was going to get for Clipsal; just as well that he won that Formula 3 championship with a stunning drive at Adelaide! A spectacular success on the day was our newly designed F1 standard rain light that  was also wired into our brake switch; this had many trailing drivers looking for sunglasses on an otherwise gloomy afternoon.