It looked on paper to be potentially one of the best weekends of racing thus far for the Big Gun Racing Team of Peter Burnitt and Brad Patton coming into the Hidden Valley (Darwin) third round of the Yokohama V8 Ute Series protected by Armor All, but it didn’t quite turn out that way.

“I think we had good car speed all weekend,” explained BGR Team Engineer Joe De Vries, “we just didn’t have any good luck. If there was a crash, we were in it, even if we didn’t necessarily cause it.”

The team are nothing if not good at attracting TV exposure for their sponsors however with several spectacular moments for both Patton and Burnitt being beamed live across the country on Network Seven over the weekend.

“I’d rather have a strong race result than a crash that attracts TV exposure but you take what you can get sometimes,” admits Brad Patton, “we certainly got some national TV attention either way.”

For the second round in a row Brad Patton was teased with a front row start!

“We were running tenth in Race One when the car began to overheat and we faded back to 18th,” Patton recalls, “I thought we’d killed the engine and nursed it back to the finish but in the end we changed the alternator and ran some tests and it all seemed to be OK. Amazingly the inversion for Race Two was decided to be 18 and we were elevated to pole for the next race!”

It was a good luck-bad luck weekend throughout for the Big Gun Team however.

One of the most spectacular moments for the team happened in the final race of the weekend when Peter Burnitt’s CNW Electrical XR8 Falcon tagged the spinning Jason Gomersall Falcon and rolled over!

“I don’t know what happened,” explains Burnitt, “one minute I’m in the corner and the next I’m rolling over coming out of turn two. I remember making contact with him (Gomersall) and then all of a sudden I’m on the roof.”

Brad Patton too made the TV coverage, this time in Race Two, when he was caught up in a turn one accident after starting on pole position in the Wicked/CHILL XR8 Falcon.

“I didn’t get the start I wanted and after we dropped back a couple of spots coming into the first corner there was a coming together of some cars and we got caught up in the problem. 
All of a sudden we ended up with some significant damage and had to limp home. It was a major disappointment considering I thought we had a good enough car to lead from the front and stay there initially.”

At the time team manager Joe De Vries lamented, “All I can say that is positive about Race Two is that Pete was fast. He made up ten positions and showed some good speed. Unfortunately the damage we sustained to Brad’s car means we have heaps of work to do until Townsville next month.”

Now, with the Burnitt rollover in Race Three, there are two cars to repair in a very, very short space of time.

“I’m worried,” frowns De Vries, “we have to completely re-do two cars in three and a half weeks including travel and now I have to consider if we’re better off going past Townsville to home and get the cars done there.”

“If you don’t consider the damage, we actually had a pretty good weekend. At least we got our sponsors some great exposure on TV,” says Brad Patton.