An accident in practice on Friday hampered Cody McKay’s efforts during his debut in the Newcastle 500, but the local driver and his team showed great determination to get back on the road.
McKay, who entered the Aussie Racing Cars category, was full of confidence and started qualifying in 17th on the grid out of 35 competitors.
His luck then took a turn for the worse.
After pushing hard to get out of a traffic logjam, the 30-year-old suddenly found himself in trouble.
“I came to the Esplanade and, unfortunately, found a wall on Zara Street,” he told Newcastle Weekly.
“I was pushing a little too hard and it’s a fine line when you’re going around touching walls.”
McKay was uninjured but the car suffered extensive damage, with the incident smashing a hole in the side of the engine.
A major rebuild was underway.
His team worked around the clock to get him into race one, only for a “couple of gremlins” to emerge, which saw the car cut out when he raced around a corner.
McKay was forced to skip the second race but managed to line up for race three on Sunday.
“I was competitive but had no clutch in the engine at all,” he said.
“Once I got off the line the clutch stopped, and I only got 50% throttle.
“I then did the full race in race four but [the car] didn’t want to move at all.
“You just never know and are never prepared for whatever happens.
“I was upset at what happened – when you’ve got the world and the whole of Newcastle on your shoulders, I didn’t know what to think at the time but I’m just glad we got the car back out there.”
Despite his misfortune, McKay’s weekend ended on a high as he received the Aussie Racing Cars’ Local Legend award.
The award is not necessarily for the best on track performance; it instead focuses on off-track efforts in terms of car presentation, engineering excellence, and other factors.
McKay said it was nice to gain recognition for the team’s hard work.
“It was a bad weekend on the track but a great weekend off it,” he said.
“[The award] is probably an acknowledgement for the effort we put in over the weekend and in the lead-up.
“We’re always on social [media] and talking to people in categories so they must’ve paid attention to that.”
The 2019 Newcastle 500 attracted more than 150,000 spectators from 22 November to 24 November.
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