OAS Winter 2011 update (Read 3,769 times)

[38gm]

OAS off season:

Hi all,

Will start with saying a huge thanks to our sponsors and supporters, I know its been said on another update but without their support we would not of had the successful season we have just finished.
- OAS (Olivers Auto Specialists) awesome
- Fat Maxs Gym (supply Hadleighs guns)
- Kev Lynch Builders
- Gillys paint and panel
- Hahn Logging
- McClay Tooling ChCh
- Olivers Shoe Stores

We are very lucky to have so many professionals with differing skills on board and appreciate all the feedback we receive during the season.


We attended the annual prize giving recently which was well supported by competitors from all classes, and with hadleigh unable to make it, I collected his 3rd place certificate for season points for him only to sit down then get up again to get my certificate for 2nd place which the team was very happy about and congrates go to Tony Smackattack Stanton for taking out the top spot in a very close points race in the end, which kept one of our sponsors happy as he sponsors all 3 cars.

687gm and 38gm also collected a trophy for best presented cars. Which is already putting pressure on hadliegh to come up with something even better for next season and try lift the standard again.


I was stoked to also get the competitor of the year award. This was unexpected and I need to thank all the Oas team for getting the car there each meeting so I can go for the flag (even if that annoys most of them haha).

Whats next?


Off season plans are underway- and the first shiny bits are starting to arrive! With the xtra power from the freshened holden taking its toll twice last season on the mighty holden 3 speed we decided a change to a stronger box was required, we rang Mark Walford to discuss options.

Well that discussion ended up with money changing hands, and three days later the bling arrived direct from Walford Engineering in Hawkes Bay- and what a picture they are! New Bellhousings that Mark had on the shelf for the new gearbox combination look an absolute picture. We'll keep you posted on how this fits the car, but in the meantime, if your considering a new bellhousing, we would definitly recommend Walford Engineering- they say a picture speaks a 1000 words, so enjoy the picture below.


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Also had a heap of steel arrive to get stuck into- Huge thanks to McClay tooling, who help us out in a big way, despite being stuck in the heart of CHCH with all the big shakes. Some of those guys have had to move out of their homes, and have some big things to work on, so for them to still support us is massive. Great guys, who can help with all your tooling and precision machining needs.

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Better get back in the workshop and see if the bumper is off.


image uploading


Thats about it for now
Olly

[towbar]

i might team up with the 99 ,so u will need all that steel as i do not need the flag no more

[smacker]

I thought a man of your caliber would go it alone Tow Bra ;D

[The Observer]

Jul 16, 2011 18:35:04 GMT 12 towbar said:

i might team up with the 99 ,so u will need all that steel as i do not need the flag no more

If I had known one little spin at the KOC was all it would take to bring the old towbar out, I would have done it at the first meeting in the new car!

Great to have the old black doug back, and pumped for the new season! Just need to get the motor finished young man.

[bomba]

hey smacker !!! bring that car bak out i only want one race with ya and il even fence off the infeild for you

[smacker]

Nar shes right clive i just watch

[The Observer]

Winter Update

There’s been a few slow evenings in the shed – its taken a little while to get started, but we are finally underway as it feels like the worst of the cold winter has passed.

We have had a few team members turn up to the midweek working bees – Olly has been working on his welding skills on my front bumper. Seems to be a bit of a trend at the moment, Last year Andy did a heap of the welding on the OAS flying Tri-rail, and this year Olly is doing some on the Rees Race car. Don’t think anyone will let me do any welding on there’s next year, so might have to kick olly off the welder if I ever finish on the grinder – believe me better to grind the steel than the finger. Makes the job go faster.



Here's Olly welding away on the new 687gm bumper, while 38 gm is ignored.



The latest addition to the OAS stable – seems I have started at trend with the Ford powered race car, we have a new Paul Radiscich Ford Telstar (European touring car spec) Production saloon being prepared by Andy the worker – she’s all jacked up in the rear after removing what looks like 500kg worth of non race essential material. This beast will have a few drivers (or Andy for the season ) during the year, and is designed to help boost the Production saloon numbers, an excellent cheap entry level grade for a new speedway driver, and will be for sale at the start of the season, but only to a GM registered driver.

You can see a bit of the progress here – most of the outsides have been cut off, and shes resting on Olly's dolly, which makes moving her around the shed a heap easier – thanks Andy for getting that built.




That's about it for the meantime – Johnny old school is talking about making a mid week appearance to get things moving on the 3 rail. We doubt this will happen, as normally they don’t start on their own race car until the week before labour weekend and opening day. There's talk of making a practice for the first time – stop laughing – so we will see how we go! Only joking Johnny old school – here's proof of his appearance during the week, the only photo we ever get of him is the back shot – running away!

[The Observer]

A little progress
Hi all,

A little bit of progress in the shed. There’s been a heap of welding and grinding doing the usual offseason steel work that is no doubt going on around the country. A huge thanks to McLay Tooling for the steel that enables us to get through what we need to.

Heres a couple of shots of the work going on – two welders at once in this shot, me welding a siderail, and Olly in the radiator shop welding up his teams racing wheelgaurds.



I tell ya, all the people calling him a flag racer is getting nervous about getting in the Greymouth Grizzlies team – its great to see. Theres a heap of good guys keen to get into it, so no spots are garunteed. I guess if the top guys are nervous that makes it a good sign that were taking it seriously. I’m certainly gonna have to get my act together to try and get in this year!

The strong bigger wheel gates coming together



Doing something different for the front bumper supports this year, following Ollys lead. Will have to see how it goes.



Hopefully these will all join up once welding finished.



Starting to get a little nervous – only 6 weeks until first practice, so need to get a heap more jobs done. We’re moving to two nights a week were possible at the moment to get things moving after a cold winter, so hopefully you’ll all see some more progress next time.
The tri rail is still waiting the new shaft for the gearbox, so hopefully we can get that back and back together soon.

Good luck to Olly and the West Coast golden oldies this weekend who take on the parliamentary XV as the curtain raiser to the West Coast game – I still reckon Olly needs to keep the boots on after so he can get his 50th cap for the west coast. Hes only just 35, and the Aussie team have just called in a dude the same age!

You can do it waterboy!

[The Observer]

Hi All,

Has been an eventfull offseason for us all in The OAS workshop, with a few cars coming in for some attention. Olly has been a bit gutted ,as its been a few different bits and peices that haven’t quite fallen the way we hoped, but the gearbox is looking mint, almost as flash as the Mark Walford Bellhousing ( I tell you what he does a mint job, and if your looking to upgrade your running gear don't gopast Walford engineering) so he can;t wait to give that a go when he gets back from a well deserved break over the next 2 weeks.



We made some clutch and brake pedals for my car so hopefully i’ll be in more control this season. They seem to be working so far on the stands, so will be fun to test with the new clutch plate and new master cylinder. Still need to paint the new side rails and bumpers, and obviously these pedals, and do a oil changes, new sparkplugs (those hartley/OAS motors pump the gas through and don't like those grand parades) and get the new ratchet seat belts in.



This car was purchased for the last meeting of last season, and has just had a bit of an OAS birthday. Its looking really good, and go well with the owners shed. First time with chrome rims, and think the new owner might be hooked. That will teach him for hangin around with olly haha.





We are gearing up for first practice in Greymouth this weekend with a number of new cars and drivers. Practice stats at 2pm hopefully someone will be able to take a couple of photos. The club has had the biggest sign up night in a long while, and already has had 10 new members put foward at the committee meeting, and has 5 new drivers signed up at SNZ so its great to see the club getting off to a great start.

Also Just wanted to show you all a trophy one of our committee members, Percy Whyte has put together for our second annual 29 lap saloon car salute on the 12 of November this year- this is the Pike River memorial trophy the drivers will compete for each year.

Obviousley the tradegy was a shock, and conincided with the DHL series coming down to Greymouth. The DHL boys and girls, and of course Stevie Williams provided a real lift to the community during a really tough time, during the first few weeks of the tradegy.

At the time the saloon teams raised funds for the families, and were so positive and caring throughout their stay in Greymouth.

The Greenstone Park Speedway family want to thanks those saloon guys and gals, and in recognition, and in memorium we want to run an annual saloon 29 lap salute on 12 November to salute both the miners and their families, but also to salute the support we were shown from those drivers and their crews at the time.

So anyway- here is the awesome trophy



Apologies for the quality of the pictures - a poor cellphone at the committee meeting last night as Percy presented it to the club. An amazing job, and I look forward to hearing what others think of it.



The two OAS cars will be back out there soon looking sharp, so hopefully I have a few more pictures in the future. We are all getting pumped for a bit of biff and bash, with the usual smack talk doing the rounds as it surely is in other stockcar workshops around the country.

Best line heard so far is "heres 5 bucks buy me a hotdog" "but i'm racing""don't worry we'll get up there"

anyone else got any better lines, need some ammo for olly when he gets back from his holiday and speedway exile.

[The Observer]

Well, this will almost be the last post on the winter update thread for 687gm – we are just about ready for the opening meeting this labour weekend at Greymouth. With any luck we should pull about 14 local stockcars, with a couple from Blenheim expressing some interest in coming down to boost our field.

Theres been plenty of things happening up in Westport, with talk of up to 12 cars up there, but if we can get 4 westport based GM drivers on the day we will be doing it awesome I reckon. There’s been a couple of good cars bought in there from Greymouth, and the guys driving them have been on the pace at practice, so it will be a good season ahead I think.
Heres how the car is looking to date anyway.



Not sure on the rim colour for this season. The OAS team have a batch brand new white stockcar rims in stock at the moment - which i'm testing the look out on the photo above - so if you’re a local west coast stockcar man drop in and check em out – the boys are happy to help out the locals at the local price which will hopefully help everyone out with some cheap new rims. The white has come up better than expected, so might end up getting a few more of those on the car.

We built a new exhaust for 687gm after the last one was crushed at the king of the coast. Its now poking out the rear, making a capital O in Olivers ;D



It’s an andy the worker special, and it burbles just nicely. Check out the video and picture below – doesn’t do it justice I reckon. Just need to convince Jolly Olly to get one. Jonny Old School will talk him round, he loves the big pipes haha.





Olly is back from Holiday, and got the race tech seat back in last night, and has a new driveshaft cover to go with the flash mark walford bellhousing, and new landcruiser box and hydraulic throwout bearing. Hes hoping it will be as good as the Holden set up, as that was a good worker for the last three years.
Once the 38gm is out of the cave I’ll try and get a few more pictures. The light is terrible for my small brick phone, so the photos don’t do it justice. They are still trying hard for this weekend, which will depend on if the new set up works out of the box - they never do, but heres hoping!

Looking forward to skid this weekend!

[nogrip-31gm]

that must be the closest to being ready that you guys have been for a while ae your usually finishing it off on the trailer at the track...

[The Observer]

Oct 19, 2011 18:23:41 GMT 12 nogrip-31gm said:

that must be the closest to being ready that you guys have been for a while ae your usually finishing it off on the trailer at the track...

There might still be one of us finishing off at the track Nogrip

Racing should be good this saturday at 4pm, hope to see you there.

cheers

p.s Need a little bit of a hand on infeild/towtruck etc dude, be great if youcan.

[ross56y]

Good luck this weekend team !!!
i be working darn it and unsure if racing this season but will make the most of me days of to support greymouth on my days off

ross 56y

[The Observer]

Oct 20, 2011 14:15:23 GMT 12 ross56y said:

Good luck this weekend team !!!
i be working darn it and unsure if racing this season but will make the most of me days of to support greymouth on my days off

ross 56y

Hope to see you out there Ross - don't forget we have the South Island Stockcar Champs in December, so it would be great to have you here to experiance that mate - the big meetings are always lots of fun, and we are expecting between 60 and 70 cars for that one. Would be great to see 56y run again, it was going real well at the King of the Coast.

Have 3 stockcars coming down from Westport for the weekend that I know off - hopefully there might be a couple more yet.

cheers

[bini]

Great stuff Mr O, always enjoy you reports espically workshop ones. Im coming down to the coast tonight for a few days, Ill might come and introduce myself at the track.