Twelve months ago Shane Krikke, Pete Caporn, Ryan Krikke, Peter Krikke and Steve Low took part in the Shark Bay ‘Far Westerns' driving a heat each in the Aussie Title winning #1 Cool Car and with Shane finishing off the meet with a 2 nd place in the feature. This was Shane's first drive of a sprintcar since his cancer illness forced him to an early retirement back in 1998 and the drive that created an itch to race again that would require 12 months of patience to cure. It was after this race meeting, and a few cold ones that the guys decided they had so much fun that for this years ‘Far Western' they would put together a car made of spares, paint it flat black, call it the ‘X-Factor' and once again take to the road for the 11 hour drive up north and have another crack at a heat each.

Well somewhere along the line Pete and Shane seemed to forget that they were only going to use ‘spares' and a new 360ci engine order was placed with Peter Morris at Maxwill Engines and the dyno readings showed this was no throw together motor. The design and paint work too proved to be no slouch either, with many commenting that it was even perhaps better than the #1's last season paint job and that it could even run the front row of the Nationals and not look out of place at all.

Pete was first out in heat 1 and receiving a wheel from another driver alighted the car with a massive grin on his face asking “Did you see the rubber horn that bloke gave me? I got filled in with dust and didn't know where I was”.

He also made a note to himself that he wants to go first again next year as you get to do hot laps and ‘dial yourself into the track'. But later on in the evening after a few thirst quenchers he made mention of this in front of Peter Krikke who argued that it should go year about and that next year it was his turn. I still don't think they came to a resolution and I reckon with 12 months to think about it Pete will have figured a way to jump the queue and be inside the driver seat for that first heat yet again.

Results for the team were: Pete finished 5 th in his heat, Peter finished 4 th and Shane finished 3 rd and then he ran 3 rd in the feature.

With 116 cars from 6 different divisions nominated from all over WA the day was long and the racing hard, but everyone that attended the event walked away with a smile on their face and a story to tell… except one that is, a young girl from Carnarvon racing the Junior Sedans, Shelly. Unfortunately Shelly crashed heavily into the turn one concrete wall; breaking her leg and having to be flown to Carnarvon hospital after attending the fantastic nursing post in Denham for observation. We wish her a speedy recovery and hope she is back racing later on in the year.

For those of you interested, Shark Bay Speedway holds the Far Westerns every July school holidays on the middle weekend and next year is their 21 st running. The town comes alive with a street parade on the Friday night that rivals any you've seen any where in the World and the day itself of racing is huge. The locals couldn't be any friendlier, putting on a dinner after the races with a massive selection of food brought to the track and served under a marquee and there is also a golf day held the following day for the teams that don't party too hard the night before. If you are interested in attending their 21 st celebrations book your accommodation now for next year as all accommodation is booked out almost 12 months ahead.

And hey if you can't make it next year, book now for 2009!

View Images of The X Factor HERE