Wells On The Podium But Unable To Tame The Beast
Author : Darren ODea

MARK Wells has admitted his new J&J chassis he debuted at the Perth Motorplex on January 23 is a handful to drive.

The Geraldton Jet fronted at that meeting in an ex-Donny Schatz machine and after crashing out in the second round of heats, they were forced to retire early.

Moving forward a week and the team persisted with the newer car at Bunbury Speedway last Saturday night in the Stingaz Surf ‘n’ Skate Sprintcar Face Off.

While he was able to show plenty of pace Wells said the car was still not what he was quite used to.
This could be bad news for his rivals, considering he finished second to Kerry Madsen on the 30-lap feature race after starting from position eight.

This was after Madsen had started from pole and Wells was one of the biggest movers forward in the main event.

Wells started eighth in his first heat race and finished sixth while he was a DNF in the next bout after contact with another car damaged the #21’s front end.

Despite the difference in handling Wellsy was able to make up enough real estate to collect his first trophy of the second with David Priolo third (after starting from sixth).

And it wasn’t all bad – the new Maxwill Motors bullet that has been paired up with the ex-World of Outlaws car is producing the required goods on the track.

This week the team heads back to the drawing board and to the paint shop.

Wells and crew chief Geoff Murphy will look at how they can tame the new beast and will probably tap into the advice of the J&J factory in America as well.

And in a break from tradition a new paint scheme will be unveiled at the Performance Wholesale World Series Sprintcars Grand Final at the Perth Motorplex this Friday and Saturday night.

More to be revealed later in the week.