30/11/2018
PRESS RELEASE:
Needham fought valiantly during his farewell Challenge
Quinton Needham’s MotorMart VW Challenge farewell weekend brought on battles of sorts during the November 9-10, 2018 season finale. The Class A driver however persisted despite a host of mechanical problems to finish his career in the category in good form at Zwartkops Raceway.
Throughout Friday’s practice session, Needham struggled with rear brake issues and his Volkswagen Polo’s engine only reaching 6900 RPM. This continued during Saturday morning’s qualifying session, but he nevertheless set the ninth-fastest time.
A gearbox replacement followed between Qualifying and Race 1, but on Lap 4 Needham was forced to retire after discovering oil leaking onto the rear wheels. “To be honest at this stage we didn’t know what the cause for it could be.” Said Needham after the race. “This could’ve been something as simple as the gearbox oil being overfilled, or of course this could’ve been a more serious oil leak with something being damaged. We took the option of rather living to fight another day with the car intact.”
For Race 2 the team made it to the grid, but Needham struggled throughout with car control. That said he was on a valiant charge to finish in tenth position. “I can really only say that the car felt more like a rollercoaster ride during this race. Knowing that everything at least worked properly, I decided to push on. Even though I didn’t take home any points, I’ve managed to finish my final race in the series with the same never-say-die approach that drove me throughout my career.”
Despite not finishing his career with a good pair of results, Needham still enjoyed the weekend prior to his relocation to the United States of America: “I’ll be honest, I’ll miss being in the VW Challenge paddock next year. In just over a decade there are some awesome memories that I’ll treasure forever. I’d like to thank everyone who supported me throughout my career. Some of the names I’d like to mention are: Graig Gammie, Gareth Lyke, Mark Gregory, Gavin Ross, Shaun Needham, Wayd Needham, Anton Needham, Marc Needham, Maruis Needham, Mohamed Dangor, Robbie da Silva and most importantly, My dad Andre Needham. I’ve never won a championship, but you all made it possible for me to live my passion and race cars.”
Quinton Needham would like to thank their sponsors Motor Mart Klerksdorp, Speedy Den 4x4 World Klerksdorp and Creative Ink Media for the continued support. In addition, he would also like to acknowledge and thank the associate sponsors of the MotorMart VW Challenge for making this exciting category possible: Norbrake Distributors cc, ATE Brakes, Dicktator Engine Management System, Yaskawa, Pozidrive and BPM Engineering.
