New Bruce claims the crown

20 January 2010

BY DEAN MILLARD

IT is not unusual to see Robbie Bruce’s number eight Standard Saloon carrying the chequered flag around the Southern 500 Speedway on King of the Ring night, but it was a different Bruce behind the wheel at the end of the night on Saturday.

Scott Bruce, son of three-time King of the Ring winner Robbie, was the man with the flag in hand at the end of the night.

Scott stepped in for his father for this year’s King of the Ring following Robbie shattering his femur in a work place accident in September, with the senior Bruce not even able to sit in a car long enough to make the trip from Croyden to Portland to watch the race, let along compete in it.

“I am a plasterer and was working on an upper story and we had sheet flooring over a stairwell and the flooring gave way,” Robbie explained.

“I landed on my hammer, which is why I shattered the bone.

“Scott was working with me at the time, giving me a hand, and the ambos turned up and said this is pretty serious and Scotty said, you’re not kidding, he is our designated driver for the footy tomorrow.”

Scott said his dad loves the race and the venue so much that even though he would not be able to drive in it he still wanted his car to go around the track, so Scott stepped in to take his place.

“Dad loves going down there, he reckons it is one of the great events and he just enjoys racing there.

“Because of his work accident he was a little bit disappointed he couldn’t race in it this year.

“I have a car myself but I don’t race much anymore, I have probably only raced once in the last four years, but he asked me if I would like to race his car in the King of the Ring because even though he couldn’t race it he still wanted his car down there.

“He has never had anything but good things to say about the event and the track so I thought I would do it.”

It was the first time Scott had driven his father’s car and the first time he had driven at the Southern 500 venue, but he said with the advice of his dad he soon worked out how to drive the track.

“Dad told me where to race, what lines to take and when and where to be careful.

“The track is deceiving, because he had told me it was one of the fastest tracks he had raced on, but when I got there it just didn’t look like what he had told me.

“But he had raced there plenty of times so I took everything on board and everything worked out.”

Shortly before the start of the final the track received a light sprinkling of rain and when organisers offered the drivers a late chance to pull out of starting the race due to the conditions he said he strongly considered it because he did not know how the track would hold up in the wet, but said in the end he was glad he stayed in.

“I thought I didn’t really want to race but I didn’t want to be the only one to pull out either, but the track dried up really well and was pretty good to race on at the end.

“I was a bit worried there would be a bit of carnage but everyone raced really well to the conditions and it ended up pretty clean considering how the track was.”

Scott drove a conservative, smart race early on, sitting just off the back of the leaders to work out the pace of the race and learn the best racing lines, but as the track continued to dry out his confidence grew and he started to make his move.

Scott took the lead in lap 19 of the 25-lap race and from there just made it a point to keep the car pointed straight and away from the concrete as he cruised home to win his first feature win of his career.

“I was more worried about keeping the car off the concrete and trying to keep in touch with first and second because it was the first time I had ever driven the car, so I was still getting used to that and the track.

“As the track got dryer I got more confidence and got quicker.

“I did kiss the concrete once so I thought I better not do that again and I was alright from there.

“By the time I got into second the lead car was still about six lengths in front of me.

“It probably helped me having someone in front of me because it helped me learn the pace to be racing at and by the time I caught up to him I knew exactly what lines to take and he went wide as we were catching up to the lap cars and I went under him.

“The chequered flag could not come quick enough after that.”

Robbie was yet to see the damage to the car from the “concrete kiss” at the time of speaking the Observer, but Scott said given their discussions prior to the race he did get a little nervous when he brushed the wall.

“I did joke to him before I went down that I was going to drive like a Japanese Moto GP rider and that is win or crash trying, but I was just joking about it.

“When I hit the concrete I thought, I shouldn’t have joked about that.

“It wasn’t too bad, I thought I was going to hit it pretty hard but I managed to pancake it and not hit it at any major angles.

“I was really surprised how clean the racing was, everyone drove really well and it was a lot of fun.”

Robbie said he was proud and surprised that his son managed to win the event in his first run in the car, but laughed if he and his son ever worked together in the future he would have to keep an eye on him given how much he enjoyed racing in his father’s car.

“I don’t think I’ll be working with him again because next time he won’t wait for the floor to collapse, he’ll push me down the stairwell.”