2014 - a year in review. With the Nationals now completed, another year of racing has been and gone. Firstly I would like to thank all our customers for their patronage over the 2014 season. Some of you have been with us for a long time, and some of you are relatively new - its been our pleasure to have you on board with our products and services over the last 12 months. It was especially gratifying to see so many Werks products, and so much Werks fuel being used at the Nationals. It seemed like everyone had a real good run with our products, which was great to see, as that is what we as a company strive to achieve. Now having completed our second full season with Werks as our principle product line, I believe we have developed a very strong performing, super reliable yet affordable racing platform with the Pro Series engines, Race Blend Fuel, 4 shoe clutches, glow plugs and 2058 pipes. A lot of thanks must go to Craig Underwood for his in depth knowledge, and the hours of track testing and running he has done to help me establish some base-line parameters for tuning etc. The Guru has the Werks engines really humming, and a lot of this in house feedback can be, and is, relayed back to customers on here, or by email etc when it comes to engine set up and tuning etc. If anyone has any feedback, good or bad, about any of our product lines, please feel free to drop me an email. We encourage feedback (including constructive criticism), as this is the only way we know if we are on the right track. With customer feedback we can work towards providing better things going forward into 2015 and beyond - which is our goal. Our biggest highlights this year were undoubtedly Craigs TQ and wire to wire win in Truggy at the just completed Nationals, and on the commercial side, being directly involved with the introduction of the Werks Race Blend Fuel into Australia. Working in with Ron at Werks Racing USA, and Wade from LRD in Sydney to achieve this goal was very satisfying, as is seeing the market for the fuel continue to grow here and now across the Tasman. On a more sombre note, personally this year was a bit of a turning point for me in this sport - in fact, somewhat of a no exit street to be fair. As a lot of you know, I have worked pretty hard over the last few years through our parent company Go Racing NZ Ltd (and the more recently created Werks Racing NZ) to sponsor, support and promote 1/8 Gas Off-Road in New Zealand. This support has taken the form of continual event sponsorships at nearly every club in the country - including minor club events, regional events and national events on a broad scale. We have also gained factory sponsorships for NZ racers over this time - both for established racers, and some like young Gage Peters who are just starting out. Unfortunately these efforts raised our profile somewhat, to the point where Go Racing NZ Ltd became a regular target for the good old Kiwi bashing machine known as the tall poppy syndrome. Its always been my sole intention to promote and foster 1/8 Gas Off-Road in its purist form here in NZ. Unfortunately, there were recently a couple of people with personal agendas who sought friends in high places to successfully have me and my opinions banned from this sport entirely. When individuals go to those lengths to assuage their dented egos, and are fully backed by the administration - then your generally better off out of the sport concerned. So the time has come for me to do the sensible thing and walk away. Its a shame, as I think Werks Racing NZ had a lot more to offer going forward for 1/8 Gas Off-Road racing as a stand alone class in NZ, but now we will never know. I will pop up from time to time at larger events in a purely social capacity, and to support our Werks team drivers where possible. Personally I no longer own any racing gear - theres not much point if you can be banned from the sport for a year, simply for having a personal opinion on social media about something - without even so much as verbal or written warning beforehand......... Smacks a little of dirty deeds done cheap to me, but it is what it is, and what is done is done. Sometimes when your up against odds like that, turning around and walking away is the only smart thing to do. 2015 - going forward: 2015 will see a reduction in product lines. I believe we have a wonderful product line up in the Werks Racing range of engines and accessories - witness Guru Underwoods recent success. We also get fantastic support (both product and personal) from Ron Hopkins at Werks Racing, which is so very, very important in this game. The Werks engines are without a doubt the best we have imported to date. The Race Blend Fuel is an exceptional product - probably the single most important and far reaching product we have made available to racers here in NZ thus far, and the Werks accessories (clutches, pipes and plugs) are also of exceptional design and European quality. For these reasons we will be dropping all other major product lines in favour of becoming a Werks Racing specific outlet. The only other lines we will continue to carry will be the Buku bearing caps for our Werks engines, Avid bearings (engine and clutch), and the T-25 starter boxes and spares. We will also only be stocking the Werks Pro Series B5 and Pro Series B6 engines and spares in future. These have been by far the most popular models over the last two years, and cover the needs of both the buggy and truggy engine market incredibly well. Werks are improving their designs all the time to keep up with cutting edge technology, and incorporate new developments into these engines as running production changes on a continual basis. You can be rest assured the B5 Pro you purchased recently will have been improved on by the time you buy your next one. No fanfare or new model release publicity, just ongoing improvements in design, performance and reliability. So - thats whats happening with us in 2015 and beyond. My wife Dianne and I are looking forward to a much quieter year in 2015 - far removed from the silliness that surrounded us throughout this last year. Id like to take this opportunity to wish all our customers and FB followers a great festive season, and a safe and prosperous New Year. I look forward to hopefully catching up with a lot of you at the track sometime during 2015. Cheers, Shane-O Werks Racing NZ
Posted on: Sun, 30 Nov 2014 08:18:21 +0000
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