17 Jul Rob O’Connor set for upgrade after successful debut
Rob O’Connor completed a clean-sweep on debut at Round 2 of the Hi-Tec Oils APC Enduro Championship at Queensland Raceway’s 2 Days of Thunder meeting, but is already preparing to upgrade ahead of next season.
O’Connor and mentor Jesse Dixon dominated Class D in the Kirkworks BMW 130i, but already construction has started on his next contender.
“We built the 130i knowing it was my start and work on my driving, with the goal of stepping up to another car,” O’Connor explained.
“I considered an BMW M2, but the costs were too high to build and the repairs, so I thought I’d go down the Mustang route. And the funny thing is, I’m a Holden man through and through.
“The Mustang is a worldwide model, there are parts everywhere and it’s a relatively cheap way to stick with rear-wheel-drive in addition to the H-Pattern six-speed.”
Entering Class A2 in a Ford Mustang is just latest progression for O’Connor after being a recently beginning his motorsport journey.
“It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do since I was a kid and never had the funds or the opportunity to do so,” O’Connor reflected.
“Three years ago I was approached by a couple of mates competing in Motor Events races. They knew I had a little simulator set-up at home and wanted me to join their team, so we bought a partly finished BMW E36 3-Series. I did three or four events and caught the bug big time.”
Deciding to break away and do his own thing, O’Connor watched a Queensland Production Car Series race at Morgan Park leading to the purchase a road-going BMW 130i to compete at state level before making his Hi-Tec Oils APC Enduro Championship at the last round.
“I decided to build up a 130i and jumped onto Carsales where I found a blue one up for sale,” he said.
“It was the apple of the guy’s eye I bought it off, he’d just spent the money fixing it up and here I was turning it into a race car.
Once the 130i was purchased, O’Connor went searching for a workshop to build it into a race car and stumbled across Kirkworks, which continue to help improve the package.
“My next job was to find someone to transform it into a race car and I came across Kirkworks,” he explained.
“I had a chat to Kurt at Kirkworks and we had soon put together a build plan for the 130i.
“We built it on a budget due to how green I was and it’s been a big development process over the past two years, but we’ve outgrown many of the components on the car. Every time we go out on track now, the times are faster and I enjoy changing the settings as well.”
When Kirkworks moved its operations to a new factory, it aligned with co-driver Dixon using office space above leading to O’Connor calling on the former Super2 and V8 Utes regular.
“It’s great to have Jesse guiding me on how to become a better driver,” said O’Connor.
“I asked him to co-drive ahead of a Morgan Park meeting and he head a big smile on his face.
“To be around Jesse with his experience in how to approach not only the on track driving areas, but the commercial aspects away from it will be awesome.”
O’Connor’s aspirations are to complete the remaining rounds of the Hi-Tec Oils APC Enduro Championships before a full-assault next year in his new Ford Mustang.
The next round of the 2025 Hi-Tec Oils APC Enduro Championships is the prestigious ‘Fight in the Night’ event on August 15-17.