Five years in the making and after a couple of aborted attempts in the last month, last Sunday my Kiwi 40 finally took to the track in anger.
It was a low key club day at Ruapuna, my local track, and I was running in the class for Classic Saloons. There were 36 cars on the grid, the quickest being an ex TansAm Camaro. There were a couple of quick RX7 Batmobiles, a V12 XJS TWR replica, 3 other Camaros, a Monaro, several BDA Escorts, an indecently quick Alfa 105 coupe, a couple of Chargers and a Falcon, and a whole host of lesser stuff. This wasn't a bad turn out for a club day.
The single seater class too had some good cars. An F1 M23 McLaren, a Lola T430, a couple of McLaren M4As, a Brabham BT29 along with the usual gaggle of Formula Fords and FF2000s
The day was warm with a strong blustery wind from time to time. I went out for the 15 minute qualifying session but there were too many cars on the track to post a really good time, same for everybody though. With four minutes to go the session was red flagged and my on board lap timer showed I had done a 1:40.9 so I decided I wasn't going to be able to improve on that so called it a day. The most pleasing feature of qualifying was that my missfire problem had indeed been cured.
Refueled and waited for the first race, an 8 lap scratch. For some reason I was only credited with a 1:45.1 best qualifying lap which had me 8th on the grid. I got a reasonable start and by the second lap had worked my way up to 4th when the race was red flagged. The restart was a real disorganised botchup, I wound up 10th on the restart grid, not that it mattered as I stalled on the restart! I got it going again but I couldn't go anywhere because the car in front of me had done the same thing and now the tail of the field was streaming past. I couldn't get out to go round him until everyone had gone by. That was an interesting drive, particularly the restart lap on cold tyres! In the corner off the main straight a guy in a BDA Escort tried to take my nose off with his steel flares, tyre marks along the front clip and a couple of tears in the fibreglas. The good thing about fibreglass is that it springs back....Had a minor grass cutting expedition as I came into one fast corner too hot, offline, and ran out of track. Went miles off into the boonies but managed to keep it straight and got it all back together but not before I got repassed by the guy I had just passed. Not for long though.....I eventually came through to 5th in that race which I felt was OK considering it was my first race for 5 years, and first race for the car.
Back in the pits refueled, cleaned the Escort tyre marks off the front of the car and put one turn more bias towards the rear brakes as the fronts were locking and the pedal was starting to go away.
The second race was a 6 lap handicap. I was off grid 44 on 80 seconds and 9th flag drop. Thats a long way back on the grid and initially I didn't realise I couldn't see the flag as it was obscured by the side mirror of the car in front! So I had no idea when to start! Because of the unusually large number of entries the organisers systems were overstretched and the grid was not posted up to see beforehand, we were only advised of our grid positions and handicaps as we went out onto the track. So I had no idea how my handicap related to those around me. So when the cars in front of me left, so did I!! However I later found they were off 70 seconds, I'd jumped the start by 10 seconds! Must try that again sometime..... Had a good go with the Batmobile through the traffic, we swapped positions several times as we got tied up with slower cars. I had more grunt and better brakes but he was edging away from me in the turns with a better sorted car (Thats my story anyway, he was probably a better driver!) On the last lap I was badly baulked by a slow Commodore and the Bat got enough of a lead that I was unable to out grunt him to the finish line. 1.2 seconds was all that was in it though. So P2 in the second race was a good result.
The quick TransAm had fallen by the wayside in the first race and was out for the day. The new brake settings were spot on and with the fronts doing less relative work, the pedal stayed firm. The car was pulling up harder but I was starting to get some front wheel tramp so back in the pits we had a good look around the front but could find nothing loose or damaged. In hindsight it was probably not enough shock that was the trouble, I have been concentrating on camber and tyre pressures and haven't got around to playing with the shock settings yet, and they are all on full soft both ways. I should have thought of that and tweaked them up before the last race.
For some reason the handicappers were smiling on me today. The last race, another 6 lapper had me on grid 34 off 60 seconds. I had moved up the grid because nonfinishers in the previous race must start off the back, but the 60sec handicap was too good to be true! I managed to pick off all the cars in front of me and came through to win by 7 sec.
The car got a lot of favourable comment, it looked good and went well and is, I am told, impressively quiet. My best lap of the day was 1:36.9, so all in all a good day.
It was a low key club day at Ruapuna, my local track, and I was running in the class for Classic Saloons. There were 36 cars on the grid, the quickest being an ex TansAm Camaro. There were a couple of quick RX7 Batmobiles, a V12 XJS TWR replica, 3 other Camaros, a Monaro, several BDA Escorts, an indecently quick Alfa 105 coupe, a couple of Chargers and a Falcon, and a whole host of lesser stuff. This wasn't a bad turn out for a club day.
The single seater class too had some good cars. An F1 M23 McLaren, a Lola T430, a couple of McLaren M4As, a Brabham BT29 along with the usual gaggle of Formula Fords and FF2000s
The day was warm with a strong blustery wind from time to time. I went out for the 15 minute qualifying session but there were too many cars on the track to post a really good time, same for everybody though. With four minutes to go the session was red flagged and my on board lap timer showed I had done a 1:40.9 so I decided I wasn't going to be able to improve on that so called it a day. The most pleasing feature of qualifying was that my missfire problem had indeed been cured.
Refueled and waited for the first race, an 8 lap scratch. For some reason I was only credited with a 1:45.1 best qualifying lap which had me 8th on the grid. I got a reasonable start and by the second lap had worked my way up to 4th when the race was red flagged. The restart was a real disorganised botchup, I wound up 10th on the restart grid, not that it mattered as I stalled on the restart! I got it going again but I couldn't go anywhere because the car in front of me had done the same thing and now the tail of the field was streaming past. I couldn't get out to go round him until everyone had gone by. That was an interesting drive, particularly the restart lap on cold tyres! In the corner off the main straight a guy in a BDA Escort tried to take my nose off with his steel flares, tyre marks along the front clip and a couple of tears in the fibreglas. The good thing about fibreglass is that it springs back....Had a minor grass cutting expedition as I came into one fast corner too hot, offline, and ran out of track. Went miles off into the boonies but managed to keep it straight and got it all back together but not before I got repassed by the guy I had just passed. Not for long though.....I eventually came through to 5th in that race which I felt was OK considering it was my first race for 5 years, and first race for the car.
Back in the pits refueled, cleaned the Escort tyre marks off the front of the car and put one turn more bias towards the rear brakes as the fronts were locking and the pedal was starting to go away.
The second race was a 6 lap handicap. I was off grid 44 on 80 seconds and 9th flag drop. Thats a long way back on the grid and initially I didn't realise I couldn't see the flag as it was obscured by the side mirror of the car in front! So I had no idea when to start! Because of the unusually large number of entries the organisers systems were overstretched and the grid was not posted up to see beforehand, we were only advised of our grid positions and handicaps as we went out onto the track. So I had no idea how my handicap related to those around me. So when the cars in front of me left, so did I!! However I later found they were off 70 seconds, I'd jumped the start by 10 seconds! Must try that again sometime..... Had a good go with the Batmobile through the traffic, we swapped positions several times as we got tied up with slower cars. I had more grunt and better brakes but he was edging away from me in the turns with a better sorted car (Thats my story anyway, he was probably a better driver!) On the last lap I was badly baulked by a slow Commodore and the Bat got enough of a lead that I was unable to out grunt him to the finish line. 1.2 seconds was all that was in it though. So P2 in the second race was a good result.
The quick TransAm had fallen by the wayside in the first race and was out for the day. The new brake settings were spot on and with the fronts doing less relative work, the pedal stayed firm. The car was pulling up harder but I was starting to get some front wheel tramp so back in the pits we had a good look around the front but could find nothing loose or damaged. In hindsight it was probably not enough shock that was the trouble, I have been concentrating on camber and tyre pressures and haven't got around to playing with the shock settings yet, and they are all on full soft both ways. I should have thought of that and tweaked them up before the last race.
For some reason the handicappers were smiling on me today. The last race, another 6 lapper had me on grid 34 off 60 seconds. I had moved up the grid because nonfinishers in the previous race must start off the back, but the 60sec handicap was too good to be true! I managed to pick off all the cars in front of me and came through to win by 7 sec.
The car got a lot of favourable comment, it looked good and went well and is, I am told, impressively quiet. My best lap of the day was 1:36.9, so all in all a good day.
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