Seems like I can almost get away without posting, thanks guys for your contributions really adds to the experience I reckon. Basically I had a weekend to remember for mostly the wrong reasons. Everything went well for the practice on thursday, and friday practice was going well, but 2 laps in I had the rear trying to swap ends with the front coming out of the hairpin. I managed to slow down and control it and get back to the pits. What we found when we opened the rear clip was a broken lower rear wishbone. As luck would have it my new pit crew Russ Noble and Lim ( fresh from a failed attempt to finish the Kiwi 40) dismantled the control arm and bent radius rod and shot off back to Russ's workshop to carry out repairs. I had about 2 hours up my sleeve before qualifying and the boys arrived back just in time. We got it together and I qualified 6th.
Saturday dawned and it didn't seem as hot as friday. The morning race was an 8 lapper and I bogged down off the start and lost places but managed to recover for 5th I think.
The 5 lap race in the arfternoon was a cracker but I was having trouble with the starting lights. In OZ all the lights come on together and go out within 5 secs and we're off , but these ones came on one by one and they seemed to mesmerize me into jumping the start. Anyway I didn't get pinged and got a good start behind Jac Mac ( I know its not really Jac Mac but it is his motor making that TVR of Jack Ondrack's so bloody fast) so to me the TVR is Jac Mac, get it? Anyway I was in 2nd place for a while until John in his quick little yellow thing got past me and I settled in to finish 3rd and that was my podium finish.
On a high Nicol and Noble had a speights beer in the Chris Amon lounge and then headed off to the Marquee for the dinner and presentations. Upon walking through the door we were confronted with a very charming young girl who asked if we would like a glass or a bottle of wine, so to help her out we took a bottle each and a free glass. When we left Noble jumped in the Range Rover with me and decided that he would leave his MX5 at the track and that if I was pulled up by a cop it wouldn't matter as I would be back in OZ before the summons arrived.
Sunday and I pick up Noble and we head off to the track. Only problem he'd left his entry ticket in the MX5. Russ smiled at the gate lady and she melted as I tried not to run over her foot, Rangy's are heavy. " I'll come back with the ticket " Russ shouted.
Ok back to racing, I got a good start but still trying to go too early, managed to do a better time but about 3 laps in under brakes coming into the hairpin something broke and sent me helplessly heading for a bank and tyre wall. It got fairly close and I could see people clapping as I pulled up short of the bank. Back to the pits and found a Rod end broken on the front right upper wishbone. That's 2 suspension failures in 3 days and Noble is beginning to cast doubts on Nicol's pre shipping preparation. Anyway he heads off for a while and comes back with a replacement and it's duly installed.
The final race was to be a lollipop start where cars start at the same time but faster cars start at the rear of the slower ones. I got away ok and fresh with the Noble advice ringing in my ears I tried to muscle past the slower cars. As I passed an MGB I felt a bit of contact but thought no more about it until a lap later the rear was wallowing round again and was forced to slow. Another MGB this time a blue one decided to ram the back and it was quite heavy contact. In my mirror I could see him going off but no comfort for me as I was back to the pits with a buggered tyre and rear damage to the clip. So that was the Skope Classic and now we move on to Timaru. As you can see from russ's post I was hard at it today working on the car and thanks to Russ and Lim it will be stronger in the suspension dept.
Ross