Tall Guy Racing - Past Events 2005
Tall Guy Racing - Past Events 2005 |
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14 December 2005, Hamilton Car Club Twilight Autocross, Hamilton Car Club Grounds
16 October 2005, Taupo Car Club Dual Sprint Round 5, Taupo Race Track
14 October 2005, Test Day, Pukekohe Park
2 October 2005, Toyo Tarmac Series Bent Sprint Round 5, Hiwi Road
25 September 2005, Manfield Open Clubsport Day, Manfield Park
23 September 2005, Test Day, Pukekohe Park
17 September 2005, Taupo Car Club Dual Sprint Round 4, Taupo Race Track
10 September 2005, Burnout Competition, Bay Park Carpark**
4 September 2005, Toyo Tarmac Series Dual Sprint Round 4, Taupo Race Track
28 August 2005, Taupo Car Club Dual Sprint Round 3, Taupo Race Track
26 August 2005, Test Day, Pukekohe Park
7 August 2005, Toyo Tarmac Series Hillclimb Round 3, Sainsbury Road, Mt. Pirongia
31 July 2005, Manfield Open Clubsport Day, Manfield Park
24 July 2005, Toyo Tarmac Series Autocross Round 2, Bay Park Carpark
16 July 2005, Taupo Car Club Dual Sprint Round 2, Taupo Race Track
26 June 2005, Hamilton Car Club Autocross, Hopu Hopu
25 June 2005, Taupo Car Club Dual Sprint Round 1, Taupo Race Track
19 June 2005, Toyo Tarmac Series Motorkhana Round 1, Horotiu AFFCO Meat Works Carpark
12 June 2005, Pukekohe Car Club Winter Series Motorkhana 2, Mercer Country Stop
6 June 2005, Hamilton Car Club Dual Sprint, Taupo Race Track
5 June 2005, Ford Muscle Car Club Track Day, Taupo Race Track
28 May 2005, Nissan 300NX Car Club Track Day, Taupo Race Track
26 May 2005, Test Day, Taupo Race Track
8 May 2005, Pukekohe Car Club Winter Series Motorkhana 1, Mercer Country Stop
1 April 2005, Night Speed Drag Wars Round 8, Champion Dragway
26-27 March 2005, New Zealand ClubSport Championships, Hamilton
19 March 2005, Gisborne Rally, Gisborne*
9 March 2005, Pukekohe Car Club Metalman Recyclers Bentsprint Series Round 2, Pukekohe Park Raceway
2 March 2005, Pukekohe Car Club Metalman Recyclers Bentsprint Series Round 1, Pukekohe Park Raceway
18 February 2005, Night Speed Drag Wars Round 6, Champion Dragway
13 February 2005, Pukekohe Car Club Autocross Series 2004-05 Round 3, Waiuku
4 February 2005, Night Speed Drag Wars Round 5, Champion Dragway
23 January 2005, Hamilton Car Club Autocross, Hamilton Car Club Grounds
* Did not compete. Helped to run the event.
** Did not compete. Just watched.
Unfortunately, my Falcon was not in a fit state for racing for this event. The rollcage had just been fitted and I had not finished putting the rest of the car back together properly. So it was time to stick a fire extinguisher into the Fairlane and go for a skid in that. My Falcon is a big, heavy car and is not really all that suited to autocrosses. My Fairlane is even bigger and heavier than my Falcon, so a good result wasn't likely. However, a five litre V8, LSD and grass surface makes for some great sideways fun.
It turned out to be quite a fun event, although we only had time for two runs. I forgot to take my camera (first time I've done that), so there are no photos, sorry.
This was the final round of the dual sprints at Taupo for the year. It was also one of the most eventful. It was raining during the practice run and track was wet and very slippery. There were a few mishaps. In my practice run I had 'a moment' when the backend of the Falcon stepped out at about 110 kph, but thankfully I was able to gather it up and keep things under control. After that a Capri hit the wall, but didn't do too much damage. Then something that used to be a Honda Prelude hit the wall very hard and caused a significant amount of damage.
After the practice session, Brain gave a pep talk to try and avoid any further carnage. The Sun also came out and dried the track up. Weatherwise, the day turned into one of the best we've had at Taupo this year. The racing was pretty good as well with no more panel modification.
After the grudge racing, there was the series prize giving. I was one of about a dozen people who entered all five rounds. For my efforts I recieved a spot prize. I picked a blank envelope off the prize table and it turned out to be a voucher for a ride on the Huka Jet. What a fantastic prize! I am looking forward to using that! Photos will be posted here.
Brain has, once again, nagged me to do Clubmans next year and I have decided he is right. So now the goal is to get a rollcage and the various other required equipment sorted before next year. Stay tuned... Photos here
I was fairly keen to try out my new tires and see how much difference they would make to my lap times around Pukekohe. Unfortunately, the weather was crap so I decided not to waste $90. No photos, sorry.
This event provided some fantastic racing, but the day was somewhat spoiled by the amount of frustration experienced while waiting around for things to happen. Some of this due to several delays caused by cars not staying on the black stuff and needing to be extracted. But a great deal of time seemed to be wasted while people 'got their shit together'. It essentially took over 7 hours to get 45 cars through four runs at one minute intervals. In retrospect, however, I should have offered to help rather than moan about things later.
The racing was a huge pile of fun. My first run was very quick, even though it was supposed to be a practice and the time did not count. The weather packed in for my second run. While it made the road slippery, of course, the bigger problem was the limited visibility. I backed off quite a bit as I really enjoy racing my Falcon and don't have the money to replace it if I write it off. The backend stepped out slightly coming out of a corner, but I was ready for it and was easily able to catch it before things got out of control. The road had completely dried for my third run. Feeling rather frustrated at the delays we where experiencing, I was ready to put the pedal flat to the floor and keep it there. It was a blistering run. I pushed the Falcon right to the limit, but not beyond. After crossing the finishing line (on a blind corner) at 165 kph I was rewarded with a massive dump of adrenalin. I figured that that run was about as fast as I was able to go.
There is a phenomenon in motorsport that I will call 'Last Run Syndrome'. It goes like this: there is a much higher chance of having an accident on the last run of the day. This is because there is tendency to push much harder to try and beat previous run times or other competitors. It is the 'last chance' run. My next run was not only my last run of the day, but it was also my last run of the series. With Last Run Syndrome in mind I wasn't quite as brave in my last run as I was in my third. It was still very quick run and an unbelievable thrill, but most importantly I kept the Falcon on the black stuff.
During the day there were four accidents resulting in panel damage. Jonno McMillan's Ford Escort sustained some minor damage and was able to continue after the dirt was cleaned out of the bodywork (no photos, sorry). Chris Minee wrote off his Ford Anglia and about 30 fence battens. Chris Johns' Nissan Pulsar when into a bank. Ross Webster put his Renault Gordini through a fence backwards (good luck trying to get panels for that thing!). The surprising thing is that none of these accidents happened while it was raining or when the road was wet. Two of them, however, happened in the last run of the day - clearly demonstrating Last Run Syndrome. Photos here.
This was another fantastic, but long trip to Manfield. Hooning around the track was great and in one session I even managed to get into a good close race with another vehicle.
There is often a problem with ducks and their ducklings at Manfield at this time of the year. We were warned about them at the driver's briefing. "Avoid them if you can, but don't cause a five car pileup by swerving unexpectedly." Sure enough, during one of my sessions I came across some ducks. There was Mother duck and about six ducklings following her in a neat line. Quite cute really. They were crossing the track. I assessed the situation. There were no other cars around me. If I stuck to my racing line I thought I would miss the ducks, but it would be close. So I went passed them, within about a metre of Mother duck, doing around 130 kph. I looked in the rear vision mirror. I expected to see ducks scattered all over the place in a great big panic. But no. By the time they came into view they were still in a nice neat little line and they had just about finished crossing the track. One and half tonnes of metal goes screaming past at about 130 kph within one metre and the ducks didn't even flinch. Those are some very brave or very stupid ducks (the later, I think). Photos here (none of the ducks, sorry).
I finally got a fully day's racing around Pukekohe. I had four sessions with no problems or mishaps. The best time of the day was 1:21.11. I expect this to drop when the crap tires that I had on the front of the Falcon get replaced. A couple of photos here.
This was another semi-wet day at Taupo. In some sessions, the track was wet and in some it was dry. In some, parts of the track were wet and some were dry.
I enjoyed some pretty good racing. In the third timed round I was paired up with a Commodore. It turned out to be a fairly even match up. I had a bad start and was beaten to the first corner, but after that I was able to keep up fairly well. There were parts of the track that I was faster on and parts that I was slower on. Unfortunately, the difference was not enough for me to make a significant passing attempt. I followed as close as I could, hoping that I could force an error, but it was not to be. I finished about a car length behind. I am pleased that I managed to follow closely for the entire race without losing my cool and making a significant mistake.
Later, during one of the 'grudge' matches, I was paired up with the Commodore again. Once again, I was beaten to the first corner but shortly afterwards I finally managed to get past. After that I pulled away and opened up a significant gap.
Also during one of the grudge matches, I ended up in amongst a three car group. (This may or may not have had something to do with the way Brain let the cars go from the start line. Good on ya, mate.) There was some very close racing and, once again, I managed to keep my cool and not do anything stupid. I certainly enjoy this sort of close racing. It is simultaneously scary as hell and totally exhilarating. I'm thinking that Clubmans next year might be a good idea.
Lance Wagstaff learned the hard way why it is not a good idea to try and pass a Falcon. He ended up going off the track, hitting the tire wall and doing a reasonable amount of damage to his Saab. Actually the cause of the accident may have had more to do with a jammed throttle causing brake failure (Saabs are strange cars with strange engines) than having just passed the Falcon. Lance was not hurt in the accident, but that car is not going to be easy to fix. Saab parts are hard to come by in this country. Photos here (I took the posing photos of the Falcon to use in its log book).
Burnout competitions are just so cool. I was going to enter this one, but I didn't sort out some crap rims to use in time. It was proabably just as well, because I would have probably just broken something. Photos here.
It is interesting to compare how different clubs run the same sort of event on the same track. The Fiat Car Club seemed a lot less orginised that the Taupo Car Club - although this may simply be because the Taupo Car Club has run this sort of event more often. The Fiat Car Club start the cars at the proper start line where as the Taupo Car Club use the start line just outside the clubrooms. The Fiat Car Club also start the cars from where they line up at the grid rather that allowing them to move up to the start line.
My races went well. I overtook some cars and was overtaken by others. I managed to keep the Falcon on the track.
In my last race I was paired up with Brandon Elder in his Starlet. Our previous lap times were fairly close with Brandon's time being only very slightly faster. It promised to be a close race. Various comparisons were made. The Falcon was more powerful, but much more heavier. The Starlet was generally predicted to be faster through the corners, but the Falcon would be able to make up ground on the straight. Would it be enough? Strategies were discussed. Trash talk came from all directions.
My own thoughts were that my only hope of winning the race would be to beat Brandon to the first corner. If Brandon beat me he would pull ahead through the corners and I would be too far behind at the start of the straight to make any sort of overtaking manouver. If I could beat him to the first corner I could make myself difficult to pass. With this in mind, I decided to try and get Brandon 'over-excited' at the start line and hopefully he would have a bad start. Sadly, dispite my best efforts, Brandon had an exellent start and left me in the dust. This is the first time I have been beaten to the first corner at Taupo in the Toyo series. After that he pulled away fairly easily and finished well ahead of me. Nevermind - I'll get him next time.
Many thanks to Amy, who took lots of photos. Some of them are even good.
This was another fairly standard dual sprint at Taupo except for one thing - the weather. It was a fantastic day. One might even go as far to say that it was warmish. The Sun shone, the birds sang and engines with very little in the way of mufflers filled the air with their sweet sound. Ah, bliss...
Neil Moore (a young man who must be in his eighties) turned up at the track with his 1951 Jowett Jupiter. He was all the way from Invercargill. He had been touring New Zealand and just happened to pop in for a dual sprint. I spend a bit of time talking to him. He told me about his car and the changes to cars that happened in the '50s and '60s. Then he told me, "(his car) doesn't go very fast, but it pulls the chicks." Classic quote.
As far as the racing went, it wasn't a bad day. I didn't win all the races, but I also didn't fall off the track and didn't "overdo" things, which is something I'm working on. I tried very hard to concentarate on where I was going as well as the other cars. During the grudge match races at the end of the day I set a personal best lap time of 51.64 seconds. I was fairly keen on getting below the 50 second barrier this year, but that does not seem likely without some moderate modifications to the car. Perhaps I will aim for a sub 51 instead. Photos here.
Footnote: Given that the Taupo track is about to be significantly altered, it seems unlikely that I will ever get below 51 seconds.
Well, Pukekohe is turning out to be my bad luck circuit. About 3 laps into the first session, I had a spin. I went into the right hand sweeper after the front straight too fast. I carried too much speed into the left kink and front and back end of the Falcon swapped places for a bit. Thankfully, I stopped before I hit anything. The engine had stalled and I had trouble restarting it. When I finally got it going it wasn't running right. There was some electrical problem as the gauges where all over the place. I switched the engine off and re-started it again. This time the engine seemed to run okay, but the gauges were still messed up. In particular, the temperature gauge was showing very hot. I thought that I had loosened up a wire and had a bad earth (a problem that I've had before). I limped the car back to the pits. By the time I got there the temperature gauge was way off the scale.
I popped the hood and sure enough things were extremely hot. The alternater belt had broken (not just fallen off) and there was no coolant at all. As it sat there the plastic radiator reservoir popped up, indicating that is was very hot and under an immense amount of pressure. This should not happen as the radiator cap is supposed to let off excess pressure. I had to walk from the track to Repco (quite a descent hike) and get a new alternator belt. But the time I got back everything had cooled down and I fitted the belt (with a bit of cursing and swearing). Which brings me to an interesting piece of Ford Falcon trivia:
On the 3.9 litre engine (maybe others as well) the power steering belt tension is adjusted by two bolts, a big one (25mm) and a small one (13mm). The small one moves the idler pully to loosen or tighten the belt and the big one locks the position of the idler pully in place. I know this because I've refitted the power steering belt enough times to do it blindfolded. The alternator belt is also adjusted by two bolts, a big one and a small one. They look exactly the same as the power steering adjusting bolts. They are, in fact, exactly the same size. However, the big one moves the alternator to loosen or tighten the belt and the small one locks the position of the alternator in place. Exactly the opposite way around to the power steering.
Anyway, I also filled the cooling system up with coolant (I don't go anywhere in the Falcon anymore without at least 5 litres of pre-mixed coolant). I started it up and everything ran fine. There were no leaks anywhere and everything looked fine, so I went out in the next available session.
I gave the Falcon a good thrashing for entire session (about 10 to 15 minutes) and had no problems. The engine did not overheat - in fact, it didn't get much hotter than when I normally drive it around town. I finished the session and was quite happy. For the record, my lap times were around the 1:23 mark. A good start, but plently of room for improvement.
A bit later, I went to line up for the next available session and I could hear a screeching noise from the front of the car. This is a sound that I have heard before and is the sound of no brake pads left. I hadn't bought any spares. I could have gone to Repco and got some more, but I would not have had enough time to fit them before the end of the day. So I packed up and went home. I managed to drive from Pukekohe to Hamilton using only the engine and handbrake to slow me down. When I replaced them at home, I discovered that one had absolutely no pad material left at all. This has caused some damage to the rotor so that will need to be machined (or possibly replaced). Overall $90 + petrol + parts for one session is a pretty expensive session. Nevermind - that's motorsport. Photos here.
Things I don't understand about this experience:
Although I didn't have a particularly good day, at least it didn't go as bad as it did for one Porsche owner. He was testing his car for the Porsche GT3 Cup. His car was probably worth several hundred thousand dollars. He was following a Holden Commodore down the back straight. Something fell off the Holden (not particularily surprising) and hit the Porsche, causing it to crash. It caught fire and was completely gutted.
Unfortunately, this event was much like last year's - wet. It had been raining overnight and we had light showers throughout the day. This combined with a non-LSD made it very difficult to get any power down coming out of the corners. A lot of the time was spent (wasted) with just one wheel spinning. I managed to keep the Falcon in a straight line, which was better than most of the other competitors. While I was not nearly as apprehensive as I was last year, I certainly didn't want to put the Falcon sideways on that road. There isn't much room if something goes wrong.
The event was held in the usual 'one practice + three timed runs' form. After my second timed run, there was a fairly heavy shower of rain. The decision was made to abandon the racing for the day. In my opinion, this was the wrong decision to make. It rained harder than that last year and about half an hour after the decision was made it completely stopped raining. It would have been a much better idea to have delayed racing for half an hour or so and then reviewed the situation. But nevermind, I only lost one of my runs and it gave me some extra time to go home and get the radiator out of the Falcon so that it could be reconditioned. Photos here.
I thoroughly enjoy having a blat around Manfield - it is easily my favourite race track that I have been on. It is just a pity that it is so far away. I travelled with my mate Bjorn on the Saturday from Hamilton to Dannevirke with a stop at Napier to visit my mother. We stayed the night at Dannevirke with some relations. On Sunday morning we did the short drive to Manfield through the Manawatu Gorge. Unfortunately, we got stuck behind some slow traffic so we weren't able to have some fun.
At the track the surface was dry. The weather held for the whole day despite the forecast for some showers. There was a large number of racers, drifters and motorbikes. There were all sorts of different types of vehicles. There were two brand new Ford Falcon GTs (that were constantly racing together - how lame is that!), a new Ford Falcon XR8 and even a bog standard 1992 Ford Laser. In one session I blasted past the XR8 (260kw verses approximately 130kw) although I suspect he was more concerned about other people (i.e. me) hitting him than going hard. What kind of moron takes a $60k car to a race track and then drives it like a pussy because he is scared it might get damaged? Anyway, I also managed to pass the Laser, although it was not as easy as I would have thought. Maybe it was a 'sleeper'. I did get comprehensively beaten by the GTs.
The drifters were very entertaining to watch. The speeds that these guys drift at and the control of the car is amazing. There was even a dirty old Commodore out there drifting. I talked to the guy who was driving it, before the racing sessions started. I was interested in the design of the roll cage and didn't realise he was a drifter. Maybe I should take the Falcon out drifting...
Over the course of the weekend I did have some minor problems with the Falcon. On the Saturday night, part of the hand brake cable frayed and got jammed. I could not release the hand brake. After a lot of mucking around I finally managed to cut through the cable and pull the whole hand brake assembly out. Who needs a hand brake anyway? On the Sunday, it was pointed out to me that there was an exhaust leak somewhere. I have found it in the extractors. It makes the Falcon sound a bit like a tractor - if you know what it normally sounds like. While I was going around the track, the Falcon got very hot. This has been an on going problem for a while and I suspect that the radiator is partially blocked. The temperature gauge was right at the top and a couple of times the temperature warning light came on. It really isn't good to run an engine at that temperature - it is very easy to blow a head gasket - but I was enjoying myself too much to stop. After one session I noticed that the Falcon was leaking coolant. I let the car cool down and it pretty much stopped. I decided to call it quits for the day as I still had a long drive home. I probably only missed one or two sessions. It's time to get that radiator sorted I think. Photos here.
Last year the Toyo Tarmac Series Autocross was my favourite event of the year. This year was no different. Smooth concrete and a huge area make for a fantastic autocross venue. This year we had to contend with two large grandstands in the middle of the course, but that was probably more of a pain for the spectators than the competitors.
In the first run (a practice run were the time doesn't count) I was a little bit too loose. I put the Falcon into a big drift around the fast corner. Twice. The second run was far too loose. For many of the tight corners I braked too late and put the Falcon into big under steering slides. I went too fast around the final corner and had to stop and reverse to avoid a cone (and the timing crew). This resulted in a particularly crap time. My third run was nice and tight. Everything was smooth, fast and not over the top. My time was 8.5 seconds faster than the previous run. My forth and final run was pretty good, but not as tight as the third run. Despite this it was actually my fastest run of the day. I think the key here is to get the right balance between good clean lines and aggressiveness.
The day was very long. There were 46 cars entered. The average time for each run was about a minute and half with about 30 seconds between one car finishing and the next starting. At four runs each, plus a few break that made it about seven hours to get through everyone. Even still it was a great event and I am already looking forward to next year's event. Photos here.
This day proved, once again, how much I still have to learn about dual sprinting and track racing in general. Seems that I simply can not follow a car closely or be followed closely without screwing up. The most significant incident happened at the first corner (the sweeper) of the first lap of one of the rounds. I started out on the inside of a Holden Torana. I was beaten to the first corner without too much of a problem. Once the Torana was fully past me I attempted to drift out to the right side of the track to set myself up for a good outside line for the exit of the corner. But it didn't happen. Suddenly I was heading off the track and into the kitty litter (sand trap). Somehow I had been concentrating too much on the Torana and where I wanted to go, rather than where I was actually going. I buried the Falcon fairly deep in the sand.
Getting the Falcon out was a bit of a mission. Firstly, I haven't fitted a towing eye yet so it was quite difficult to find something to attach the hook to. Secondly, the quad bike did not have enough pull to get a big heavy, deeply buried Falcon out. We had to use the intervention vehicle (ironically another Falcon) and a good ol' shovel to move the Falcon.
After that I drove it to the pits. Horrible screeching noises were coming from the rear and I thought that I had finally done some significant damage to the Falcon. I jacked up the rear and had a look underneath. Although covered in sand everything look okay. After turning the wheels this way and that for a while a couple of stones fell out and the screeching stopped. I jacked up the front and everything looked fine there as well. I took the car for a bit of a test drive up the road and, once most of the stones fell out, everything seemed fine and I was happy enough to continue. Another lucky escape!
I am still not happy with my overall performance around the Taupo track. I think in this round I was trying far too hard and braking too late (see here and here). It might be time to have a bit of a reality check and try a different approach in the next round. A calmer attitude and smoother driving style might be the key to lowering the lap times. Photos here.
This 'autocross' was really a bent sprint and the 'gravel' was more like mud. This is definitely not my favourite type of event. I very nearly did some serious damage to the Falcon. At the end of a small straight I slowed down for a right hand corner. I thought that I had slowed down enough, but when I turned the steering wheel, nothing happened. I just carried on straight ahead (I was sliding). The other side of the corner dropped off down a fairly steep bank. I knew I was going over the bank. At first I thought the car would roll down it, but then I realised that it wasn't quite steep enough. However, I knew that once I started going down the bank I wouldn't stop until I hit a bunch of trees 15 - 20 metres down. The bank was too steep and too slippery. As I went over the top and started down the bank the car somehow magically just stopped. It was like God suddenly said, "I like your Falcon, Stephen, so I'm not going to let you wreck it today". I couldn't believe that the car had stopped. It was on about a 45 degree angle pointing down. It seemed like one of those cartoons were a car is perfectly balanced on the edge of a cliff and fly lands on the bonnet and the whole thing goes over. I was scared to move in case it started sliding. The guys came along with the tow truck and pulled me out. No damage to the car at all.
Of the 14 cars that entered the event 4 went home with damage ranging from minor panel damage to significant front end damage and definitely not drivable. I went for another run after that and did my best time of the day (which was nearly twice as long as the fastest time of the day).
In conclusion, Falcons don't make very good rally cars. Photos here.
This was the first event in another of my favourite motorsport series - the Taupo Car Club Dual Sprints. The weather was lousy, but this made for some great drifting around the hairpin. In fact, a couple of times Bjorn and I did some synchronised drifting. I quite enjoy racing in the wet. It becomes very technical. You have to really concentrate on what you are doing.
My mother came up for a bit of support and ended up helping out with the timing. Thanks Mum! Single photo here.
This was the first event in the 2005 Toyo Tarmac Series. It was a great series last and an excellent introduction to the various types of club sport events. The motorkhana is not the sort of event the Falcon will ever be very good at - too big and too heavy. So I took the opportunity to, once again, rid myself of excesss rubber. That always makes for a good day regardless of the results. Photos here.
I was looking forward to another chance to rid myself of excesss rubber but, once again, the weather did not play ball. It was too damp to get any real heat (i.e. smoking) into the tires. Despite this, much fun was had going sideways around the courses.
Halfway through the day a large touring bus broke down just opposite us on State Highway One. For some time we had a bunch of Asian tourist swatching us and, of course, taking photos. I did my best to put on a show for them. Photos here.
After doing most of my dual sprinting with the Taupo Car Club, it was a nice change to be at Taupo with the Hamilton Car Club. I had stayed the previous night at a motel with Sean Elder. After a few beers, he told me (over and over) how his Falcon was going to 'blow the doors' off my Falcon. We didn't end up going head-to-head. This may have been a deliberate decision by the organisers. Despite Sean's endless claims that I would be compressively beaten, at the end of the day my fastest time was about half a second quicker than his. One would think that next time I will not have to put up with Sean's endless predictions for an ass-kicking, but somehow I doubt that will happen. Photos here.
While my car does not quite qualify as a muscle car, I thought I might join in with the Ford Muscle Car Club's track day. There were some impressive cars there. Old ones, new ones, big ones and little ones. The day was run in a dual sprint format. It was great to be with a bunch of people who are as fanatical about Fords as I am. Photos here.
I was invited by a friend to join the Nissan 300NX Car Club on one of their track days at Taupo. I am always keen for a skid around the Taupo track, so I was happy to join in.
On the very first run (a track familiarisation run), the Falcon threw off its power steering belt - yet again. I simply could not be bothered putting it back on every five minutes, so I took the belt completely off. I expected the Falcon to be very difficult to drive without the power steering, but around the track it was hardly noticeable. Getting around the pits was a bit of an effort though. Thankfully the Falcon is getting an extra idler pulley installed this week that will hopefully fix this problem once and for all.
The track was fairly wet most of the time and the rain came and went for most of the day. This made for lots of sliding around, especially around the hairpin. Many cars spun off the track, but amazingly no one hit anything. I only lost control of the Falcon once - on the entrance to the esses. The Falcon slid very sideways and I applied the standard opposite lock to get the slide under control. The Falcon flicked the other way but not by as much. That slide was small enough that I could just hit the gas and drive out of it. I have been in this situation before and the 'flick' was much more violent and difficult to control. I suspect that the new suspension has made a great improvement here.
There was a crazy Asian guy there who had blown up his Nissan 300NX. Rather than miss the track day, he borrowed his mother's Mazda Familiar and drove that around the track. I bet he didn't tell his mother that was what he was going to do with her car!
It was a fun day with a couple of different types of events. One was a relay type race with the passing of an old hat. Unfortunately, one of the guys on our team got a little confused and did an extra lap. This put us out of contention for a prize, but it was fun anyway. The other type of event was a D.Y.O. style race. This was the race that I had my little 'moment'. Despite this I was still only 10 seconds over my dial in time. But my opponent was only one second over. Pretty hard to beat that. At the end of the day all the Nissan 300NXs did a parade lap around the track. Then they lined up for photos. It was quite impressive to see 25 cars exactly the same all lined up. Photos here.
I thought this might be a good chance to have some practice around the Taupo track. There was some guys there from Formula Challenge ("wings and slicks" style single seater racing cars). They were running a training day for one lucky guy (his girlfriend paid for the day as a birthday present - nice!). They had the track for about five sessions of ten minutes each and then went home at about 12pm. Other than that, I had the whole track completely to myself! It was so great to have a decent run on the track without having to worry about anyone else. I was able to practice the corners and experiment with different driving lines. I even managed to get smoke coming off the brake pads!
I did have problems with the Falcon getting too hot. After about 10 laps the temperature gauge was right at the top and I would have to stop for a while and let the car cool down. I suspect that the radiator may be partially blocked so I will need to pull it out at some stage and give it a good clean. Photos here.
In this event I thought it might be a good idea to get rid of a little excess rubber (the bit between the steel belts and the outer edge of the tire) on a pair of tires that won't pass their next WOF. That was the theory anyway. It turned out that the day was pretty wet, so despite my best efforts there was plenty of wheel spin, but not much reduction in rubber levels.
Having learned from the ClubSport Champs, I took my helmet and overalls even though I was pretty sure I wouldn't need them. It turned out that I did need my overalls even though they weren't required by the rules. While changing the rear wheels from the road worthy ones to the won't-pass-a-WOF ones it decided to rain. Not just rain, but absolutely pour down. As I was pushed for time, I couldn't stop, so I ended up soaked to the bone. But I had a nice dry pair of overalls to get into. Photos here.
This was the final round for the season. Strangely, there was not as many cars as I would have expected at the final. This did mean that I was able to get in eight practice runs before the racing started. My first three races went very well. In particular, my second race was brilliant. I had a reaction time of just 0.48 seconds and the elapsed time was only 0.05 of a second over my dial in. But then in the forth race I came up against a motorcycle. Our first run was not counted because of some malfunction in the timing computer. In the second race, I pushed a little hard and went under my dial in time and therefore lost the race. Unfortunately, there are no photos as it was too dark. Results here.
This event started on Friday afternoon with documentation and scrutineering at Research Motors. While this took a long time, it was a good chance to talk to the other competitors. And there was free Jelly Beans. The Falcon passed with flying colours of course.
The next day was an early start at Hopu Hopu for a 'gravel' hillclimb. The surface wasn't actually gravel, but grass and dirt. It was still more than enough to enable the Falcon to slide around a bit though. I found this very disconcerting. It was fun though and while my times weren't anything spectacular, at least I didn't have any woopsies like this guy or this guy (who are actually brothers - go figure).
After a quick stop at home to drop off a few things and to wash off the worst of the mud that the Falcon had picked up, I headed over to one of the car parks at the University of Waikato for the motorkhana. It was here that I learned an important lesson: read the supplementary regulations very carefully before any event. As motorkhanas are considered a low speed event, helmets and overalls are not normally required. In the New Zealand ClubSport Championships, however, overalls are required. This was clearly spelled out in the supplementary regulations that I didn't bother to read. I had dropped off my helmet and overalls at home. Being so tall there was no way I was going to be able to borrow anyone else's overalls so I had to drive home and get mine. Of course, I had to travel to the complete opposite side of Hamilton to get to my house. When I got back to the car park I had only missed one course out of six, but it was enough to pretty much put me at the bottom of the results table. Not that the Falcon was ever going to do particularly well at the motorkhana. There was not a lot of space at the venue and the courses were very tight. One was so tight that it was simply impossible to do without making a three point turn. Nevermind, it was a heap of fun.
The next day (Sunday) was the final event - the autocross. Because of the way that the starting order was worked out I had two runs fairly early on and then a big gap until the end. In fact, my third run was the last run of the day. The first run was a good tight run. I tried very hard to minimise wheel spin and keep the back end under control. This is the fastest way around a course but definitely not the most fun. On my second run I pushed a little harder, and was a little loser through corners. This resulted in a time that was more than four seconds slower that my first run. I also noticed that some of the corners were developing some ruts. By the time I did my last run the ruts had become huge. There was almost no need to steer through the corners because the wheels just followed the ruts. It was obvious that I was not going to get a good time with the course in such bad condition, so I switched to 'fun mode'. Lots of drifting, lots of wheel spin and heaps of dirt and dust flying everywhere. I logged a very slow time and hit three cones, but it was an immense amount of fun. I believe that it was also rather entertaining for the spectators.
Later on that evening, we had the prize giving. I picked up a couple of spot prizes (a jacket and helmet bag) for being a "mobile chicane". I'm not really too sure what that means, but it probably relates to my last run at the autocross. Overall, I was very pleased with the way the event went. I was on the organising committee and I think we did a really good job. There were no major hicupps and everything went smoothly. Results here. Photos here.
This was a trip where I discovered just how far it is from Hamilton to Gisborne. It is a long way. A really long way. I left Hamilton at about 3:15pm and arrived at Gisborne at about 9:00pm. Things were not helped by the Fairlane misbehaving. It was running far hotter than it normally does and every time I came to a hill the temperature gauge would shoot up. Going over the Kaimai range the engine got too hot and I had to pull over and let it cool off. The road going into Gisborne was very windy and not to the Fairlane's liking.
The next day we went into the middle of nowhere to set up the stage. I was stationed at the start of the stage three. Because of the weather which was drizzling or raining all day, I set myself up in the car. The timing when well with no major dramas. It was good to see the cars up close and have brief chats with the co-drivers. After everyone went through and the stage was closed, we went in search of some lunch and found a fantastic local pub.
In the afternoon we went off to set up the our next stage. This was a stage that had already been run in the reverse direction in the morning. A local resident came and let us know that the road had been cut up and he didn't want the road damaged any further. He wanted the stage cancelled and wasn't a very happy chappy. The information was passed on to Race Control and they decided to send someone through the stage to assess the road surface. This was done but unfortunately resulted in a major accident between the rally official and another local resident. No one was seriously hurt but one of the vehicles involved was completely written-off. The accident blocked the road and as a result the stage was cancelled. This actually worked in my favour because I got to leave for Hamilton earlier than I would have otherwise.
While I enjoyed the trip, driving from Hamilton to Gisborne and back in little over 24 hours is one hell of a mission. I had to drive back on the Saturday as the Round the Bays run was held on the next day. I think if the two are on the same weekend next year I will do one or the other, not both. The problem of the Fairlane overheating turned out to be nothing more than a faulty radiator cap.
Before this event I decided to try replacing the power steering belt to see if it would help stop the problem of it jumping off all the time. It turns out that I should have done this months ago. The belt jumped off on the first run that I did, but that was probably because I did not tighten it after it had been fitted earlier in the day. After that it sayed put, no matter how much I thrashed the Falcon. I will still need to fit an idler pully at some stage just to be safe, but it isn't so urgent now.
We used slightly different courses than last time. They were not quite as fast, but still got the adrenaline pumping. There were less cars than in the previous event and things ran a bit more smoothly. I also did not spend the whole night putting the power steering belt back on, so I ended up doing a lot of runs. On one course I did five runs and on the other I did nine. Once again, I can not wait to go for a blat around the whole circuit. Photos here.
To be honest, in the begining I was a little unenthusiastic about this event. It was expensive ($65 per round), I had to take time off work to do it and we were only going to be using a couple small sections of the track.
When I arrived, however, I must admit that it was something special to be at Pukekohe. It was like playing a game of rugby on your long-time favorite team's home ground - a place that you have seen them play many times before and never thought that you would play on, even if it was just with your mates.
First up was the reconnaissance run. While I was going over it I thought, "Gee, this actually looks pretty fast." Well, it certainly was. There were two courses running at the same time and in both I was able to get up to around 170kph. In one of the courses I was braking from about 170kph down to about 20-30kph to get around a chicane. That is a big stop! I absolutely can not wait to go for a blat around the whole track.
The only thing that spoilt the event was the fact that the Falcon kept throwing off it's power steering belt. I've put it back on so many times now that I have rounded off the nut on the idler pulley. I wasn't able to get it off so I had to drive home with no power steering. It wasn't really much of a problem except when it came to putting my car away at home. The S bend to get around the house and garage was a bit of an armful. Because I wasted so much time putting the belt back on, I only managed to get two runs on one course and one run on the other. This was very disappointing as the courses were a lot of fun. Photos here.
There were a heap of cars at this event. I only managed to get 5 practice runs. It was a very 'grippy' night. I would have expected this to mean quicker times, but this was not the case. I kept getting bogged down in first gear and dropping the revs too far. I was doing times of around 15.9 to 16.0. When it came to deciding what dial in time to use, I went with what I thought was a rather conservative 15.8. Of course, in my first race I blitzed that time with a record breaking 15.64 and lost the race. Nevermind. Despite the fact that this was 0.208 seconds faster than my previous best quarter mile time, it still didn't beat my best quarter mile speed. Weird. Results here. Photos here.
On the way to this event I spotted a race car on a trailer, obviously going to the same place I was. This was rather fortunate, because I had no idea where I was going. I followed the race car and got to the event with no problems.
It was a very hot and dusty day. The course was a lot of fun with some tricky corners. I managed some great drifts and avoided any 'over-drifts'. Later in the day there was a spattering of rain which helped to keep the dust down. After my last run, I left in a bit of a hurry and forgot to get my log book back. Thanks to Joanne for posting it to me a couple of days later. Photos here.
On the way home, the Falcon clocked up one third of a million kilometres. That's nearly the distance from the earth to the moon.
Another blat down the quarter mile. I got seven runs in before the rain came along and the event had to be canceled. I had some slightly bizarre results. I managed to break my quarter mile speed record, but not the time record. My fastest run of the night in terms of elapsed time was my forth fastest in terms of speed. My fastest run in terms of speed was my third fastest in elapsed time. Crazy. Full results here. Photos here.
A fantastic start to the year with an autocross at the club grounds. It was a very hot day and it did not take long for the dust to kick up. Some competitors kicked up more dust that others. It was extremely hot inside the car with long pants and racing overalls on. I had a heap of fun managed to keep the Falcon fairly well under control. Although I didn't have any major incidents, I ended up at the bottom of the results table, only beating Bradly Martain (12 years old, first ever autocross). Photos here.
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Content last updated 14:42:53 14-01-2006.
