Because of all the spare time I have at the moment the car was ready before Saturday, which would probably be a first!
I had pushed heaps of bird mesh up into the exhaust pipes as I could to try and reduce my noise level. A mate had also dropped off some racing fuel for the car, which was brilliant timing as we had pretty much run out as the 73a car went through over 70 litres of fuel during the World 240’s meeting at Rotorua.

After arriving at the track the cars were checked and prepared for the first race. The track looked a little damp so around 11psi was placed in the side tires and 20 in the outside tires. I had just put a new 500lbs spring on the outside front shock and placed the 450lbs spring on the inside front shock. The front before was very soft and was bouncing all over the place, hopefully the new spring would sort that out. I do still need to get a harder spring for the rear but that will have to wait.

Race 1.
Well I hadn’t been in the car for nearly a whole month and with the huge amount of changes we have been making to the car I got away to a poor start and got left behind those cars with plenty more torque than my engine. But I still managed to sit around behind 8a and 414a, so I was pleased. The best thing was with the new setup in the front the car was getting around the track quite well, without going silly and pushing the engine to hard. With all the sticky mud being thrown around and filling up the radiator I eased off a bit and turned on the water sprayer to keep the water temperature at bay. End of the race and everything was fine, the setup was an improvement as the car never really felt like it would spin around on me which has to be a bonus.

After race 1 we removed most of the mud off the car and rechecked the tire pressures as the next race the track would be harder and faster with all modified and super saloon racing that was going on.

Race 2.
It started off with a roar and a few thumps. Plenty more grip in the track this time round, of course it didn’t take long for my lack of power to show and soon the pack started to pull away. However I found a few better lines around the bends and about half way through the race I could see myself starting to peg back a few metres on the car in front of me. The car was slowly getting faster and faster reaching the end of the straights with more and more speed. Then out of nowhere around the corners a misfire came into play and I had to start dancing with the throttle to clear the miss as quickly as possible. Once the miss cleared, the tires dug into the ground and the engine leap into life. A few times the rear flicked around quickly, but between the changes to the steering and the new front suspension setup it took very little effort to straighten up the car and head down the straights as fast as possible. With about 3 laps to go I could feel that the engine was working pretty hard and was revving higher and higher. I looked down at the oil pressure gauge and at the end of the straight the pressure was dropping down to just under 20psi which is slightly less than normal, but the water and oil temperatures were reading fine. The thought did cross my that maybe I should pull off as the engine hadn’t revved this high, the little rev counter I have in the car was beginning to read very close to 8000rpm. Considering that this engine came straight out of car at a wreaker’s yard and we only changed the oil and cam belt I did think that I might slow down. But on the other hand it was going really well and I really need the track time so I pushed on.

Just one lap later coming down the front straight it was all over, there was a very loud bang, followed by a hit from the car behind me, I looked in the mirrors to see nothing but a haze of smoke bellowing from the car I grabbed the wheel and turned onto the infield. I grabbed the ignition switches and killed the power as I coasted across the infield. One of the infield crew started to walk over with a fire extinguisher, but I wasn’t concerned as there wouldn’t be much oil left in the engine. Then the guy taking the noise level readings came over and told me that my car was a bit loud, and I replied that it didn’t really matter much at the moment.

I got towed into the pits and we checked the engine to find out where the oil came from. One first glance and we couldn’t find anything, so we checked the remote oil filter and nothing. Then a quick flash of the torch under the engine mounting plate revealed a nice sized hole in the side of the engine block. So we loaded the car up onto the trailer and I went and watched the last stockcar race from the comfort of the back straight with all the other spectators.

So this does mean I will not be attending the Huntly champs, which is a shame as I think the car would have gone well down there.