Karaka School Wheels Day - Friday 11th March

With another engine rebuilt the 53a machine was finally running again. Basically we had worked on the engine for a week and a half and finally on Thursday night (10th) it roared into life. To only be silenced again by an oil leak, so early on Friday morning the leaking fittings were removed and quickly re-welded and the brakes and clutch systems bleed. What's all this rush for? Well I had been asked to bring the car along to the Karaka School Wheels Day.

The Wheels Day was a fund raising event for the up and coming school camps. It meant that the kids could bring along their bikes, skateboards, scooters etc and provided the correct safety gear was used they could play with these 'wheels' over lunchtime. So as Stockcars are built to be safe and have wheels it seemed like a great opportunity to display the 53a car and give the young kids some idea that older kids do still play with toys. While the car isn't covered in chrome and polished bits, the paint is bright and the car still looks good.

I arrived at the school and got the car unloaded just before lunch time and parked it up down on the bottom field. Just for safety I removed the main fuse so that over the lunch period the car couldn't be started by accident, and during lunch time some of the kids took an interest and checked the car out. Once lunch was over the whole school came down and sat at the edge of the field and I parked the car in front of everyone and started to explain what a Stockcar is and how we race them. Of course I am not normally a public speaker and I did try hard to not use any technical terms, I think I explained things alright.

After my explanation I answered some really good questions, like why is there no glass, what fuel do we use, how much does cost, what engine does it have, why are there no doors, and heaps of others which was really cool that the kids wanted to know more.

After this I jumped in the car, put on my helmet, belted up and burst the engine into life. I had to be quite weary of the oil pressure and engine rev's as I had noticed that a small amount of oil was still leaking, but there was no way I could disappoint the kids and not do a couple of laps around the field for them.

I did 4 laps and gave to car a few bursts of speed to show how the car lifts with acceleration. The first time around the far goal I got caught out with way to much wheel spin and ended up very close facing the post so I jumped on the gas and completed the spin. Better to spin out that take the goal out I reckon. So after the 4 laps and plenty of noise I parked the car up again in front of the kids and there was definitely a few smiles around the place.

After the speed/lap demonstration the real little kids went back to their classes leaving the 3 senior classes down on the field. We had decided that each class would pick a team and each would race against the clock to change the front wheel. I never would have thought that changing a wheel could be so much fun! The classes were cheering for their teams and also trying to put others off, it was really neat. After the class teams had their turns, the teachers had a go as well to see if they could beat the time set by the kids.

I am not sure of the times that each team had, I'm sure the teachers will say they were the fastest but I won't comment on how accurate the timing might have been. All the teams did really well and they put a huge amount of effort into the task at hand.

After the tire changing competition we gathered around the car with the bonnet off to explain a few more things about the car, why the engine is offset, why we don't have a speedo etc.

In conclusion I reckon the afternoon was a great success for everyone including myself. I had an awesome time and am very thankful that the school invited myself and the car out for the demonstration. Some of the kids (and teachers) probably had never seen a vehicle such as the 53a Stockcar and to be able to get up this close is something that doesn't happen very often.

So thank you Karaka School for an awesome afternoon.

Catch ya...MadPhil

(Oh and thank you to my new employer who gave me time off work considering it was only my first week)