53a Auckland Teams Champs

With a new (standard) engine finally in the car we were luckily enough allowed to get the engine some 'under load' running time while the Waikaraka Park track was being graded and setup on the sunday prior to the Auckland Stockcar Teams champs weekend. We ran the engine at from between 3500 and 5000rpm for about 20 minutes, this was enough time to get the water and oil temperatures up high enough to make sure the engine would keep its oil pressure and not over heat. Currently we are using Valvoline VR1 oil which seems to be working, but once the temperatures rise the oil pressure drops off a bit to much so we might change to a thicker grade for the next meeting. Anyway the engine was run in which was the main objective.

Teams Champs - Friday Night

On the Friday night of the Teams Champs I was told that the Bay of Plenty Renegades might have been a car short for the second night. Even though the engine had not been tried out at full rev's and the inside side rail is not as strong as we would really like I decided that I would offer my car (and me) to the team. My only main concern was the gearing in the diff, I did try to find and borrow a set of 7.9 gears which would pull the engine revs back slightly. We run a set of 8.0 gears in the diff and the moment and with those I can reach 7800+ rpm at the end of the straights so I did want to pull the revs back a bit more. After meeting Rick Taylor and Mad Marty they said they would be more than happy to let me have a run with the team.

As the car was pretty much ready it was only the normal jobs, like check the suspension, steering and engine mount bolts. Clean the air cleaner, check the oil etc and review the current list of spare parts.

Saturday Night

Unfortunately I wasn't able to borrow a set of gears so I retarded the ignition timing a little, which reduces the engine output resulting in less acceleration and less rpm's at the end of the . Of course the engine is down on power so it felt really stupid slowing the car down, but I decided it would be better to do that and finish the season with an engine that has all of its pistons working. After talking with the officials I was permitted to give the car a run with the standard stocks in their first race, under the condition that I stayed right out of the way as it was the 40th anniversary stockcar race.

Before the grand parade a message came through the pits that the Bashers (or whatever the other teams name was) so also a car short, but we thought the std stock I had replaced was down the far end of the pits. Unfortunately that wasn't to be so it looked like there was now 7 cars where 8 were required. It was a shame but no other car could be found to fill in the hole, so it was decided that the Teams race would only be a 3 on 3 and as I was just a fill in I would sit on the infield. But if a car from either team had a failure during the hot laps I would fill in.

40th Anniversary Stockcar Race.

I started off from the back straight and slowly gave the car a warm up. The track was a little slippery being the 3rd of the night but everything was working well. I gave the car a few good hard bursts of speed but didn't go silly, only taking it up to around 7000rpm before backing off. It wasn't long until I started passing the back markers and I made sure to give them plenty of room and I tried not to interfere with their special race. Once I started getting into groups of cars I pulled off but I was still happy with how the engine was running.

Teams Race - Bashers V's Renegades

It was a bit of an anti climax really, I was quite looking forward to having a run in a teams race for the first time. All I had to hope for was that someone had a problem after the hot laps. But no, everyone seemed fine so I drove onto the infield and waited for the race to finish. Although I think my partner was quite happy that I didn't race as she was against the idea in the first place :)

Unfortunately the Team I was going to run in was a car down before the end of the second lap, leaving only Rick and Marty and try as they may the Bashers were just to much for them.

Historic Stockcars

The Historic Stockcar club was also on hand this night ready to give the crowd a demonstration. Both Bryce (73a) and I were asked if we would go out and start the race, followed by a couple of std stocks, and then the older cars. Just as a demo to show the spectators how stockcars have evolved over the years. Unfortunately during the few lap we did the engine started to miss quite badly. The ignition system wasn't showing any signs of failure so I guessed it must have been fuel related.

Back in the pits I decided it wasn't worth pulling the fuel system apart because there wasn't going to be anymore A Grade racing for me, leaving just the last std stock race to go out in if I wanted to run the car again.

As the cars for the last std stock race began to line up on the dummy grid we counted them and as there was only a dozen or so I jumped in the car and headed out for one last race. Once again I started off the back straight and with the track a bit harder I thought I'd be able to give the engine a harder run to see if we could work out where the misfire was coming from.

That was the end of the night however, so we packed up and headed home.

Catch ya......MadPhil