With Waikaraka rained out the previous night we had 3 cars all ready to race and no where to go. So after a quick review of the weather forecast for sunday, it looked promising that Kihikihi would be racing. After a quick call to the Superstock Rep to make sure they would accept visiting cars we decided that traveling to Kihikihi would be a good idea.

However Bryce had decided that he needed to get down to his bach and do some tidy up before summer. Which of course left me with a brilliant idea, why unload his car from the truck and load mine when I could just use his! After a slight hesitation he agreed. It wouldn't have bothered me as with the track being quite short even my car went ok down there last time, but when there is an offer of more power you never say no.

We only just made it to the track on time with Lance (26a) arriving shortly before us. The trip seemed to take longer than we remembered but that was fine, the view of the countryside was nice. Upon arrival it was good to see a half dozen cars including the updated 11a for the first time. Being that I haven't sat in the 73a car for a while we had to just the belts and try to get myself comfortable.

Race 1.

I got left behind from the start and it took a few laps to get use to the car. We didn't change any of the car setup which was set for Waikaraka so I had to fight the car for a while until the track dried out a bit. Because it was so wet and slushy to begin with I kept on losing to many revs and in the 73a car if it drops below 4500rpm the engine floods up and won't clear itself. But once cleared you get a kick in the pants and it takes off. As the track dried out and I started to make my way back up through the field. I watched the 11a pull off with engine trouble and after passing a couple of others I ended up second where I finished the race.

Race 2.

With the track hardening up on the inside and starting 3rd on the grid I felt confident of a good result. With 271h in front of me and the advantage of being near the pole line things were looking good. The flag dropped and so did the clutch. Unfortunately I had forgotten to drop my visor so after spitting out a handful of dirt I grabbed top gear and pulled the visor down. Down the back straight and 271h had opened a small gap but he hit the next bend a little hot and the car started to spin. I had nowhere to go so I hit the brakes to scrub off some speed and whack I hit the 271 car on the front wheel, which helped to push it out of the way but by the time the engine cleared most of the pack had gone past. I tried to drive the car hard to catch up and was making good progress. After catching and passing the stockcar for second place I started to try harder to hunt down the 28k Superstock. Unfortunately I started going to fast into the bends and kept getting slowed down by the slushy outside track, which caused the engine to drop below 4500rpm. I made that mistake once to often and the Stockcar in third snuck up the inside. I caught right back up but didn't quite manage to get past before the race finished.

Race 3.

As the day was getting quite warm I decided I'd wait until after the final Minisprint race finished before jumping in the car and heading off to the dummy grid. This was the best decision I made all day as in the first corner of their race about 15 cars turned in and only 5 came out onto the back straight. A very impressive pile up!

The last race we were in with the Stockcars starting from the back straight. 28k got a good start and I followed close behind. The track had dried out and got very hard and very rutted (not as bad as Baypark though, but still very rough). I managed to keep within a couple of car lengths with the 28k car for the first few laps and then I found a slightly better line and was catching up while driving around and through traffic. Then a couple of Stockcars had crashed into the back straight and the red lights came on, a quick check in my mirrors to make sure it was going to be safe to stop and I started to ease up and apply the brakes, but 28 had not seen the lights and kept going. I snuck a few more meters but by the time he had stopped the 10m gap between us had grown to nearly half a lap. Well I about to back up but I looked over and the marshal had only move him back around 1 car length, so I decided that I wasn't going to move back. I was a bit hacked off considering that I was catching him, so as I watch the cars being towed off the track and the marshal heading back to the infield I got the car ready for the green. Hooked 3rd gear, brought the revs up slowly and when the green came on I had just under 5000rpm ready and dropped the clutch, the track being so dry the rear wheels started to smoke and I laid a couple of nice big black marks on the ground and I took off perfectly. I left the 2 cars behind me in a cloud of dust and caught up nearly half the gap to 28k from the restart. Unfortunately as what happened in the second race I was trying to hard, and with a few laps to go I applied to much power to soon exiting the pit bend and I hit a rut. All at once the car picked itself up and spun, I dumped my foot hard on the floor to flick the car back around quickly but I caught a larger rut and the car went straight into the wall. I was so annoyed! I grabbed the gear stick threw it over to the left and back to grab reverse, but no that was second so when I dropped the clutch I went straight back into the wall...bonk. Only after the 4th attempt did I manage to catch reverse but by then the race was over.

Conclusion

What a nice day for racing, while things didn't quite go to plan we had a good time and it was Lance's first visit to Kihikih and he did really well which was excellent. While we could have got the 73a going a bit faster by changing the diff gears or playing with the shock/spring weights or even setting the tire pressures properly I still had fun and that's the main thing. The only problem is that racing on a Sunday afternoon takes up the whole day (started preparation @ 8.45am and didn't get home until 8pm due to shocking traffic problems on state highway 1), and considering we spent most of Saturday getting the cars ready for Waikaraka. It was defiantly a speedway weekend.

Catch ya.....MadPhil