Waikaraka Park Practice Day 20/01/07

It has been a fair while since last time I used the 53a Superstock (and updated the web site), and with the minor but annoying problems we have had at the first few meetings we decided that a practice run was just what the car needed. Neither of our cars headed to Rotorua for the 240 champs as Bryce had just come back from holiday and my partner and I have just taken possession of our first home so going away for the weekend was just not an option. However a couple of hours spent at a practice was well worth it…..even though I was meant to be unpacking.

With the car still sitting in the transporter from our last meeting at Kihikihi (17/12/06) everything was ready to go. On arrival there were a handful of cars from each class present in the pits waiting for a run which was good to see. It is great that the track was made available for a practice as it is a good opportunity for drivers and crew to check over the cars and try different setups which you might not do during a normal race meeting. So a big Thank You to all those that made the day possible.

Stockcars (including Superstocks) were out early on a fairly damp track with a few slushy parts closer to the pole line, but after a few laps of wheel packing the lights went green and the engines started to rev. As only the outside was drying quickly, there were only a couple of good lines to run on and I got caught out trying to pass one of the stockcars up the inside coming out of pit bend and around the car went. I waited for a good sized gap and pulled back out. Quickly coming up on the back of a couple of stockcars I was patient and waited for opportunities to get past as there was very little traction off the drying line. Near the end of the run the car was getting quicker until I caught up on a small bunch of cars, which I cruised around behind for a few laps, then got bored and went to go around the outside and got cut off a few times. So just before the run ended I tried again to get by again as the inside of the track was not as slushy, but of course drivers don’t like seeing others go by so I felt a couple of bumper taps. The run was then over and went to drive off the track, went for the clutch and it wasn’t where it should be! The rod holding it all together had vibrated loose and come off so the pedal was on the floor!

So after being pushed into the pits it was luckily a quick fix and the car was ready to go again.
The second run started much better as most of the track was moist and I was getting lots of drive and grip in the corners. With more drive and speed some strange characteristics of the car were showing. The power delivery was very strange, the car would pull fine out of the turns, then gets a burst of power, then it slows its acceleration a bit, then 3 quarters the way down the straight it accelerates a second time throwing the car deep into the corner. This at least meant carrying plenty of speed into the turn which was good as I was able to pass the stockcars around the outside down the straight or up the inside exiting the turn. Remembering of course the engine is still way down on power compared to the others, but a bit more makes driving more fun. One other strange feeling comparing the 53a and 73a cars is that when sliding out of the corner normally you can take some pressure off the gas pedal and allow the car to straighten up a little, then dump the accelerator again. In my car if you lift ya foot the car will spin, so out of the turns the go pedal has to down as much as possible to keep the car drifting until it straightens up. I don’t know how many laps we did on that second run but it was a fair number and the engine started to get hot, I slowed down to read the gauges and turn on the water sprayer but got caught out by going too slow and the car spinned and stalled. Not good! As at those temperatures it makes starting very hard and the engine wouldn’t fire up and the temperature shot up leaving me quite concerned. Facing the wrong way I glanced up watching the few stockcars coming down the back straight. Being that it was the afternoon and a nice day I wasn’t concerned that they couldn’t see me sitting there and they slowed down and went by (as there was heaps of room due to me being parked by the wall). However one all by itself did manage to drive into the front of me, not sure how that happened but perhaps it was a new driver.

For the third run I asked Bryce to give the car a run to get his input to the chassis setup and engine power delivery.
He did a number of laps, so many in fact I got bored using the video camera and switched it off, but his impressions of the car were the same as mine. Considering that I have spent less than some drivers spend on std stocks (oppss sorry I forgot that class was killed by people spending so much money that they are now called stockcars and not the budget class they should be), the car performs quite well, won’t win anything but is a heap more fun than watching from the other side of the fence.
Bryce has suggested that we reset the complete setup back to our standard base and start adjusting from there again to see if we can get back more throttle control over the rear end. As for the strange acceleration we might play around with the carburetor and see if that gives us smoother power delivery.

Our next meeting will be the Saturday night of the New Zealand Modified Champs at Waikaraka Park, Auckland. The Modified class can produce some amazing racing and I am sure this will be a fantastic meeting to attend, more information can be found on the tracks web site www.waikarakapark.com. Best of all we might see a change of transporter for the weekend.

Catch ya…..MadPhil

P.S. Once I work out how to extract the video from the camera to the pc I’ll upload some laps.