Waikaraka Park: 24th November 2007

Wow, the week leading up to racing was really busy. It all began the week before having to strip the rear of the car to send the diff off for repairs, while the diff was out I tried to tidy up the orange paint work. Now the concept of painting is very simple, but trying to cover dark patches with an orange that is based with yellow got the best of me. I was tired of having to put on 5 coats of paint to get coverage, so noticing that Dad had heaps of grey paint I decided that it was time for a change. I thought we weren't racing for a couple of weeks so I began to tear the car apart. Then once 80% of the car was sitting in bits on the workshop floor I was told, the diff has been repaired and there is racing this week. With a long week of work and social functions ahead I didn't think I would make it. But with plenty of help (thanks to everyone) at 3.30pm on saturday the car drove out off the hoist and was pulled up into the trailer.

Might I just add that the trailer is fantastic and that Dad and Wayne have done an awesome job replacing the side doors and finishing the belly boxes, new airlines etc. I think there is just a few more small tasks to finish off but it was completely brilliant. There is nothing comparable to hauling both cars to the track with one trailer and 380 big Volvo horses.

Race 1.
Starting right off the back and I got away to a bad start, completely my fault as it wasn't in gear. The track has had a new surface which provided a pretty drivey surface, which held the engine revs back a fraction more than normal. Anyway I managed to catch up to the pack, getting past a couple of cars. I attempted to dive up the inside of 51a but in the process I managed to turn myself around. Back on track and facing the right way I had of course lost heaps of ground of the leaders. I headed off marking my progress lap by lap and could see I was catching 73 and 75 nearly half a lap ahead. I caught up to the back of 61 with about 2 laps to go and noticed the engine water temp at around 120 so I eased off the gas and flicked on the water sprayer. Knowing I had done enough to get the diff warm and oil heated I was eager to find out if the repairs to the diff had worked so I just cruised the last couple of laps.

Back in the pits the diff looked good but I was told that there were some strange noises coming from the car, after hunting around we couldn't find anything wrong.

Race 2.
Off the front and I got away well, but don't really remember now much of what happened except on about lap 3 perhaps the car started to vibrate something terrible, so bad I couldn't hang onto the steering wheel and I had to pull onto the infield. As I slowed the vibration went away so I guessed there was a problem with the drive shaft. However sitting on the infield I counted about 8 cars with the engine running I thought I might as well putt down and cross the line at the end of the race to at least get a point and perhaps some $. But would you believe my luck, as soon as the checkered flag dropped and I got ready to cross the line the engine cut out and the dash lights died, I had run out of electricity! Maybe the chassis doesn't like the new paint?

Back in the pits we found that the drive shaft had come loose from the gearbox and oil was coming out of the rear seal and shifter. So not wanted to destroy the gearbox I threw the towel in for the night and headed up to the stands to watch the rest of the nights racing. It was great to see a good number of Auckland Superstocks at the track, there was a time a few years ago with only 3 or 4 cars so to now have 10+ with a couple more still turning up its looking like a good season for our class.

So now its back into the workshop for a couple of weeks where the gearbox will need to come out and hopefully we can adapt a manual fan for cooling, as for the grey, well the jury is still out on that, I need to get the sign writing finished but I am still trying to decide if I change the blue for a bright purple and give in and buy a large wing?

Catch ya....MadPhil