20th July 2009: Off Season Update 73a

Well we should recap the last season before we start preparing the car for the upcoming season.

We had some major highs and lows last season, after the new 73 being on debut at the 2008 teams nationals we had high hopes for the 2008/09 season.

Unfortunately we started off badly and it took most of the season to get back on track.

We had a fast car but a bad handling one as well. We would run some of the fastest laps in the race but also some bad ones. This took a couple of weeks to solve and then we seemed to be losing power, almost weekly. This resulted in our worst run at the World 240’s, basically gave up and put the car in the truck.

The following week at the track, over heard the crew talking about how little fuel the car was using and you guessed it problem was fixed and back the power came. This was perfect timing as we where due to go to Palmerston for the Teams racing.

This was the biggest low of the season for us, as we regard teams racing as the high point of the season’s events. There are quite a few reasons that a Auckland Team didn’t attend last years Palmerston event and hopefully this will not happen again.

Back in Auckland we had a good couple of nights racing where with the power now back we where able to get the setup back to scratch and turned in some good results.

We competed in the Auckland Teams Nationals where we finished third, this being a respectfully finish. We did take a few rather heavy hits during the weekend and it wasn’t until the speedfeast at Huntly that the car ran again. This was a night to forget also.
1st Race Broken clutch linkage. (Could not change gear)
2nd Race Broken throttle linkage.(No throttle)
3rd Race Broken engine belts. (Engine overheating)

Looking back we have had better seasons, but you need a bad one to realise when a good one comes along. Not going to be doing a lot to the car this off season as it has good pace but just need a little bit of luck.