Waikaraka Park 13/11/2010

Our first night at Waikaraka Park for the new season, shaped up to be a boomer, until of course the power went boom. The goal for the first night as always is mainly to run the cars and iron out any little bugs so it was good to get at least one run before it was to dark. It was a real shame as the Park was looking fantastic and there was a big crowd on hand for the fireworks.

The 3 cars were in line to be all ready but an unforeseen accident took Bryce away from completing the final few jobs on the 73a car. So for this night he would pilot 63a. We were all disappointed to not have 3 cars ready, but thanks to great support from both Huntly, Rotorua and Kihikihi there were plenty of cars on hand for the night. That support is fantastic to have and I am sure the club greatly appreciates it as much as we do.

Doing the final checks on the car we noticed that the wheel base was completely wrong, which was easily changed. But we decided to leave last seasons old (almost bald) rear outside wheel on and not reset the suspension. This would make the car a real handful to drive, but the extra stresses would be good for the components to make sure everything would free up nicely after sitting for so long.

Race 1, Grid 2.
Not the best start and with not much grip it took a while to get up to speed, but a new season had started and I was out there...how cool is that! Paul Vasey in 351a hooned off into the distance and shortly I found myself slipping back and being past by a few cars. There was a few air bourne moments through turns 1 and 2, which I am definitely feeling in the neck today. Soft IT people syndrome I guess. Unfortunately I took the wrong entry into turn 1 on the last lap which meant getting right off the gas which was enough for 82r to come up the inside down the back straight and into turn 3. Thinking about it afterwards instead of trying to keep my boot into it, I should have backed off earlier and tried to cut back up the inside and push him out to the wall. But those thoughts still need to make their way back into the mind set.

 

Back in the pits we checked the car over and decided to replace the rear wheels and adjusted the suspension in preparation for race 2.

Then the lights faded and it was all over, so we now focus for the next event which in Auckland is about 3 week away unless we can find somewhere else to go course.

Catch ya....Phil