Waikaraka Park - Opening Night

I think it has been a fair while since Superstocks were on the opening menu at Waikaraka Park. So work progressed to get at least 2 cars ready. The 63a engine at the beginning of the week was still in bits and Dad worked hard to find the time to finish it off. He finally got it back together and running on Friday night so it was getting close. Saturday was spent getting the trailer ready with spares and Wayne added some more sign writing to the cars.

At the park there already was a big stash of good looking cars, big congrats to everyone who made it, your machines made the place look great. Also the Park itself was looking refreshed and ready for a new season, the committee and promotions seemed to have made a real good effort. The biggest downfall was the apparent theft of the lap scoring gear. I'd love to see those sorts of people placed in a Honda and put out in a stockcar race. Finally to those Superstocks who came up to race from Huntly and Kihikihi, thank you very much for coming up. Hopefully there is enough incentive for you to return.

Prior to race 1 the first problem appeared, with my alternator not charging and I was loosing volts. While out in the parade the battery dropped to 11vots, and at 10.5 the ignition would cut out. So it was looking like race 1 was going to be very short. I even tried driving the car with the power steering switched off, I'm an IT Manager so it wasn't exercise that my arms were ready for! Phew! I also remembered to charge up some batteries for the in car camera, just a shame I charged up the wrong size, its been a while since I have used it.

Race 1 - Grid 6.
Green flag and were off! With dropping battery power the engine wouldn't rev properly so fell back a bit and I switched the steering back on. If the engine was to cut out anyway there is no point in having sore arms as well. Then on about lap 4 we got charge! Like a burst of NOS (well maybe more like a new piece of cheese in front of the mouse) the engine finally went past 7000 and I started making some progress and ended up 3rd behind 5k and 115h. Unfortunately Bryce brought the 63a car back in a little hotter than normal and it was discovered that a head gasket had blown. Maybe a result of rushing to get the car back together.

Race 2.
End of lap one and almost into 3rd until a push sideways from Warwick Ansty (414h) dropped me a few spots, back on the gas and got by 6k and open up a small gap on 15h before saying hi back at 414 at the end of the back straight. Down the front straight started catching back up to 414 and the engine cut out for a few seconds and once going again I had some warning lights appear on the dash so decided it was better to park it up rather than blow something on the first night.
Back in the pits everything tested out ok and with a quick change of a front wheel 53a was ready for race 3.

Prior to Race 3, Dad started to get the chains onto 63a so it could be winched up into the trailer and all of a sudden the guy in the standard stock beside us hit the rear of the car while trying to drive through the pits! This shifted the car and the result was the back of Dad's hand sliced open. While the pits can be a dangerous place there is no excuse for hitting a parked car. We are all still pretty darn annoyed about it, thankfully I understand later that night the driver did apologize. But if we ever have to run off the back of the stockcars then fingers crossed the planets end up being aligned, as in my mind he has already hit us.

Race 3 - Grid 3.
Off the line Warwick was up to it again and from where I was appeared to take the bulk of the pack out to the wall leaving me a gap to sneak up the inside and into the lead. I think I kept the lead for the first few laps until I caught a glimpse of 115h behind me, so I pushed even harder but that didn't turn out very successful. I figured once he went past I'd have one chance to try for the spin but I was about 30cm to short. I followed him to the finish ending up in 2nd, not before being chased down by 414h and I stepped on the gas to early exiting turn 2 half spinning the car. While in the middle of correcting it I saw 414 coming down from the high side and I tried to aim for him but next I knew I was in a cloud of dust heading backwards. On the clutch, flicked the car around, found 3rd and gave it a boot full to end the race.

So can't complain to much about how the car went. This coming weekend is Huntly's opening so Bryce will be taking the 53a car along as I will be away.

Thank you to Greg for the use of his photos, don't forget to check out his blog.....http://gregobro.blogspot.com/

Catch ya....MadPhil