Auckland Car Club

Race Report - October 29th


Race Report - Pukekohe 29th Oct 2011

 

The first meeting at Pukekohe went very well - we had one driver turn up with a club license -  sadly no racing,  and I nearly lost a wheel off my trailer a few km's away from the track, but other than that it all went to plan.  It was a beautiful day, with a few showers early on. The track was dry and so were we - a few of us squeezed into one pit bay. 

With the regulatory business out of the way we had a practice session and then were placed with the slow saloons and Alfa Trofeo Cup cars. Brett got a 'welcome to racing' shunt in his driver’s door from a fast Escort, with cold tyres and brakes, going into the hairpin - but what a great attitude he has. Brett shrugged it off saying that was why he bought a little track car and it was no big deal. I reckon he was a bit excited about getting a tap. Always an odd experience after driving on the roads and never expected. 

Race 1 - sadly the announcer decided to only call the Alfa's to the starting grid so Torry missed the race. When you're new at racing and don’t realise things like this will happen it sure makes life difficult. 
And - unfortunately I missed race 1 of the series I have worked so hard to get going as well due to an 'issue' with my car and the scrutineers. It is very hard to know who is right sometimes - my car was up to scratch at the last meeting, and when it had its full check for an authority card, so to be put out 5 minutes before the race start was bloody irritating. Good lesson perhaps - just not too sure what it is I am meant to learn yet other than motor racing officials have not changed much over the years. 
Anyway it was a good race and the others had a load of fun. Steve diced with the Alfa's in his Lotus and made an irritation out of himself - well done. 

Race 2 - saw us all grid up and as everyone knew roughly what to expect we all had our 'marks' on certain drivers to beat. There was some late breaking into the hairpin to keep things tight with the cars ahead and Torry and I did our level best to take up the whole track at the back and generally make it hard for the fast cars to lap us - but we left racing room and nobody got hurt. It was great watching the big Mk3 roll around bends and Alfa's wondering which side to overtake on! Risky business indeed. It’s a very well turned out car. 

Race 3 - reverse grid generally means I get to be in front for at least a few corners and again Torry behind me (for a bit) meant we could hold out others and let them test their race-craft in passing us. Plenty of late braking into the hairpin saw a few interesting looks on faces as the little Starlets came back underneath a few of the faster cars. Brett had a big issue on the last lap and parked up with possible gearbox problems - keep us posted Brett. 

Steve was very close to breaking out of the 1:16 time barrier in his Lotus but everyone was within the time barrier set for the track. This means we have worked it out about right so far. 
We had a couple of people come and talk about the class with us - I had one guy curious as to what exactly were the rules governing a class where a later model Starlet was racing a Mk3 and a Lotus Elise! 
ACES+ means 'All Cars, Engines, Styles - Plus (others)' I think we have a good formula to build on here and I do hope the word spreads and we get more cars. 

Thanks to everyone for coming out and giving it a go. 
See you all next round.