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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.
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