The season has started!
As well as the hectic times developing the new V-8 engine, We’ve also raced the first two nights at Western Springs of the 06/07 season. With the high standard of racing now its important to get as many laps on the track as we can, lest we get left behind.
Luckily we still had our Toyota powered number 88 TCR car from last year in the workshop, and she didn’t take too much time to ready for the season. We did a successful practise day in this car, before running the opening night on the 4th of November. Disaster struck in the first race. One fuel injector nozzle become blocked, causing that cylinder to starve from fuel and run hot. By the time I realised the engine had a problem and runned off, the damage was done.Back it the pits we pulled the plugs and confirmed our worst fears – the overheading cylinder had melted a hole in one of the pistons. Complete engine re-build required…Not really what I needed after 3 hectic months working almost very night on the V8!.
Still, things have to be done and we had to race at the springs in a weeks time, so the engine was removed on Monday and stripped ready for a rebuild and freshen up. Big thanks to Lynn Rogers and Adrian at Franklin Cams for their help and ability to put other things aside to help me when the time pressure was high. This eposide also showed the advantage of the F2 class, all the parts were easily and cheaply available from the local Toyota dealer and we were back in business quickly.2am Saturday morning and Matt Houston and I finally finished the cam timing on the engine and she was finish. Time to go home and catch up on a distinct lack of sleep. Thanks to Justin and the Wood-duck racing guys who came in Saturday morning as I slept and installed the motor in the car. I arrived at 10 and these guys had done the bulk of the work already.A few issues with the oil pump slowed our progress but we were able to solve these and were able to fire up the re-built engine just after lunchtime. She fired up quickly, sounded great and was leak free. Time to load the trailer and head to the race track.Another night to forget at Western Springs!. I think the late nights and rushed preparation came home to roost tonight, and no amount of Go Fast sports drink could really overcome it. I had a self-caused spin in the first heat which put as on the infield, as no restarts are allowed in the heats now.Second heat started well, we were off the back but made up 4-5 places on the first lap. The rebuilt engine was great!. A couple of cars spun up in PineTree bend, rather than try to dodge them, I felt it safer to spin the car and stop short of the accident. Unfortunately, in avoiding the accident I also fell foul of the no restarts rule and ended the race on the in-field.The two dnfs put us in the repecharge, starting grid 13 with 4 to the feature. I struggled in this race, and track was difficult and we’d missed the set-up by being too soft in the right rear. I pushed to the finish line in 8th place but didn’t feel happy with the performance.Pretty much a night to put behind us!!. A weeks break ahead and then the first round of the Midget All-Stars series in Napier 25th November. We will install a Sesco Mopar engine in the new 88 car until the V8 is ready, this will give us valuable time in the new chassis and with a good engine too. It will also really help benchmark the V8 and let us know where we stand with it. Thanks to all my friends who have helped in the last few months, its been difficult and would have been impossible without the help. Thanks again to Ian and the Transitainer team for the support in the hard times as well as the good ones!.