Clipsal 500 18th to 20th March 2011
From Auckland to Melbourne then Adelaide, picked up a car then off to the BRM workshop. Superlux and New balance signage looked great on the deep blue BRM background. Dad and I drove around Adelaide to figure out the best way to and from the track prior to mad race day traffic.
This event is huge with big name stage shows, exotic car displays, children's entertainment, a real carnival atmosphere.
BRM have a massive transporter with air conditioned kitchen and dinning, workshop etc. Great facilities especially in a hot climate. Spent Wednesday setting up and watching Steve Giles our race engineer dig "foundations" for the set up pad.
Steve runs Giles Motorsport NZs top TRS team, he also worked as an engineer with McLaren for 20 years. Another perfectionist in the same frame as Peter Cox.
I did 2 track walks and later Dad and I sneaked in the Corolla and with our hazard lights on managed to do 2 laps before we were made unwelcome by official looking types.
This is a complicated technical circuit which takes no prisoners, concrete walls for Africa in the most threatening places.
I really enjoyed Thursday's practice and clocked some good times between the numerous red flags. I remained in the top 6 and felt there was more speed in it.
Qualifying
25 of the best lined up to do battle. Always a great sight to see so many Formula Fords. Again endless wrecks. I gained P1 at the outset and with continual improvements maintained that position until the 2nd to last lap when I was bumped to P4. With one lap to go I gave it every bit of concentration I could muster... sector 1 was second fastest , sector 2 fastest , sector 3 my best ever, then a red flag stuffed up the 4th and final sector. My team calculated that it could have been a P1 or P2 time.
Race 1 Friday
From P4 an assume sight from the grid with 30,000 people in the big main straight stands and 20,000 around the track. I made up a place before turn 1 and by lap 4 was tailing Cameron Waters in second place, we soon opened up a good 3 sec lead on the field and things were looking fairly rosy. On lap 8 a Safety Car was called to enable clearance of various wrecked cars.
My 3 sec lead disappeared and at the restart I had Nick Foster a prime championship contender on my tail. We fought for P2 and as I drove around him into turn 7 my engine cut out…unbelievable! My fuel level was so low that I was experiencing fuel surge. I dropped to P10 and completed the race. My team was devastated.
Race 2 Saturday
Only 2 races at this meeting. Start where you finish in Australia so I had a dreadful mid field P10. This race will likely go down as one of the biggest wrecking fests ever. Every time I would complete a lap there was a different assortment of wrecks laying around. It was a miracle nobody died. After a start to forget I became tangled up in various tussles.
Late in the race I was dicing with Nick Cassidy and after allowing him a clean line past me through a corner I expected the same consideration when I out braked him into turn 6. However I was put in a position of choosing to take us both out or become yet another wreck on a concrete wall. I choose the wall. Sadly all top contenders DNFed.
My incident was under investigation as we left the track, we had been specifically instructed to give plenty of racing room to competitors, given the dire consequences.
Conclusion.
Disappointing. However we had a good car, good pace and were very competitive, surprising many people. Nobody leaves with a clear points lead. I doubt that they will run this class at Adelaide again, the last time was 2007.
Had a meeting with Ross Stone from Stone Bros Racing....keeping an eye on me which is encouraging. Shane Van Gisbergen showed me around and as I sat in his car he explained the inner workings.
Wow what a full on weekend.
Cheers
Andre.
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For images of the new Superlux/Harmony Homes/New Balance machines, click here
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