North Island Enduro Taupo 12 June 2010
This was the last round of a 3 round series, the first 2 of which we didn't do due to other commitments. The 4 Minis were lumped into class D which included all sorts of cars up to 2.5 litres. BMWs, Sentra, Preludes, Civics etc. The class was the biggest in the race. Unlike the Hampton Downs enduro we had to use road legal tyres, in our case DOT rated tyres which would have been great in the dry but were seriously lacking in heavy rain.
My co driver from last week wasn't available but I got to partner with Mark Tordoff another experienced enduro man.
Friday testing was rain with occasional sunny periods which never had time to dry the track completely before the next shower. Minis have awesome brakes and I found out how good they were. At the end of the long straight, 700m, I needed to brake from 190kph to about 60kph to make a tight left-hand turn. I could brake at the 50 meter mark and make the turn. I spoke to some seasoned Mini drivers who said it should be possible to brake at 45 meters at 200kph on a dry track. That takes balls of steel!
Saturday
The weather had deteriorated and the day promised non stop rain on an already sodden track. I qualified 2nd behind Melhop.
Racing started at 12pm in steady rain. We did a rolling start and I took it real easy around the first 3 corners to avoid becoming an early casualty in the 4 hour race. It was like driving on ice in parts as the water built up on the track and rivers started to flow across cambered corners. The wipers couldn't handle the volume of water at speed, visibility was bad and I needed a window a bit open to stop fogging. When on the straight I would sometimes close my helmet visor because at that angle rain would hit my face.
The first hour was fairly free from accidents and I handed over the drive in the lead by about 30 seconds.
Mark drove well but a bit off the pace so as to bring the car back to me in one piece. By now cars were starting to aquaplane and hit things. 2 beautiful Porsches and a BMW were reduced to ruins as drivers reached out to find their limits.
I took over the drive 1 3/4 hours from the finish during a safety car period and re-entered the race 1 lap down on the next Mini.
By now carnage was happening regularly. There was a "lake" just before the braking zone at the end of the back straight at about the 200 meter mark. I hit the lake at 170kph, aquaplaned, did 2x 360 degree spins, took out the 150 meter board and came to a stop about 1 meter from an Armco barrier. About the scariest thing that's ever happened to me. Mark Maddren in another Mini did exactly the same thing but hit the wall at speed completely writing off his car. The run off area at the end of the straight always had a car, or cars, in it as I came down the straight.
I finished the race without further incident; we were the 2nd Mini home, and 3rd in our class, just 24 seconds behind the leader. We came in 10th overall out of the 25 cars. Motorsport Services ran 6 cars, only 2 escaped major damage.
Conclusion
Very happy to finish with a straight car. Dad was so happy that he let me have 2 beers with the mechanics after the race!
I got some valuable seat time at Taupo, a track I hadn't raced on for nearly a year.
It was also my 15th birthday....the enduros were my birthday pres'y from Dad.
Going to sit my learners license on Monday!
Off to Ruapuna on Tuesday for some development work on my Formula Ford for next season.
Cheers
Andre
PS, I got my learners license, can drive on the road but only with a fully licensed person.
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