2011/2012 New Zealand Formula Ford championship
Round 3 Timaru 20/22nd January.
Off to the South Island again. Picked up our cheapo rental car and drove straight to the track at Timaru on Thursday to catch some private testing.
FRIDAY OFFICIAL TESTING
Very hot day. I tested quickest despite having to use my number 2 engine. My team mate Mike Scott and Tom Alexander were very quick. Most other front runners were struggling with set up.
SATURDAY QUALIFYING
Overcast and cold but fine. I qualified 0.4sec ahead of Mike, we were the only two to qualify in the 1min 5sec region. The lap record was within my reach but with this engine it eluded me.
Interestingly the NZV8s qualified with similar times quickest being Angus Fogg 0.2sec slower than my qual time. Not bad for a 1980s 1600cc Cortina GT engine.
At Timaru P2 is actually the better position from which to start in my opinion. In most instances the car on P2 can hold out P1 and go through corner 3 in the lead. Such is the nature of turn 1 and 2, plus P1 is on the dirty side of the track.
RACE 1
I finally identified the issue which lead me to roll forward on the start line at Teretonga. I was waiting to launch in race 1 only to find my car moving forward again! I paused, lost my concentration for a moment and bang we were racing. I got a terrible start and got bundled up amongst several other cars in turn 1 and 2. A car in front of me braked unexpectedly and I hit his wheel and flew off the track about 1.5 meters into the air. After landing on the field with suspension damage I re-joined in last place. I managed to over take a few slow cars but my car wouldn't go through corners quickly enough to deal with the front runners. I finished in 6th place.
It appeared that with my foot on the clutch hydraulic pressure was bleeding off until even with the clutch pedal fully in, some drive would transfer to the back wheels. Sure was happy not to DNF as that would have been a game changer.
SUNDAY RACE 2
The weather was now steady rain and cold. The track was very wet and with some flooding overnight, dirty. I wasn't looking forward to racing in rain as 2 years ago I had aquaplaned on the turn into the front straight and hit the wall which is only about 3 meters away. That corner in a Form Ford in rain is very dangerous. I spent some time ensuring that the new drivers were aware of the danger.
Mike on P2 held me out and lead through turn 3 but going through the hairpin he went a little wide and I slotted in to hold him off the racing line and hurt his exit. With clear visibility up front I was free to focus totally on the task at hand and was able to settle into a grove where my lap times were 0.5sec quicker than the rest of the field.
I won by my biggest winning margin ever in tier 1, Some 15.4 seconds. I felt a little better again.
RACE 3
The weather cleared to provide us with a near dry track. We had by now changed our clutch master cylinder but as it transpired it didn't solve our problem. I was however now able to repeatedly pump my clutch pedal prior to launch which saw me through the start. It was one of those times when your team is second guessing the weather up till the last minute.
Again Mike from P2 held me out so I relented to set myself up for a perfect exit from turn 3 onto the long back straight. The extra speed I generated got me past Mike 200 meters from the end of the straight.
As I fought to shake Mike off Henry Thomas-Kircher, Tom Alexander, and Brent Alan all caught Mike and engaged in a huge and very entertaining battle. I steadily pulled away leaving them to it and won by 7.4 seconds. I am sure all TV coverage will be on the mighty battle going on behind me; you could throw a blanket over the four of them at the finish.
CONCLUSION
Clutch still needs to be resolved. With my poor 6th place in race 1 I was very lucky to pull off the round win by just 1 point from Mike with Henry a very credible 3rd.
Next round at Hampton downs on 3 to 5th of Feb, I get one weekend off to relax.
Next big thing is back to school on 27th……..really looking forward to that…yeah right!
Also my first Supertourer test on 30th Jan at Hampton.
Cheers,
Andre
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