Forecast is showers for both Saturday and Sunday. I'm going down on Sunday to watch both GT3 races. Anyone got a spare pass, PM me please.
See you there Brett, I have to present a trophy and can't get a pass but went out yesterday and got taken for a ride in Terry Knights car, had a ball, track was damp and I can now see why John Morris gave you warning about turns 2 and 3.
Ok Glenn, you hanging around Ivans garage? Yes, literally like ice when wet. Never experienced anything like that before, there is NO grip at all when wet.
GT3 cars have thier own area toward the grandstand, all the cars are in a marque setup, will be there somewhere, my stepsister is racing a saloon car as well so I will be wandering round a bit.
Are there any decent old Porsches available under $30k? Looking for something old as a weekend car, doubt it would be driven on week days. Might have to settle for an X1/9
R2... 4th And keeping away from Mr Bobik... who only went off once... Wet circuit drying off in the sun... presumably next race will be dry.
R3.. 3rd They didnt complete the distance due to a mega wreck from Mr Rose... might only end up for half points..
Good days racing. Weather was crap first up. Scuds first race was wet but did well to pass a few cars. 2nd race was dry which was good for watching and competing I'm sure. Scud nailed the start and from 4th I thought he was going to get into second but got squeezed into turn one so settled for third. Very quick out of turn 4 and up back straight but he said to me earlier he was struggling with going into Dandenong so it was a sea saw for a few laps between himself and 2nd until there was a terrible crash. Fortunately the driver (Kane Rose) walked away. The car on the other hand didn't look too good. I left just before 2.30pm and they were still trying to repair the damage to the barrier. Disappointing crowd. I reckon there wouldn't have been anymore than 150 in the stands. A few pics. Sorry for quality, from iPhone. 1. Glenn presenting trophy to Ivan Klassan (who also competes with me in the 944's) for best presented car. 2. Scud receiving his trophy for finishing 3rd out right in the 997 class. 3 & 4 A couple of pics of Kanes car. p.s. Scottski, I heard Jan had a very bad crash yesterday in qualifying. I hope he is ok, please pass on my good wishes. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Mr Rose's crash had the track workers busy for over an hour to straighten the armco out.. the 250km production car race was shortened, as were the F3 and Saloon Car races. The car looks awful... nothing some cubic dollars can't fix of course...
Apparently hit a tyre wall at speed, Jan is fine but the car is a bit worse for wear, the tyres went up over the car and pushed the roof down damaging the windscreen opening otherwise it could have been repaired overnight. Kane's car requires a front clip and front suspension rebuild, the strength of these cars is quite amazing, the front guard of Kane's car was wedged into the guardrail that hard they could'nt remove it, the car hit the rail at over 200k's and he walked away without a mark on him (screen didn't even break)
That's a lot of $ and carnage for just 150 people at the track.. how does commercial sponsorship get to be attractive? (seriously).. I admit not getting near a TV much these days but it doesn't seem to get much airtime anyway even when I did watch..
The guys that race these things just do it for fun, thier not looking for big sponsorship money or big crowds to watch them, it's thier hobby and they enjoy doing it, for the younger guys like Kane and Matt Kingsley they are probably looking to be seen and hopefully get a drive in a higher ranking category. There was a cue of people putting thier hands up to try and help Kane out with the offer of parts ect so he could get to the next round at PI and the same occured with Matt last year, great sportsmanship that would'nt be seen in a higher ranking category. It's probably the old saying that if you cant afford to break it, don't play with it. If any of these guys wanted corporate money they could step up to Carrera Cup.
Fair enough - understand the well heeled "hobby" thing.. guess the young guys not so established still need someone else $ (somehow) to make it happen though..
Yep, they are both driving earlier 996 cars because thats all they can afford, they just need to keep doing laps and hopefully be seen.
But Carrera Cup is where the budgets get out of hand... somewhere north of $25k per round is the quote I have seen from a couple of squads.. and that's on top of purchasing/leasing & insuring the car in the first place!! A used 911 996 GT3 with some pedigree is worth ~$80k, so its not exactly inexpensive. There is some tricky stuff on them, including the racing ABS system, which needs attention and maintenance like the rest of the car.. but unless the car gets crashed, and presuming engine/gearbox/axles/uprights are low mileage when you start.. should last a while if looked after...
Yep, the cars are very tough, but still I know the guy I look after spent 6k just on tyres over the weekend, theres a $1500 entry fee and the list goes on, I reckon minimum 10k per round, then there's accident damage, it's still cheap compared to doing Carrera Cup or the GT Series.
From the patchy watching I do from time to time the impression I had was Carrera Cup has/had high proportion big accidents .. more so than others I can recall off top of head.. Reminds me of the dangerous "middle class" of riders when I do track days at Eastern Creek.. the less experienced ones go well but very clean.. also the very top sessions go hard and fast and very clean.. the horrible thing is the bit in between where think/want to go fast and not *quite* the skill to do that.. get's ugly.. not saying same for CC but just sayin' (and wondering!) For the record on track days I can't mix it with the top shelf guys (ex prod racers typically) and don't want to get in their way either.. so I stick with easier sessions (self placed) but end up lapping some people twice in just 20 min session.. hate the carnage in the middle ground and don't want to break bones entering that fray for just a fun (very fast) day out..
