Eastern Creek Historics next Weekend 30 June

Looking like a great meeting coming up next weekend. 300+ cars entered. Come out and support historic racing.

I'll be in garage 44, visitors welcome.

The beautiful Mclaren M8 from QLD is entered. Worth the admission price just to see it close up!
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My weekend was nearly over, with a big puddle of coolant under the car after my 2nd run. Had to get the car in the air and pull the underbody off, awkward job on a hoist, horrible lying on the floor. DFX has 2 water pumps, it was leaking on the scavenge side. Engine has to be detached from tub to remove pump. Happily it stopped just be reseating the flange and no drips under car this morning.

New Avon crossplies are fantastic, not so happy about changes to the circuit, 2 good corners made wider so less challenge, another made tighter so slower. It's a bit "dumbed down"

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I use a cheap mechanic, not a smart one.

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I did 3 practice starts yesterday, to get the feel for the new tyres. Huge strain on the driveline. Today they announced we're getting rolling starts for all races.

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Great day today. Qualifying was disrupted by a car having a big off, so best I could do was 1:40. Thought I'd find another 1 or 2 seconds in the race but that wasn't to be, too much understeer through the new corners. Will wind off a little negative in the morning - the cross plies don't work as well with too much camber and I noticed the outside of the tyres isn't getting as hot.

Back to the pit garage after 8 lap race, feeling more than a little buggered, looking forward to an early departure, looked under car and there's the bloody coolant puddle again!

Off with the underbody, it's the same button head cap screw on the water pump come loose.

Luckily, the TAFE boys have a workshop in a container at the track, so I was able to drill the head of the screw, I've put it back and lock-wired the b*stard.

2 races tomorrow, hopefully no more time laying under the car!

 

Yes, morning race for Q&R was a sh*tfight. 4 cars into one line on turn 1 don't go, so we were red flagged, then 10 minutes in pit lane while the mess was cleared and off again, only to have a car catch fire, the driver continued on despite having red&yellow flags waved at him. By the time he realised what was happening, the car was engulfed. Lola 332 F5000 with side tanks - the driver is sitting amongst the flames. Fortunately, he was OK, only minor burns. And people tell me alcohol cars are dangerous...

Afternoon race was a much reduced field but went without a hitch and I did a 1:38, which was my objective for the weekend, so I'm a happy camper. Next meeting I'll aim to find another 2 seconds.

Video clip and pics to follow in the next day or two.

 

The start of the Sunday morning race, moments before 3 cars tangled.

Waiting in pit lane for the restart.
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Yes, stiff and sore all over, but it's a small price for the fun I had.

I took 1/4 turn off the rod ends on all 4 wheels, made a dramatic difference to from end grip and the car became quite neutral. I was able to get on the throttle earlier and drift the car out of the slow corners, huge fun.

Next time out (Tasman Revival in Nov) I'll take another 1/4 turn off, I may then be able to go up 100lb on the front spring rate.

I also had a good lesson in race tactics. On Saturday I followed for too long behind a 1:40 car, meanwhile the fast pack were driving away at 2 secs per lap. I should have been more aggressive and got past him sooner. As it was a missed a down change on lap 3 or 4 and lost a couple of hundred metres so I blew any chance to get past before the flag. On Sunday, I made sure I hung on to the fast pack right from the start and got a 1:38 as a result.

 

Ahem, I won't name names here, but it wasn't smart driving. 2 cars heavily damaged. I presume Duncan spun avoiding the mess, right in front of me midway through turn 1. It was a OMFG moment... but I aimed right and he spun left so all good. No damage to his car.

 

I left them in the pit garage putting their clothes back on.