Tasman Revival Eastern Creek

1st day of this event and having a fantastic time. The Lola is going brilliantly and handling beautifully after some fine tuning on practice day, making good progress with lap times, down to 1:38 in practice.

Qualifying this morning was a washout though. Watch the first half of the first lap here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUGOHPQzQ-M

The blue F2 car started spewing coolant not long after turn 2, before my tyres were warm and he continued despite the plume of steam behind him. I had a big moment on the exit of turn 5 -full lock to lock power slide - and I couldn't see much through my visor, so backed off, resulting in a 1:48.

Next lap 3 cars had a big off at turn 7 (possibly on the coolant) I arrived at the corner to find it covered in gravel, am amazed the car went round. The rest of the session was restricted by that corner, so I couldn't improve and ended up 21st out of 25 cars.

8 lap race in the afternoon, too much wheelspin and got jumped by 3 cars at the start, had to get past them again then set to work. Spent a couple of laps behind a well driven Atlantic car, was just about to take him on the straight when the car in front of him blew its engine and they waved the chequered flag immediately, so I finished 19th, but enjoyed myself immensly.

Two x 8 lap races tomorrow and two x 10 laps on Sunday. Hopefully more video (have cleaned the camera!) to come.

 

ps. Peter Giddings has his Maser 250F here from the US, well worth a look. Lots of other interesting cars too. My garage neighbour is Jack Brabham's first rear engined Cooper.

 

driver error I lost it on the exit of turn 2, got on the gas too early then over corrected the resulting slide. As it happened, they stopped the race next lap anyway, when the Beatrice Lola went off.

Had a fantastic 8 laps this afternoon, passed lots of guys. Don't know where I finished as race was red flagged on final lap and they directed us back through gate 4, so no chequered flag. First time I haven't been lapped by Guido in the F1 Ferrari! (that sounds lame, but it means I was in the high 1:30's, which is great progress for me)

I was entering turn 1 at 160mph every lap, the car drifting over such that my outside wheels were on the concrete on the exit. Scary but exhilarating - it does make you concentrate!

Video uploading now.

 

yesterday afternoon's race here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6y0m7xxlf8

this is the 1st 4 laps or so.

Today's 10 lap race started with spitting rain, track was greasy. I got a good start but lost traction as soon as the turbo spooled up, so the usual guys got by me again. I wasn't unhappy as I wanted to tip-toe around turn 1 anyway and stay out of the way of spins at turn 2. Sure enough, a guy in the middle of the pack spun and it could have been very messy. Next lap I went by one guy, with my car wheelspinning on the straight, then into turn 1 at 9000 in 3rd (120-ish mph) all ok but just as a straightened up, I lost all drive.

Coasted around turn 2, found a safe place to park and that was the end of my race.

Pulled rear upgright off later this afternoon, the bolts holding the CV joint spacer to the hub had sheared. Easy fix, just have to source the right bolts.