Round 5 - Timaru - Testing

Testing times indeed! Not a good start to the weekend.

Dale only got through 6 laps of the 1st test session and the clutch completely died. So the team has spent the remainder of today here at Timaru Motors (the local Mazda dealership), using their workshop (thanks to the guys here for helping us out). So we put in a new clutch (meant for a Mazda 6), had a quick test and the slave cylinder is toast.

The helpful locals once again came to the party with a replacement. How's this for a story: Grant, a guy who owns the company next door has rung his wife, who owns the only Mazda3 MPS in Timaru, she's on her way down here now with her car to donate parts to our cause :-) Gotta love small town New Zealand hospitality!

I'm not sure how much longer we'll be here, but I bet the team will be happy when we get back to the hotel. They've all been working pretty hard today to make sure the car is ready for the qualifying session in the morning.

Its a nice sunny afternoon down here, but forecast for rain in the morning. Let's hope things go a little bit smoother tomorrow :-)

Round 5 - Timaru - Looking Ahead

So it's Round 5 coming up this weekend, and we're racing at the Timaru International Motor Raceway. The schedule of events is in the information sheet here:

Robin and the car are already on their way down there. Most of the team are heading down tomorrow night.

After the last race in Palmerston North we looked into the brakes overheating in the corners. Have a look at these shots I took on the first corner. Now they're some hot brakes!

Round 4 - Manfeild - End of Round Update

Well another update following today's final race. Unfortunately for Michael Modgill he was disqualified (TKO) after Race 3, so Dale was awarded 1st place. That puts Dale in 1st overall for the weekend, so well done Dale - another win! Pity we never knew about it earlier - we might have stayed for the Podium Prizegiving :-)

Dale finished 6th overall in Race 3, 1st in his class.
Best lap time: 1:20.641 (in lap #2)

All track timings for the weekend are available at Mylaps.com

Official results for Race 3 are available at Motorsport NZ

So the points table after Round 4 looks like this:
Dale Williams - 837 points
Steve Taylor - 734 points
Michael Modgill - 697 points

Round 4 - Manfeild - Race 3

Well that was an awesome way to finish the weekend. Some really great racing in the split grid 3rd Race. Dale led for a good part of the race, but Michael Modgill managed to get past him and raced really well. Dale fought really hard to maintain his position, even with the car issues working against him.

That puts Dale in 2nd place overall for the weekend, in his class. A pretty good result, but we know the car can do better.

We took off out of there after the race, to get on the long road home (a 7 hour journey ahead). So I don't have the times or official results at the moment, but I'll post them later.

To be honest I can't type any more right now, as Dale's flying around the corners through the hills (I'm sitting in the back of his Zoom Zoom road car) and if I type much more I'll probably be sick!

Round 4 - Manfeild - Race 2

Race 2, the Reverse Top 10. Dale started out 2nd on the grid, and after being swamped by the 4wds he led Class B for most of the race. But yet again gear/clutch issues troubled Dale so he slipped back to 2nd after being passed by Michael Modgill's Honda.

Dale finish 9th overall (2nd in Class B).

Best lap time: 1:20.081 (in lap #2)

Now the team has got some work to do, to try and improve the car a bit before the 3rd race. We can't fix the clutch or gearbox in time, so it'll be changes in the setup only.

Round 4 - Manfeild - Race 1

Another race, and another great result for Dale, 1st in his class (9th overall). And a little more panel damage (c/o Steve Taylor once again) :-} We only just put the 'Zoom Zoom' back on that door after the last lot of Panelbeating!

Unfortunately Dale had a bad start due to a clutch issue, but he powered on to take back 1st position after the 2nd corner and never really looked challenged from then on. The team have obviously done a great job once again with the car's setup.

The race was slowed down with a few laps under yellow flag, due to a clash between one of the little Suzukis and the new entrant MG. So the final lap, when the safety car came off, was a sprint for the finish line.

Thankfully the weather cleared up for a time before the race, so rain didn't affect things.

Best lap time: 1:20.293

Round 4 - Manfeild - Qualifying

Well there was a bit of action in the qualifying round. Craig Silby, driving an Evo7 hit the wall and destroyed his car. That red-flagged things for a while, but when we got underway again Dale set a great time, qualifying 1st in his class and 8th overall. The rain stopped before the cars hit the track but there was still a bit of water about.

Best time: 1:19.961 (in lap 9)

The first race is at 1:40pm this afternoon. If it's still raining then we could be in for a fun race.

Round 4 - Manfeild - Saturday

Well Dale's about to head out on the track for the Qualifying session @9:30. It has been pouring down here overnight & this morning, so it's a wet setup, even though the sun has finally broken out and theres a big patch of blue sky overhead.

Here's the new trailer we've been huddled up in, out of the rain.

Round 4 - Manfeild - Testing#2

Wind, rain & hail. An unwelcome addition to the second round of
testing (about 10mins in). Dale did well with his time, even though
everyone was slightly slower this time out (atmospherics, I'm told).
His time puts him 9th overall, 1st in his class.

Best lap time: 1:20.544 (in lap 5) (2nd best in class: 1:20.857)

The only casualty of the race was the Mazda 'Zoom Zoom' umbrella,
which will be sorely missed (especially if we have more black clouds &
squalls tomorrow). It collapsed into a heap when the showers came a
blowing in :-)

The team's pretty happy with the car setup now. Still making little
changes and improvements each round and after each race. The new diff
which is being built (a custom job) is still being finished, so we
don't have that this round. Hopefully we'll have it in time for the
two South Island rounds ahead.

We're probably going to head off early now, and start again 1st thing
in the morning. Qualifying is @9:30AM, we're 2nd up, after the V8's
test session.

Round 4 - Manfeild - Testing#1

Dale just finished the first round of testing, which went pretty well.
Testing results put him 10th overall, 2nd in his class behind Michael
Modgill's Honda Integra.

Dale's best lap time: 1:20.348 (in lap 7) (1st in class B: 1:20.336)

We've got to do a bit of machine work on the new brakes before the
second test round, as they're just a little bit too tight a fit. So
John's off to an engineer now to get that done. Hopefully we'll have a
bit of time improvement through decent brakes in the next test.

Robin's new car trailer is excellent, fully enclosed with all the
tools and spare kit within easy reach. It's really useful having it
straight out of the back of the marquee pits, especially as we're
pretty well crammed in with everyone else, so having all the room in
the trailer is great. Lots of room to sit in, out of the rain too!

The second test run is at 1:30pm this afternoon.

Round 4 - Palmerston North - Arrival

Valentine's Day. And where are the motor racing teams? Heading away from their families and loved ones, and into Palmerston North :-) Priorities, eh. It's a beautiful day in Palmy today, and the team will be arriving in ones and twos later on today. Robin, Grant and the racing car will be here in the next couple of hours, Dale flies in tonight and Dodge & Hoodie will be probably be here about 10 (after a long drive, I imagine).

I've seen other teams arriving too, the great big trucks have been driving through the town centre and the Mastertrade V8 team is on display up the road.

The weather's not looking so hot for this weekend 21degrees and thunderstorms tomorrow (so testing will be fun), 18 degrees and showers for Saturday (which could be OK as Dale drives great in the wet), maybe just cloud on Sunday. We'll soon see how accurate that is though.