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.