Yeah that really does suck. Sorry for both of you for obvious reasons. Good luck sorting the car Pete.

Thanks Macca for organising today, absolutely fantastic day and format. Very keen to do it again. Stuart Owers was a great instructor from a complete newbies POV and worth every cent I'm sure. Can't wait for the next one!

 

Looks like everyone has the bug again. Maybe we need to book a few RSG Play Days. End of March / Early April??

There is going to be a PCNZ motocross on a drifting track, 3 skid pan days and 2 sprint track days between May and August. I will post the dates shortly and will be calling for helpers with the Driver Training day (JMc, Doug, Mendes and a few others who want to volunteer.........)

Pete, Chris B, Neil and Sean get to be driver trainers coz they are 'cool' and have race cars..........

 

Bummer about the accident today - hope it won't take too long to put right.

Jake, good to see you broke your track cherry. Macca - today was a brilliant concept by the looks of it and I should've just taken leave and had some tires sorted.

I'd be keen on some Playdays, and all the more if BB will also be running. Those PCNZ events sound good too. I take it you mean autocross though or should I bring the race bike?

 

I'll join in with the praise, a great concept Macca. 4 hours went so quickly and we never got to run counter clockwise

Micheal, a sad end to the day for you. No one intentionally goes out to stack a car into a wall so don't beat yourself up. Pete was philosophical. Ralf offered me a drive in the Cobra, but it was enough for me to listen to it and run some laps behind him
The Integras were on the hunt in a good natured way. I never claimed a kill, it must have been Paul. I did hold Ron off for a lap, I don't think he was comfortable with finding a clear line.

Speaking of Integras, we weren't as reliable as usual. The Grinch was still overheating after 5 or so laps so is off to Jonno for some diagnosis. Possibly a head gasket issue. BB split a top radiator hose, which held for the day with lots of duct tape. She also started to scrape her rear muffler on the track at the end of the day with Paul driving, a missing rubber hanger. How you do that I'm not sure. He was on a mission though and clocked 1.26.40 in the heat, after riding shotgun with Chris M. The day's format probably helped with lap after lap getting him in the zone. Black Beauty 2 had no issues except Paul wants her to turn in better. I lost count of the laps but I think BB must be at the equivalent of 76 sessions so far and is still running sweetly. She is now able to enter 2k cup races so there's a opening for the wider owner group members with race licences.

A final pic or two

 

Well it's morning and surprise, surprise, I feel absolutely fine - totally relaxed about it even. It's all just part of what happens when we play this game. I know I get a heck of a lot more out of the highs than I lose from the lows. Yesterday was an awesome day - very cool to have 20 cars out, private track to ourselves, bbq after and the rest of summer still to look forward to.

Michael, just keep it in perspective mate - you are ok and that's a big plus! The car is only metal and wasn't a big shunt anyway. I feel crap for egging you on to have a go so we're all square in those stakes.

And what's worse is that while you could have taken home the Macca cup you got beat by the inevitable 'Miller effect' who thought there's no way he was giving up the cup so easily so promptly drove 3 laps with BBs muffler dragging on the ground...! Chris put it perfectly at the BBQ - Michael's nudge was a 'racing incident' and Paul's was simply an act of gross stupidity!!! Video to follow...

Chin up, don't shy away from the track because of it and remember those highs!

 

^^^^ Pete you are amazing. You are welcome to push in front of me at Steve's. I have RS60 love to keep me going without Lola.

It certainly sounds like a fantastic day. Well done Macca for organising it.

BB's leaky radiator sounds like it's still holding up from the application of "bars-leaks" when it sprouted a leak with me at Manfield. These cars are turning out to be indestructible.

 

Very much enjoyed yesterday and I think the format worked incredibly well. Every person I spoke to was interested in doing it like that again. I completed 6 sessions in the GT3, one 20 mins, one 15 and a few less and more. I would say for half the time I was out there I was alone on teh track - the format was incredible for creating these large traffic free laps as people entered and exited randomly and spent as little or as long out there as they wanted. To be honest id say Prestigio had little to worry about (I doubt we had more than 8 cars on the track at any one time. For me I took it pretty easy - decided the day before to treat it as a social event and as organiser (with Petes support) I really wanted to just "hang with my buddies". there was never going to be any PBs, and actually it wasn't a fast track due to the heat. And it really did work a treat, you can stay as long or as little in the pits, talk set up or in many cases actually make adjustments to your car and go out again for a few laps. I really enjoyed it, go some great in car telemetry with overlays (still a little fine tuning to do there but the set up worked very smoothly and Im sold - didnt have to think about the thing all day - its did its job and total file size for the day = 5GB!).

Dean Huston from CCS and Dan from Europacific were both on hand to help with set up and any technical issues. Dean got Patsys Datsun working after it blew an intercooler hose and Dan had his hands full with Steves machines (a rear CV blown in the Gulg 964 and an overheating issue in the 2.7RS recreation).

We had a great after function event at Steves place (thanks Steve & Mandy and Joanna for all the work). Good feed, great company and excellent turn out (20 of us).

Im heading out to the "Big Yonder" for 3 months on the 24th. Have the Festival of Speed this weekend to attend and will likely have one more early morning weekday "spirited back road drive" in the GT3 then in for 10K km service. Im back late April and would like to organise another similar format event for end of April. Perhaps that will work in well with Feb+March standard Playdays and May onwards PCNZ stuff?

As Pete rightly pointed out, the format was so casual and the cars so few on track at any one time that we could easily have handled 10 more cars making 30. I think that would be a great idea. Its not as competitive as a 15 minute per hour Playdays session but its alot of fun and it is what you make of it. Id like to see it as a 3x year staple format - it gets the wider group involved as its not as intimidating, and it allows for alot of learning, plus its a more social event. Playdays are great events too so I wouldnt want to replace them as I think they push you harder but this is a nice occasional alternative...

Hope to see some of you this weekend at the Festival. Sean and Steve are racing...

 

Looks great Macca. I think even I would be up for one. It sounds like the perfect setup - social not suicidal. The number of bike track days i've been to where someone bins it even though they aren't 'racing' only to bugger up the session for every one else.

 

Funny how these things work. Went in to pick up Paul's old tyres at Kev's on Monday. Was presented with an opportunity to fit a new windscreen and by Wednesday lunchtime it's fitted.

The old screen was urethaned in (not done on 964s) so getting it out in one piece wasn't going to happen. I went and had a coffee with Kev while Barry worked his magic. It's transformed the vision out and the look of the car. Best thing apart from that is not a single sign of rust in the usual places.

It has quite a heavy tint up top so I won't fit a banner.

 

Barry Clark is the man. 027 498 5552. Always good to know the right person for the job.

Next he's doing Paul's car.

 

Addiction day 1: morning spent looking at tyres, as well as potential repaint options for my second set of rims.

Pilot Super Sports are great tyres, but would be nice to have something that doesn't melt so quickly, as I would have liked to stay out for more than 6-7 laps at a time. Would also help me drop my time below 1:20 I'm sure...

 

John, our king of banners has no banner?? That's not like you

 

John, does your new windscreen have the embedded aerial for the radio? When i first saw mine i am embarrassed to admit i thought it was a fancy rally demister or something similar, haha. Noob. Good news on the no-rust

 

Bad luck Michael and Pete, feeling for you both right now. Hope it's an easy fix. Glad to hear the rest of the day went well, it sounds like a good alternate format for Playdays when we're able to raise enough interest to fund it.

My advice is to stay on road tyres until you're comfortable with the traction circle and the car moving around under you. If you're worried about wasting expensive road tyres, try to find something cheaper in that range for your spare wheels that still has a decent reputation for handling heat.

 

Doug, you'd be proud to clean this windscreen. It's perfect right now. Given I play with the look every so often don't be surprised if it has a banner in future.