Originally Posted by peterC2S

Racing over for another weekend at Puke. Was all going well until a nasty incident at T1 with Marco flipping 50m in front of me. I saw his undercarriage head on before he landed on his roof and then rolled on to his wheels and finally rolled off the track. Was pretty manic with a lot of cars and that is a particularly fast and bumpy section.

Marco is ok - was still with the ambulance for observation when I left the track.

Just brings it home that these are high performance cars and being run at their limit. The safety gear - helmet, Hans, roll cage and harnesses all did their job. You see it in tv but I can tell you it is very different when it happens right in front and you realize that it could easily have been you. Pretty sobering and while the race continued with SC I was pretty shaken up and came in that lap.

I know Graeme and Chris M will know what it's like to be the one 'going over'.

Originally Posted by CS Mende

HD was a blast, great weather & turnout. Between motor mounts, a reprogrammed DSC & thinking ahead a couple turns I managed to drop into the mid-17's from my previous 19. Not bad for street tires on a tractor!

Might be time to look at a deep sump! Yellow is 1G+ and red is 1.25G+.

Most excitement besides some domestic pirouetting down the main straight under full lock and stopping 10cm from the wall was Nigel's rear tire which separated but kept air. He naturally detected the vibration immediately and pulled in.

Originally Posted by JD-Motorsports

I had a blast working with you Chris! It was a great day testing out the new DSC software. Put some new shoes on her and a good alignment, we should be able to get you into the 15's no problem.

Originally Posted by pcarplayer

Thanks again for your help yesterday Jeff. Really appreciate you taking the time to put my mind at rest with my wheel vibrations. Couldn't find you when i was leaving to say goodbye and thanks

Originally Posted by 996tnz

Hope everyone had a great time at Hampton Downs and no-one's day worked out to be more expensive than planned. Great photos, and with their now appreciating values, my vote goes to a 'pride of 964s'. For my part, I got back from the Puke 2K Cup races at about 11pm, boomeranged back to Drury to find my missing head and neck restraint and am now about to have a shower after this post. Quite a long day attrack, even if we only got there at 1pm, as our last race got away crazy late with headlights on. TLDR version - I had fun. More info then: Some challenges today. Car was pulling a bit when bedding the brakes but not enough time before qualifying to fix it. Appears the bloody Drury garage didn't fit my race pads as instructed. In fact, it seems they left Neil's Repco special TRW ceramic pads on the front left, and fitted my hardcore race pads to the front right. Made for some interesting car dynanics entering the turns as the front left had about half the bite and grip as the front right brake (30-35 mu ceramic TRWs versus 50-55mu HAWK DTC60s on the other corner). So no records set in qualifying, though I did get brave and keep it floored up the hill on the last lap, hitting the damn governor in third just as the crest was coming up. Grabbed fourth in that last turn onto the straight and kicked up dust as I went two wheels off onto the start finish but at least scraped together a sub 1:30. I had no suitable matched spare pads available so swapped just one pad of each pair to the other side of the car. This made for one road pad and one race pad on at front left, and the same mix on the front right - evening things up for the races where I ran better times. It still meant though that the full racing pairs of Hawk blues in the back made her rear-biased (not great for a front-engined front wheel drive but much better than before). First field I was placed 13 on the grid. At the 2KCup drivers' briefing, the Clerk of the Course had made it clear that we should go out in any order, warm our tyres and grid up in our positions. We would then do a '90%' pace formation lap (no passing) and regrid again before then launching into the race. So stupid me did that, as did half the field. The other half had seen or heard that the plan had changed to just a normal out lap, grid and race. So like much of the field, I didn't launch hard at all (only time you'll see me beaten away by a Peugeot) and was only aiming for 90% pace during the lap (my lap 1 was a 1:57!. The minority in the know made out like bandits and ripped through us but I figured they might cop penalties and that they'd have to give the places back at the regrid. But there were no flags or lights from the hairpin to slow the field for the grid. At that hairpin, on what I still thought was the formation lap, a following car had also underbraked, gone two wheels off outside, got loose and hit my left side so I was not impressed with goings on. I still took it very cautiously over the hill as I thought there might be stopped traffic on the Start-finish straight for the race start proper but, no, a couple more cars passed me and it was obvious we were racing already. I was pretty peed off by that stage as 16 cars had been let through so I gave it death from then on and won back ten to a dozen places but was not a happy camper. To add to my woes, my AIM smartycam had broken loose of its bracket (the camera's thread had torn loose) and was firing around my driver's footwell for most of the race. They're about 2 or 3 times the size of an AIM Solo so half my attention was down there, clearing it out of the way with my feet at every corner entry and the other half was out on track. A bunch of cars went off at various places, including one that spun in front of me that I had to slow for, and the race ended early under red flags, which was a pity as I was still clawing back places I'd handed over. I started in 13, dropped to 29th during the lap one fiasco, then started racing and finished 18th. I'd learnt from quali to shift up into 4th before the last turn up the hill and was taking that flat and fast, passing several through there. Turn one is so much kinder than it looks so just a dab of brakes to help her turn in and then back on the gas through the turn before grabbing third, running the kerbs through the esses then 2nd onto the back straight. Late brake around the 100 marker, and down to second through the new section before booting it down to the hairpin. second, third, fourth with foot flat up the hill, past the start finish and do it all again. Second race, with lights on was also a short one as it was rapidly getting dark and the track's operating licence was hitting the limit. They again put stickers on steering wheels for our starting positions and mine was 25 (no idea why 17 on race monitor, but 25 is where I started). I was determined to get a proper launch this time and went on the lights as did those in front of me. Good launch but hey they're all stopping! Oh bugger, slam on anchors and come to a stop on the bumper of the one in front. That's right, it's a staggered reverse grid and we're supposed to wait for the second flag. We did eventually get away, maybe a bit after our allotted time of 20 secs after the first bunch. Slightly messy start aside, I loved this race. Only one or maybe two cars got by me and I made steady progress up the field. Matched brakes up front, nothing rattling around my footwell - this is how racing is meant to be. Biggest surprise was the Racing Club's sprinklers starting up next to the very fast Turn 1 halfway through the race, but the water seemed to fall just short. I started off grid 25 (though 19th on track if Mylaps is correct) and in a short race (14 laps versus the 23 or 24 expected) finished 5th. Despite today's challenges, I'm actually pretty stoked with averaging a car a lap in a race at Puke too now. The Grinch was still fairly loose at the back but I just loved that last race and can't wait to do Pukekohe again. Always something new to learn at these race meets, and I did also enjoy watching Neil, ChrisB, Peter and the rest of the Porsche Series field entertain the crowd too.

Originally Posted by John McM

Vibrations? What was it?

Originally Posted by peterC2S

Racing over for another weekend at Puke. Was all going well until a nasty incident at T1 with Marco flipping 50m in front of me. I saw his undercarriage head on before he landed on his roof and then rolled on to his wheels and finally rolled off the track. Was pretty manic with a lot of cars and that is a particularly fast and bumpy section.

Marco is ok - was still with the ambulance for observation when I left the track.

Just brings it home that these are high performance cars and being run at their limit. The safety gear - helmet, Hans, roll cage and harnesses all did their job. You see it in tv but I can tell you it is very different when it happens right in front and you realize that it could easily have been you. Pretty sobering and while the race continued with SC I was pretty shaken up and came in that lap.

I know Graeme and Chris M will know what it's like to be the one 'going over'.

Originally Posted by Obsessed

Wow, that's nasty. Good to hear he's OK. It sounds like you were lucky not to get involved?

Originally Posted by peterC2S

Solely down to the direction he faced after he rolled - went left and off the track. Right and I would have been head on in there.

Reading Dave's MX5 comment before reminded me that one of them had a 'clean undies' moment as well. Up over the hill and got too wide and on the grass - 300m in a slow pirouette slide along the grass before being spat across the track and over to the inside - stopped a foot short of the wall. 3 point turn and crossed the finish line!! Open top motoring at its finest - no hairdressing jibes after that one.

Originally Posted by gt38088

wow, big action this weekend. something can always bite when you least expect it. In any event its a fun hobby maybe a bit competitive for some but never the less a hobby so no point in getting too serious about chasing the last faction as its probably not worth the risk. Sometimes we need to be reminded of this.

Originally Posted by John McM

Racing and good stories to tell. What more can you ask for? If these had been Porsches we would have been bankrupted by now, or keeping a panel beater on retainer.