Preparation Day
Solid preparation with new front brake package, new Enkei RPF1s with the new control tyre, Bridgestone Re71RS, rebuilt T5 with Cube Short shifter and a 55mm all aluminium radiator amongst other normal pre race actions.
Race day summary
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Qualifying was a challenging session and we had bad speed. Two significant issues were present, the first being unable to hold fifth gear and the second being significant vibration associated with the new brake package. We need to own the issue with the brakes as we clearly had not bedded them in correctly. We qualified the AU toward the back of the grid knowing we had work to do in the race even in a small field of only four IP cars.
Race 1 had similar issues to qualifying with speed hard to find and lacking confidence in the handling resulted in less than optimum race times. Despite the issues with the AU XR8 gear box and brakes, we were able to nurse the car through the first race and gain a few positions. Rachel Beers and her VE Commodore retired on lap two with electrical issues and Ross Salmon in his VY Club Sport lost it's usual pace from lap five with a fuel issue. We managed to keep our average lap times up and pulled the AU falcon past Ross Salmon on lap seven and finished the race in second place for some more points behind Stephen Johnstone who kept his Commodore up front with 1:19 lap times. Race 2 we were seeing some improvements with the brakes and reduced levels of vibration along with the new larger radiator proving its value with coolant temperatures holding well at 90 degrees despite the warmer track temperatures. Stephen Johnstone again in his Commodore led the way and Ross Salmon in his Club Sport keeping pace until a tyre failure on lap four ended his race. Our AU XR8 again coming home second for some further valuable points. Race 3 saw the Darwin weather play it's part with consistent light rain through the race, making the conditions tricky and traction difficult to find. Despite this and the ongoing gear box issues which limited speed on the straight, we had some good handling in the wet with our running times being better or at least equivalent to the front running Commodore Cup cars and within two seconds of other Improved Production cars. The AU XR8 finished the race in third with the lap times looking more respectable. Race 4 was the final all in race with Improved production, Commodore Cup, HQ Holdens and Excel cars all on the one grid. Prior to the race we discovered a failure in the exhaust mounting, Dane and Clayton in very limited time went to work manufacturing a new rear bracket to the side exhaust. Fortunately, we carried flat aluminium bar and fabrication tools in our mobile workshop to enable the work being undertaken. The value of having two quality mechanics committed to getting the car on track resulted in us making the grid in what was looking to be our first mechanical withdrawal for the season. After 10 laps we finished the race second in class to Stephen Johnson securing some further valuable points for the season and despite the lacking 5th gear, we had our XR8 circulating with times only three seconds off of the winning cars best for the race. Final round results for the weekends racing are yet to be announced by NAMSC. Our provisional calculation for points had our AU XR8 finishing second, behind Stephen Johnstones Commodore, with Ross Salmons Club Sport coming in third. |
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