This time, however, it was going to be different! As well as helping out again with driver training (which I really enjoy), I was going to have a few laps on the track myself – get my track fix in the RX8 since the race car is long since gone (and no replacement in sight for the immediate future).

I met 30 odd cars there early on Saturday morning – and we wandered out onto a wet track to do a track walk. Not long after that, the first sessions were underway. My first session only lasted about 3 laps as a bit of oil overfill smoke spooked me. I came off, checked levels, went for a drive up the road and all seemed ok. I skipped the next session to do some more training and chatting, then came out again in the final session before lunch.

Track was dry by now, and I could have some fun. The RX8 is an amazing car! Great chassis balance, you’re doing something wrong if you can’t hit the apex, then really playful on the throttle to get some attitude in the car. I probably did 30 or so laps throughout the afternoon, never really trying to post super fast laps, but just having fun, enjoying the car, the stopping power (braking after the 100m marker on the back straight thanks to the AP calipers) and the glorious smooth revving rotary engine. Some photos here courtesy of Iggy Winarto

Coming onto straight - Photo Nath - aka Vanq

There were some great drivers there too – Saleish (sp?) aka. SKC and Clement aka. CT031 both setting times in the low 12s – unlucky not to get into the 11s. I was really happy – and probably a little bit surprised to JUST dip into the 12s on street tyres with a 1:12.96.

Which got me thinking… how good would one be as an IP car?! Drop 2 seconds by simply putting on the A048s (perhaps more) and you’re in the 10s – which will put you in the 2nd half of the O2L IPRA field. A little more development, weight saving, cage, suspension, power (PP anyone?) should take another couple of seconds off… perhaps more. Which puts you down into the 8s. Now we’re talking top 10 pace, without much extra development! Hmm… if only I had the money to do it! (Who will be the first??)

Anyway, here’s a bit of video action. Apologies for the poor angle and sound quality. It was a last minute decision to use the video so that’s what you’ve got! I thought about editing out the sound, but decided to leave it in to listen to that rotary rev!

Job for tonight is to create a custom MY Racing header image… stay tuned!

The Mont 24 is a team event, where teams of 4 to 6 riders race in a relay format to see how many laps of a course you can complete over 24 hours. The location was Sparrow Hill, just outside of Canberra. A beautiful pine forest, with awesome single track carved through it. Each lap would be about 18km and probably take a little over an hour.

I’d been training pretty hard since about November (check out my training logs here on Runkeeper) until February, when a bout of Patella Tendonitis afflicted my right knee. A few weeks out of the saddle had the knee feeling ok, until a ride the week before the Mont ended in solid knee pain.

A visit to the physio ensued, “Eww, that’s ugly, isn’t it? How important is this bike race?” A short sharp look was all the confirmation needed by the physio, who then set to work with smoke and mirrors, acupunture, ice etc, to ensure I could ride.

And ride I did. The competition within a competition was on when the student team laid down the gauntlet… “This is how it’s going to be…” declaring that when the students beat the teachers, the teachers would be subjected to a bootcamp of the students leadership. If, on the off chance that the teachers won, then we could get them to do something… “within reason”.

Our first rider, Rod “The Postman” Post delivered when he gave the staff a one minute lead on the first lap, passing student rider Murray “This is how its going to be…” B on course. Over the course of the next 23 hours, the staff slowly extended their lead. First by one, then two laps.

My first lap started at dusk and quickly descended into the dark of night. The first couple of kms were the hardest, with my legs burning at being asked to do some work for a change. Before long I settled into a (slowish) rhythm – passing a few riders, while getting passed by plenty of faster riders! The official time for my first lap was 1:11.51. I was happy with that given my lack of training.

Lap 2 started just before 2am. Fortunately it was quite a mild evening, so some arm warmers were the only extra clothing required. I decided to be pretty conservative during this lap – make sure I kept concentrating, not fall off, and push a little harder on the uphill sections of fire trail to try and make up some time. I was happy and satisfied with the lap time of 1:15.30.

My third (and final) lap started at about 9.15am. I’d managed a couple of hours sleep, and my legs didn’t feel too bad, although a little heavy. I enjoyed my first daytime lap and was able to push much harder through the single track with better vision. The legs however, didn’t enjoy it quite so much, and any slight incline became a battle of willpower to keep the pedals turning over. Small inclines became hills. Hills became mountains, as I spent the last of the energy from my legs. I finally made it to the transition area with a time of 1:14.09.

I struggle into transition for the final time

Special mention should go to Ben “Crystal” Edols and Jay “T-Bird” Trevaskis for completing 4 laps each, in rather quick time too! All but one of Ben’s laps were sub 60 minutes. They ensured our victory over the students. I can’t not mention our other riders, Carel Bothma and Chris Bannister. All six of us continued to put in 100% for each lap, long after the students had faltered and their lap times ballooned.

And the knee? Well, it held up just fine. In fact, I’m still waiting for it to swell up again. I’ve been looking after it. Voltaren, ice, massage… but so far, so good. A couple of weeks off the bike now over easter, then back on again to gently start training for the next event.

We’ll be back next year – to challenge ourselves again. We completed 20 laps this year, and would like to go 1 or 2 better in 2011. Will you join us, to ‘Ride the Bird’?

Our camp setup - ready to ride

Video to come shortly!

The new owner is planning a few changes to the car, and will be running regularly in the NSW  IPRA U2L championships.

Who knows… perhaps it will even get a fresh coat of paint and join the ‘Gridfillas’ Cup!

This is the end of an era for MY Racing, but not the end. There are already plans for a comeback to the U2L grid sometime in the not-too-distant future.

The Corona through the dipper at Bathurst... could be you!

Details are:

• 1984 Toyota Corona
• 3SGE – freshly rebuilt, forged pistons, one race meeting
  • hi comp, forged pistons
  • twin 48mm dellortos
  • W57 supra gearbox, new clutch, short shift
  • Fresh radiator
  • Fresh alternator and starter motor
  • Needs dyno time and tune to improve power slightly
• Commodore brakes (VS rear / VT front) with spare pads
• Competitive U2L car – regular top 10 finisher, occasionally into top 5.
• Cheap to run – you won’t find a cheaper way to go motor racing.
• Comprehensive spares package
  • Body panels, doors, bumpers, lights, grilles etc
  • 6 wheels
  • 8 tyres
• Variety of (locked) diff ratios (Lite Ace / Tarago diff)
  • 4.3, 4.8, 5.1:1
• Custom built trailer
• Everything you need to get started
• Race as is, or develop into an even more competitive package!
• Lap times:
  • Wakefield Park – 1:10s
  • Eastern Creek – 1:52s
  • Oran Park – 1:23s
  • Bathurst – 2:52s in traffic
  • A driver who knows what they are doing would no doubt easily better these times.

email dave@myracing.com.au for more information.

Cost:

Corona: $8500 ono

Trailer: $2500 ono

Complete package: $10 000 (would prefer to sell as complete package – already have 2 potential buyers for the trailer, but am holding it so the car/trailer can be sold together)

Won’t last long at this price.

Go racing with this package!

Lucas Eric Youl was born on Wednesday the 30th, at 2.40pm. Your wives and girlfriends (etc) will be interested to know that he was 3.02kg, and 50cm long.

New pitcrew!

I’m looking forward to getting him home shortly so he can help with some of those fiddly jobs, like wiring under the dash!

All official race results can be found on Natsoft.

Qualifying on Saturday morning was a somewhat relaxed affair, given that the engine was fresh from a rebuild, so the running in process was to take place somewhat during qualifying. Given this, I qualified pretty much where I expected, right down near the tail of the field – hopeful of making my way through and up to the midfield during the first race on Saturday afternoon.

The Toyota stable of Youl and Jagger!

Things were all going to plan when I’d worked my way up to about 20th (from 27th) in the first few laps of the race. However, Geoff Fear (Pulsar) had an oil filter failure coming into the esses which left some oil on the track. I ran onto the grass as a result, and lost about 3 places. The rest of the race was run under safety car, as the Pulsar needed attention from the fire marshalls (no real damage done – he would be back to race on Sunday).

Race 2 on Sunday morning was to develop into an intense dual with Stephen Dellis (Mirage). Steve managed to get past under brakes coming onto the straight on the first lap (after a small series of love taps during the lap). However only one lap later I managed to get past him again at the start of the straight when he boxed himself in behind Phillip Larmour (Dolomite). For the remainder of the race he was never far from the rear bumper of the Corona. He had far more corner speed and grip, but the Corona had power (and size!) on its side. Despite being able to get alongside on a couple of occasions, I managed to hold him out for the whole race. It is a shame that the video (below) wasn’t looking out the rear of the car!

Race 3 on Sunday afternoon was another similar affair. This time Steve Dellis (Mirage) was able to get past early in the race and was too fast for me to keep up with. However he made a mistake at the end of the straight which resulted in the exit of both Dellis and Passfield (Datto 1600). I ended up finishing just behind Wildridge (Gridfilla Escort).

Once racing had finished for the weekend, one of the highlights of the whole weekend was to be able to have a BBQ on the main straight, and to actually walk the track for one final time.

Some enthusiastic racers walk the track to say goodbye

I need to say a massive thank you to Ashley Birks for the time he has put into the car over the past 6 months to rebuild the engine and get it ready for this meeting. Also, Al Palmer Repairs has continued to support MY Racing for the past 3 years. I appreciate Al’s support immensely. If anyone lives in the Penrith area and needs any servicing work done on their cars, I can’t recommend Al highly enough. (And make sure you let him know you’re a MY Racing supporter!)

No irony or sarcasm intended – it isn’t his fault.

The system has let him, and the rest of the motoring public down. Again.

The person I’m referring to is an elderly driver. News headlines proclaimed: “Lost Driver Finds Himself in Wrong State”!

Huh?! I thought. Perhaps it is a slow news day, I supposed. Here he was, a lifetime resident of Albury or such. Got confused by one of these newfangled roundabouts and accidentally crosses the border to find himself in Wodonga, VIC. No problem, a quick U-Turn, back over the Murray to your worried wife at the ‘village’ and all is well again.

Sadly, this wasn’t the case. After setting off from a friends place in Yass, to return home to Pambula, on the NSW south coast, he found himself nearing Geelong! Some 600+ km away from his intended destination. “Eric was 630km west of Pambula, and 654km away from Yass, when his adventure ended.” http://bit.ly/3I2ivW

I’m sure ‘Eric’ is a nice guy. He seemed as much on the news reports. But, in my opinion, he shouldn’t have a licence. The fact that he had no idea where he was, tells me that he has paid scant regard to any major road directions signs for the preceding 8 odd hour journey.

I wonder if he pays the same amount of attention to a stop sign…

Or maybe a Give Way sign?

Not to mention those pesky little coloured lights – you know, the red, amber and green ones that are all over the place in the ‘big smoke’.

And then, at the end of the article (found here: http://bit.ly/3I2ivW) “Eric, who suffers slight dementia, and his wife were reunited on Tuesday afternoon, police said.”

Eh?! Slight dementia you say?! I’m glad I wasn’t sharing the same piece of road as Eric. I’m even more thankful my wife and daughter were safe on the roads in Sydney.

But I’m not angry with Eric. Not in the slightest. I’m angry at the system. And the media.

The very same system that seems hell bent on punishing drivers to within an inch of their licence (and sometimes further) for accidentally slipping over unrealistic speed limits one time too many. The system that enjoys continual revenue growth at the same time as an increasing road toll proves these punitive measures just don’t work. Yet here is Eric. An 80 year old dementia sufferer who accidentally finds himself 600km off course. Same system? You betcha! Doesn’t make sense to me.

And then, there is the media. Hell bent on vilifying anyone who might get enjoyment from motoring, anyone passionate about their car, and those who might occasionally go a little bit quick. This same media is portraying Eric as some kind of hero! Press conference with Police, news cameras, microphones in his face… you know, the stuff usually reserved for pop stars and traveling golfers with appearance fees 10 times the size of the winners cheque (which they will win anyway!). It just doesn’t add up to me.

But then… what do I know?

My tip for the weekend? No tip for outright, a very open field indeed.

I will tip however that there will be at least 2 U2L cars in the top ten come Sunday afternoon… perhaps even more!

I wish I was going…

Click on the picture below for more information.

This car for sale