Racing & Sprinting

My easter weekend at Bathurst could best be described as awesome.

Mount Panorama

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The plan was for me to drive up following another two 1600s on trailers, one belonging to John Auton (road registered light blue 2.3L L series with KA24DE head) and Brad Webb (blue SR20 turbo Improved Production car).  Also along to service were Dylan (John's son, who had his SR20 turbo 1600 entered but pulled out before the event) and Brad's mate Wayne (aka Mitch).

My teammates

I dropped my gear off in Bayswater on Wednesday night for Dylan & John to cart up.  When I got home I started the car and nearly lost my sh1t when it was only running on 3 cylinders and because I had dropped my tools off I couldn't even pull the plugs or do a compression test.  I let it run for a while and eventually it came good; I still don't know what happened.  Alf kindly came over with his tools so I could do a compression test which checked out all OK.

The 1600 on the dummy grid

The trip up was largely uneventful except for using 1L of oil and the car seeming a bit flat under load and not pulling up hill in 5th gear as it should.  I had borrowed Graham's 4.444 diff because my 4.875 would limit top speed down Conrod (thanks Graham!).  The original plan was to drive up with a 3.7 diff but I decided it would be too much effort to swap to the 4.444 at the track.  I borrowed a Terraphone headset to make the trip more quiet & comfortable instead.

About an hour out of Bathurst, John & Dylan had a puncture on the trailer so Brad, Mitch & I continued on while they went back to a wrecker to get a replacement.  We arrived around 13:30 and headed straight to the track to do a couple of quick observation laps before getting ready for scrutineering.  Scrutineering pretty much worked on the honour system - you filled out your own check sheet and the scrutineers performed a few random checks!

Accommodation was at the Mt. Panorama Citigate motel on the outside of the chase and is very much recommended with good rooms, good prices and an unbelievable trackside view.  After a quick trip to the car wash and Repco to get a spare fan belt everything was ready for the weekend.

Accomodation was quite acceptable.

The first event was the Masters session where small groups of drivers new to the track would follow a pace car to get an idea of the lines and braking points, but somehow I managed to get lined up behind a dead slow Jaguar pace car and didn't learn much I hadn't already picked up from the laps at civilian speed.

Next up was the qualifying session to establish our nominated time for the regularities to follow.  Starting from grid position 46 I found the traffic quite bad, especially over the top of the mountain.  First impressions were that it would be incredibly easy to put the car in to the wall at any number of corners, and what a track!  The kink before the chase was quickly figured out and is easily taken flat out at my top speed of just over 200km/h.  I ended up with a time of 3:07 knowing that I could pull a couple of seconds off with no traffic, so I nominated a 3:05 for the first regularity.

The first regularity was postponed to first thing Saturday morning due to a number of delays during the day and the loss of an hour of running because of thick fog on the mountain in the morning.  My grid position had improved to 39 which helped with traffic and I surprised myself with a time of 3:01 which gave me hope that sub 3 minutes would be possible.

Morning fog delayed proceedings

When we arrived at dummy grid for the next run, we found that we were not on the grid sheet but were advised to run anyway.  Later we found out we had been re-grouped to the second group but were not advised!  Times and results were not published so I didn't realise at the time that I had managed a 2:59.

Following the bonus run, we joined group two.  My grid position had further improved to position 10 where I would stay for the rest of the weekend.  From this grid position, traffic was minimal and I was only losing a couple of seconds over the top of the mountain to cars that were faster down the straight so I was really starting to enjoy the track and get the hang of the tricky and bumpy Reid & McPhillamy Park corners.  John had what must have been a puckering experience when he lost brakes in the chase due to a rear brake line rubbing on a half shaft.  Luckily he had a spare and Dylan got it swapped ready for the next run.  Times and results were again not published so I didn't realise I had further improve my PB to 2:58.  Following the chequered flag shown at the kink, Brad found the sand trap at the chase.

In the final run on Saturday, Brad looked at his gauges and realised he had no oil pressure and temperature so pulled off as soon as possible near McPhillamy Park where he parked until after the event.  The tow truck unhooked him at the top of the mountain, advised him not to brake and said "see you in the pits"!  He later discovered that during the visit to the sand trap the sump  had been bashed in to the oil pick up, blocking it off.  John was bogging down in third gear out of Griffin's Bend so Dylan swapped his diff from 3.7 to 3.9 while Brad and Mitch worked on the sump before we headed off for a great meal at the GT Angus steak house - also very much recommended.

For the final run of the meeting on Sunday I planned to take it easy to make sure the car would get me home but it was too tempting to have a crack and I ended up with another 2:59 during an epic battle with a 302 Cobra.  It would fly past me on the straights but I could get past it on the outside of McPhillamy Park and down the inside at the chase.  During the weekend I had similar battles with a 240Z, an EH holden, a Jaguar and a Sunbeam Alpine.  Brad elected not to run to avoid any further possible engine damage.

The Commodore I chased on Sunday

The Cobra I chased on Sunday

There were some beautifully prepared historic cars there including a massive fields of Group N and sports cars, and a decent sized field of genuine Group C & A touring cars returning to the mountain.  Even the regularity events had some amazing cars including several all the way from Western Australia.  Datsun Z's featured heavily with probably over 12 entered.  Datsuns also filled positions 1 and 2 in Improved Production with our favourite car of the weekend being the leading 1600 of Mark Short from Adelaide.

Genuine M3 Touring Car

Simon Crane's Alpine

The GT40 lets go...

Overall I managed 35 laps so the track time is not exceptional for the entry fee but the exclusivity of the track and the fun had more than makes it a worthwhile event.  You just have to experience the Reid Park and McPhillamy Park corners at speed, and standing on the brakes in to Forrest's Elbow and the chase is pretty special.  Thanks to John, Dylan, Brad and Mitch for their help and an entertaining weekend.