Thanks Tim and Mark
If you would all please indulge me briefly and let me vent my frustration for a short time.
I had built up my hopes to win the Open class in World Time Attack 2014 based on a really good year leading into the event. With Paul having won 5 out of 5 Porsche club of NSW Sprints to take out the Sprint Title for 2014 and breaking lap records along the way. We also won the State Time Attack title at Wakefield and smashed the lap record with a 58.5 and just generally improved each time we went out in one way or another. We had implemented some great Aero modifications that had given us very good results and it really did feel like the stars or planets were aligning for us to peak for the main event this weekend.
The car felt so planted in the front end and inspired such a feeling of confidence that we knew we had a really good chance to push for 1st place. With most cars running massive rear wings it's always the front that you are chasing as far as downforce goes...and we had found it. In addition, we had been sitting on great temps for both water and oil and were just trying to manage smaller issues that were result of so much underhood heat. Nevertheless, we felt justifiably confidant that we had the car under us. It was just a matter of driving it to somewhere near it's potential. We'd heard that some of our competitors were doing lots of testing and had been running into issues leading up to the event and I perhaps over confidently felt that we were past that phase having developed this car over the last few years with this event in mind. If I'm being even more expansive I can draw a longer bow and feel like I've been building up to this point almost since first buying my previous 944 turbo back in 2006. It really wasn't long after that when we started that slippery slope of modifying the car for Super Sprint events....I digress...
So here we are. Coasting into the 2014 on a cloud of relative success and while hearing big things about some of our competitors and with all due respect, we really did feel like we had peaked or tapered perfectly for this event. Why wouldn't we? Not being cocky, just realistic.
Thursday practice comes. We do a couple of laps to make sure everything is all A-OK (which it is) and look forward to strapping on our fresh new tyres that I'd paid the extra dollars to have shaved and heat cycled. Friday morning (1st day of event) comes and we just want to put down a good banker lap in the cooler morning session. These tyres are very heat sensitive. If the track gets too hot they overheat before the end of one flying lap so they have quite a narrow window as far as track temp goes. As mentioned, Paul was shaken about so much that he thought the wheels were coming off and had no rear traction but still managed a very respectable 1:31.4. He actually came into the pits after the first lap to check that the wheel nuts were all on tight.
When you see the in car footage it's not so apparent but look at the shifter and control panel for reference. Easier to see is the tail sliding out of most corners. So we had the wheels rebalanced and went out again. Not much better and only recorded one more laptime. Little did we know that this would be our last lap for the whole event.
He went out for the 3rd session that day but of course the CV* broke within a couple of corners so another vital session was down the drain. However sitting in 2nd position overnight with a brand new set of tyres ready to go on that weren't shaved and treated (and stuffed) gave us a good feeling looking to the next day.
Generally in this type of event the 1st session on the 2nd morning is when everyone bolts on the fresh rubber, winds up the boost and goes for it. Of course we did the same. Out we go. Going for glory. Paul comes flying down the main straight leading into our first hotlap and just gets through the notorious Turn 1 and the Oil pressure warning lights flash alarmingly. Session done. Turns out that the dry sump crank pulley has sheared in half! Really clean break. They tear into the job pulling the front of the car off and without pausing, Paul puts on his cape and just solves the situation by going and machining a brand new (and stronger) part at his workshop. It's about an hour away and we've got Saturday morning traffic. A few hours later, having lost another vital session, he's back and the car is zipped up again and we're all feeling a little bit more positive. We really didn't have a heap of time to spare before our next and very last session for the event. (6 in total) The Scrutineer guys had been wanting to weigh our car previously but because we'd suffered the mechanical issues we just hadn't made it around to the weighbridge. So we thought why not get it out of the way now and relax. So Paul starts the car and notices that it's idling a little high. We head off and weigh it and all is fine in that regard but come back to the pits to find out what's happing to cause the idle change. We now have 10 mins until our last and vital session. Damn...there's a 4" crack in the Intake on one of the seams!! What?? So of course Super Paul rips it off the motor and literally runs through the crowd in his race suit and finds an exhibitor's stand that is advertising welders and welds it all up nice and tight. Meanwhile I'm running off to the control tower prepared to beg them to allow us to run in a later group. I was really nervous and preparing to bribe or start swinging fists...whatever it would take. Surprisingly they were fine with it and I raced back to the pits to give the good news. It meant that we could get it bolted back together and 'protect' our now 4th place. Because we couldn't run past early the previous day, some of our competitors were getting quicker and we were slowly going backwards in the placings. We needed to be in the top 5 to have any chance of winning the event. At the end of the day the top 5 of each class got one last session to see if they could jump a place or three. The way this goes, you can lead for every session but someone can beat your best time in the Shootout by 1/1000th of a second and take the title. So of course we were very keen to get out there and see what we could produce. This was our hope as we felt strongly that we had a decent amount of improvement in the car. But as we watch the live results feed it looks like we're safe and don't 'need' to go out in our last normal session. I was of the opinion that we should strap on our other set of wheels/tyres and Paul should still just go out and get another feel for the car as he'd basically not driven much at all over the weekend. We ummed and ahhed wondering if it was worth the risk or just sit it out and wait for the Shootout. I also thought that the Shootout was literally 1 flying lap and that's all, and I pressed Paul to go out again in our last regular session. So...Ok...Let's do it.
He lines up on the grid and they send him out. We watch nervously and excitedly as he goes around for the first lap and comes down past us on the main straight where all the pit garages are. Yeah!!...we're finally out again. Other cars are doing their best and I just want to see Paul get a few laps under his belt to try and relieve some of the day's tension as much as reaquaint himself with the car. Hmmm...he seems to have been a little longer than I'd expected and here comes that car again that was behind him before. Uhh Ohh....back into the pits and what has happened now. Turns out now the whole crank pulley has sheared off it's mounting just like the dry sump pulley did and our event is over.....
We stare at it for a while and try to fathom how this could have happened? We can only surmise that there is a massive vibration or harmonic issue creating huge stress on the components. It could be the G loading through Turn 1...just not sure? Obviously we will need to pull things apart to find out what has happened and what the cause is, but that was it for this event and this year as far as I'm concerned. Feeling very deflated and gutted. Paul had put sooooooo much time and effort into getting us there and with a great car. I had spent soooooo much time, money and emotional effort to do the same. All I can compare the feeling to is of a boxer who has trained up for a major title and was looking a good chance of winning but on the day he finds out he has to tie his right hand behind his back. We never got to show our potential and just have nothing to show for it. Of course this must happen every weekend at every racetrack around the world so we're nothing out of the ordinary....but it really does Suck!!!!!!!!!
To add insult to injury, when they went out for the Top 5 shootout lap there was a protest in the air about the car that had bumped us from 3rd to 4th however they let him run in the Shootout and would deal with it afterwards. So I'm sitting in the stands watching the Open class shootout thinking..."Hold on, if he get's banned and nobody goes faster than our time, we could still get onto the podium for 3rd place" Maybe there would be another twist in the weekend's tail?? A little consolation prize perhaps. However, the guy that they'd let take our place in the shootout who was previously in 6th position was flying around and looking pretty serious about putting in a better time. He beat us by 3/1000th's of a second and then the motor or turbo blew and he parked it on the track and walked off. The guy in 5th place also parked it on the outfield too. So even if the protest was successful against the 3rd placed car we still would have missed the podium by a ridiculously small margin. All while we never turned another lap since 8am the previous day.......
I'm done for a while.....Merry Christmas and a Happy new year to you guys... :-)
