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Monday, 16 August 2010

Gone with the Wind.

The long and much awaited 'Ford & Friends Festival' eventually arrived and many made the journey up to to the 'friendly city' by car and in convoy. We departed in the early hours of Thursday morning and duly arrived just after lunchtime. By late that afternoon we had off-loaded both our cars and unpacked the cars finally covering them for the night where after we settled into a festive mood at the track. We had both set our personal goals and targets for the weekend and finally hit the sack by around pumpkin time.

Friday morning we were up early and headed for the track by 7.30am and duly preformed our ritual in preparation. Sadly and very disappointingly, history repeated itself again and once again prevented me from racing the Datti as it so also did in 2007. On my out and warm up lap with oil pressure at a good 4.5 - 5 bar on leaving the pit, by the time I had got to Chevy Sweep it was down to 1.5 bar and by Goodyear, 150m further ahead, it was down to less than 1 bar. I simply pulled back into the pit and there it remained for the weekend under cover. This meant I would now concentrate my efforts in helping where I possibly could in reaching the personal goals set by my 'boet' for the weekend. It was no doubt a tall order (no pain no gain I guess), but through careful calculations taken from previous visits to the track with similar machinery, we had a good idea of what we felt as doable. New tyres for a start were not available and he started off with a used set of 8 x 13" slicks. The morning session eventually produced times of around 1:12. With nothing having to be adjusted on the engine, it was down to getting saddle time and finding the limits of the tyres given the track and surface conditions. He again attempted a session after lunch with a few new ideas in mind as to where time could likely be made up. We re-corrected tyre pressures and took to the track once again. Although a further improvement was achieved that with posting 1:11's it was eventually accepted that the maximum had now been extracted from 8" rubber. Wanting to call it a day, I made the suggestion to put on the 10" rubber and get another heat cycle before Saturday mornings qualifying. He agreed and we made the change. Again we made the due tyre pressure corrections taking current track and air temps in consideration. Out he went again and after 3 laps he achieved his first personal goal, that of breaking the 1:10 barrier. In fact, unofficially the clock stood on 1:09.7 and whatever happened here after suddenly all became irrelevant. We called it a day with everyone congratulating the maestro in his achievement.

Saturday morning was again up early as qualifying was now to be done and we had prep to do beforehand. We duly went about making all the necessary checks and adjustments and made compensation for the early morning track and air temp conditions. Knowing how close the opposition was to our times, it was going to take a concerted effort to repeat the times we set our goals to. Lo and behold the 'magician' put his head down and on lap 4 put in a blistering official 1:09.956 and claimed pole position for race 1. I don't ever recall a 4-cylinder engine single overhead cam posting such official times around Aldo and a new benchmark had in all probability been set.

Race one saw the 140Z on pole with the 700HP 'Wesbank' late Owen Ashley built Capri Perana in 2nd position. By all counts the V8 should have had the legs on the straight to out run the 140Z going into turn 1, but at lights out for the start the 'giant killer' lead the Capri into T1 and opened up a gap through the tight back section of Aldo. By turn 8 (Goodyear) the 140Z had opened up a 200m lead only to have it closed to within a few meters at the end of the main straight going into T1 again. So the race went on with the 140Z consistently opening a gap sufficient enough to breath safely, or so we thought. By lap 5 they started catching the back markers and traffic was heavy, not everyone watching their mirrors closely enough as the express train approached with blazing headlights. This allowed the gap to be narrowed and on the last lap both the 140Z and the Capri Perana were side by side coming out of Toyota corner with the Capri on the inside race line and the 140Z on the outside. With neither driver prepared to relinquish their track space, the Capri touched the left back-end of the 140Z resulting that both went off in Chevy Sweep. It was now a case of who kept a cool head and got going again. The 'maestro' hooked second gear and rooster tailed it out towards Goodyear and came out sideways into the main straight. By now Robbie Smith (SMURF) had also got the Capri back on track and the express train was once again at full bore chasing the 140Z to the finish line. The 140Z took the finish by a mere 0.767 seconds ahead of the Capri and making it a very closely contested and well deserved race.

Minor suspension damage was endured in the coming together between the two and we duly borrowed the calibration tools and made the necessary wheel alignment adjustments as required. In the interim we had acquired 2 brand new 10 x 13" tyres from a local Ford supporter and decided now was the best time to put such weaponry to use. So we had them fitted at the track and duly sported a new set of front boots, ready for race 2.

Race 2 was to be very much of the same as race 1 or so we anticipated. At lights out though, things changed very quickly with the Capri getting ahead of the 140Z and Rose in the Porsche RSR now also alongside the 140Z heading into turn 1. No way would a 'hammer' out corner the 140Z and the Porsche duly slotted into 3rd place with the 140Z tucked right up on the Capri's back bumper. Turn 1 is a long right hander and the moment that Robbie looked up into his rear view mirror he had made the fatal mistake and locked up the front going into the esses and ran very wide. This allowed the 140Z through and this time there was to be no second chance. 'Mr Datsun' put his head down and peddled that 140Z as if there was no tomorrow and again opened up a substantial gap that put paid to anyone catching him unless through some mechanical failure or mistake. Such was not to be either and try as he may the 'Wesbank' V8 Capri Perana was given a thourough driving lesson on the tight 2.48Km track of Aldo Scribante.

Veni vidi vici.

Due to my unfortunate DNS my 'boet' offered me the chance to drive the 140Z in the 1 hour race. Not being one to want to race another mans race car (not even my own brothers) I humbly accepted with the provision that I would NOT attempt to finish the full 60 minutes nor attempt any heroics at lap times. This is one car I cannot afford to pay and have fixed. Well, all that is left to say is that it was absolutely and utmostly enjoyed even although by now the back tyres were finished and the tail was quite happy to hang out at any given opportunity. In total I managed to finish 16 laps on a 18 liter fuel tank and my best time posted was 1:15.7 during the race. After 16 laps I pulled in satisfied that it takes a better driver than me to make that red rocket fly in the 1:09 bracket.

Thanks again 'Boet' for all the efforts made in getting us to PE.