What a season, what a year, what can I say.
Well for a start, I thoroughly enjoyed ever bit of this past seasons racing never once having any regrets or maybe we should have done something differently or maybe we could have tried something differently. Nope, none of that. What we set out to do we did and what we wanted to achieve we achieved. Better than that in this day and age is asking a bit too much.
The 140Z has now been around since June 2009 and has made many sit up and take note but more importantly I believe it has provided excitement, pit banter, amazement and has given something to the spectators to keep asking wanting to come back and see more. The amount of spectators, visitors and past racing drivers that still think it sports a 16V turbo inter-cooled power plant are absolutely gob smacked when upon opening the bonnet it reveals a 8V normally aspirated L series Datsun motor. Not much has changed since then and still at the end of the racing season in November of 2011, they still pop their heads in and ask, 'what motors' it got?' Towards middle of 2011 along came competition, serious competition in the form of a big 6.8 litre V8 in the disguise of a Chevrolet De Ville. Behind the wheel was a very competent ex drifting champion and once oval tracker who had one ambition and that was to beat the 4 cylinder Datsun. It was no competition initially and admittedly such due to it simply destroying a set of tyres on every race. Eventually a set of slightly worn slicks were donated and that made a difference. In October of this year it got it's first win over the 140Z while in the last and final race meeting of 2011 it won both heats but not without a fight to the last meter. Yes the gearbox has had enough with damaged synchro's and badly worn selector gates, a motor that has up till now never been opened or refreshed so a narrow loss to a behemoth is acceptable given the circumstances. The engine, gearbox and axillary bits of the drive-train will all in due course receive a refreshing but for now it needs some rest before a new and fresh attempt will be made. For the 2012 season another Datsun is in the 'extreme make-over' department and all willing should strut its stuff by February 2012. Watch this space.
The other little Datsun GX also delivered above expectation all things considered. This season was in many ways an experimental season which afforded us to to try different things, combinations and engine modifications. The results sometimes were mind boggling while at other times it gave us just what we wanted along with a great dose of further encouragement. For the 2011 season the Datti spent its entire season in class B sneaking in a few wins here and there just to keep things interesting. Admittedly it's competing with far bigger engined race cars but that's not the point, we managed to keep up with them and in particular the last two race meeting were absolutely brilliant, so close and I could not ask for better. We will now take this much needed and afforded time and package together many of the things were learned and experimented with and will come back even more determined to improve our performances.
What is so often ignored and forgotten about are our immediate families who often make big sacrifices so that we can do what we love doing best, race. A lot of time is spent away from the office and at home and when we do finally get home after racing we're bushed, tired and need let the adrenalin settle down. To them we say a huge thank you for being a part of us even although they are not always there in person.
Finally and as always I cannot thank my 'boet' enough for the dedication. the long hours of work, effort and time that he puts into my race car throughout the entire season, for every race meeting and for each and every race itself. If it was not for him, we would probably have a class F car filling up at the back.
Thanks 'Boet'
