Bob McMurray writes from the Toyota Racing Series......
Timaru, Sunday 22nd January 2012
First things first.
Cool, overcast and drizzle at the moment but better things predicted over the day but with ‘occasional showers’.
Errrr...wrong!
Well, right, but later than we expected.
By the time we get to the track the rain is fair tipping down.
The truck race was first up of the day but with the torque those things put out they had no grip whatsoever, nor visibility, and just keeping the things on the black stuff was a big enough job.
A small follow on from yesterday.....
The car of Bruno Bonifacio had a mystery engine cut out just as the red lights came on for the start. Not a stall, more like a backfire that caused the engine to simply stop, and the cause is still being investigated as we speak. There was a puff of smoke from the airbox that was evident from the on board camera and it looks on the data at the moment as if Bruno had put his foot flat on the throttle after idling for some time on the start line and some unused fuel had ignited in the engine and bingo...backfire.
Hannes van Asseldonk went a little bit backwards at the start, mainly because he thought he had engaged 1st gear but in fact had 2nd gear so a sluggish getaway followed.
Late yesterday evening, with things winding down a little bit, Hannes van Asseldonk was standing at the back of the TRS unit where a row of large old truck tyres form the basis of a wall holding back the dirt bank.
The height of the tyre wall is around 1 metre-ish.
Hannes proceeded to ‘spring jump’ with no run up and from a standing flat footed start, on to the top of the tyres with plenty of room to spare.
Being the competitive individuals they are, TRS two seater driver and (BBQ expert) Sam MacNeil and hospitality volunteer Chris Vercoe (wife Jasmine is the ‘go to’ person for the TRS series and Chris does actually have a proper job in real life) thought the jump was easy and they could do it. They both lined up and individually made the attempt. Sam was first up and failed completely with some body damage to prove it and Chris, next in the queue and very confident, still had bleeding shins from his efforts at 7pm.
See, age does get to you!
V8s out now and raining even harder. The mode of dress from Teretonga is back in fashion sadly.
The rain rained even harder but during the GT race pre TRS the rain stopped and the track started to dry out a little bit.
What it did do was leave a dry line on the racing line and a wet line ‘off piste’.
Unfortunately ‘off piste’ meant the inside line of cars behind, and including, pole sitter van Asseldonk, was placed firmly on the wet side.
The lights went out and the left side of the grid got the grip and the right side got massive wheel spin.
All the cars were on wet tyres with the exception of Nathanael Berthon who took the late gamble of fitting slicks in the expectation the track would dry out.
Sadly, like most of my own gambles, it proved to be a massive error and he quickly dropped back and went one lap down.
The car of Lucas Auer seemed to be very slow to get away, and almost didn’t, resulting in a bit of a chain reaction that left an unsighted Chris Vlok ramming him and immediately losing his front wing while Auer got away in the race.
For a few laps the main game to concentrate on was actually staying on track as conditions dried out. Some of the drivers didn’t manage to do that and the off track excursions and spins were countless.
The cast featured Berthon, Marciello, Hill, Leitch and more.
In fact Tanart had not actually made it to the start having pulled off the track on the warm up lap with some undefined mechanical problem. (Later found to be the oil pump gears possibly damaged from various earlier excursions off track).
Vlok was in the pits for a new nose but retired on the spot and the most exciting race so far this year, with battles all the way down the grid, went on without him.
A few drivers had a few incidents with Auer having more than his fair share and Asseldonk, in a battle in the leading pack of five or six drivers for a while, had contact with Bruno Bonifacio, got a puncture and fell back, as did Bonifacio himself.
Cassidy had the whole thing under control and went off to win after Leitch went off track in pursuit, recovering to fifth.
Serralles then King made their first appearance on the podium in a TRS event in second and third with a charging Jono Lester in fourth.
Most impressive was Josh Hill with a very aggressive, incident filled and determined drive to an eventual eighth place.
Bloody good racing to be honest and something we have looked forward to with great anticipation.
Predictably a bruised ego or two, a puffed up ego or two, a complaint or two and a smile or two, or three or four.
Normal racing stuff to be honest!
Great stuff.
In the interval between races the engine of Tanart Sathienthirakul was changed simply as a precaution in case of any possible engine damage that may have been the result of
the temporary drop in oil pressure.
The weather by now was clear and dry and the predicted rain had held off completely.
Too much went on in race three for me to describe here so have a look at the race reports (or I strongly recommend the TRS / Fujitsu motorsport show during the coming week on SKY TV) to really appreciate just how good it was.
Great racing all the way down the field with incidents, lots of overtaking and lots of
individual battles. Great stuff once again.
A great advert for the series and great for the Kiwi drivers and a great drive by winner Damon Leitch, as well as a very controlled drive under a lot of pressure from second placed Russian driver Dmitry Suranovich, yet another new face on a TRS podium.
At the end of the day we had some very excited and pleased drivers receiving their trophies and spraying the ‘champagne’ over the crowd and especially our lovely TRS girls Emma and Alex Pugh.
A darn good weekend overall that produced some real racing with nineteen cars all battling for positions.
Post Haste, King Tony, Yamaha and other series sponsors were valued guests over the weekend and their presence was certainly welcomed by all.
At the end of the day the TRM / TRS team had a well deserved evening meal at a local restaurant and exuberant TRS engineer Jared was threatened with a good slapping on his backside by the equally decoratively, and exuberant, tattooed waitress Siobhan.
This was encouraged by many senior team members but, despite some serious suggestions that, in doing so, Jared may actually earn us all a 10% discount on the price of the meal, he made his apologies and declined the kind offer.
He had a sly look over his shoulder for the rest of the evening though.
On to Taupo then and more of the same please....TRS racing that is and not Jared and his tattoo comparisons.
Bob
PS
A few too many ‘greats’ in the words above but it was...great...seriously!
See also
- Bob's Blog: Saturday, it's still dry
