Bob McMurray writes from the Toyota Racing Series....
First Things first.....
HOT, DRY AND SUNNY...YAY!!!!
Friday at Timaru is always a little quiet in and around the paddock and today is no exception. Apart that is from the truck racers flogging around every so often with belching smoke from the stacks. They do look as if they are going at a fearsome speed though.
No problems overnight and the cars that found themselves closer to the scenery than was first planned have all been fixed up, gravel rash smoothed over, bits replaced on those that needed it and all wheels made to point in the right direction. I was actually watching the Giles motorsport team doing the set up on the van Asseldonk car and the care and attention lavished on the final one tenth of a millimetre in suspension, toe in – out, ride height, and all the bits that are adjustable, was worthy of any Formula 1 team, and this attitude is duplicated up and down the pit lane.
Some nuggets........
Just a few short years ago, three or four maybe, nobody had access to any form of internet or webmail or Wi-Fi or the like and nobody worried. That was what it was.
Now of course the internet is global and an essential tool for all trades and businesses and international motorsport is no different, in fact more reliant than many others. The internet access is useless here at Levels raceway prompting uncomfortable comparisons and comment about „Third World Country. from some visitors. Toyota Racing Management have worked manfully to try and rectify the situation but it seems that somebody is standing on a cable somewhere and the flow is limited.
In the best traditions of „just get on with it. pretty much all the teams have found a way around the problem. Frustrating though!
Question...how long do you sit in a car wash waiting for the programme to go through it.s cycle before thinking.....problem?
Being the conscientious person I am I decided to get my fuel efficient Camry washed and the dust of the Mackenzie country flushed away.
I took the car through a car wash (bearing in mind the water conservation going on here) and bought the full treatment version. Wash (x2), wheel wash, deionised water rinse, wax, blow dry, the lot.
I Sat in the car wash while the first sweep of wash went through, then the second with lots of bubbles and foam all over the car and the roller rubber thing parked itself at the rear of the car...for one minute, then two, then three and, as quick as my brain is, I figured the thing had broken down. It had. So I phoned the garage and a person came out, couldn.t fix it, released me from the chains of bondage to the infernal machine and gave me my money back.
I then proceeded to drive to the next garage about three kms away with multi coloured foam and bubbles trailing in my wake.
Some funny looks.
One of the fantastic people in the TRS motorhome, Karen, got herself a new iphone and really needed to look at an email she knew somebody had sent here. Not knowing just how to access it she asked another of the wonderful girls for some assistance and, being one who has some experience in such matters, Karen was happy to let her loose on the thing.
She then found all her emails deleted including the one desperately needed. The wonders of modern technology eh!?
We also have a new chef in the motorhome...from England! Gary has worked in many of the various racing Formula running on the tracks of not only the UK but around the world, catering for the sometimes „special. needs of drivers and teams alike.
First day on the job he cut his thumb badly on a plate.
Motor racing is dangerous!
The new drivers to each circuit have to attend a compulsory driver briefing on a Friday morning at 08.30.
With the TRS drivers obviously pretty much all of them had to attend even though the first TRS outing of the day was at 10.45am.
When the Race Director asked if there were any technical questions or things that the drivers did not understand there was no answers from anybody until one query from French driver Nathanael Berthon “Why are the briefings so early”? (He doesn't do early mornings very well)
No answer to that.
To be a successful driver these days you have to have your own driver coach. We have a coach load of driver coaches wandering the paddock here all coaching as hard as any coach can coach.
Don't know what they all do to be fair. Nice having them though.
It was pointed out to me that my fuel economy figure I talked about yesterday was probably not helped by the Tiki touring around the Otago Peninsula (hills), Akaroa (lots of big hills), Wanaka (lots of mountains) and the Southern Alps (lots of big mountains). Well worth it though.
Testing got underway for the first session and boy some of these drivers look darn quick. The lap record here for a TRS car is 57.98 and the cars of van Asseldonk on 57.761, Auer 57.861 and Bonifacio 57.885 were all below that already. The Michelin tyres in use this year are the same as last so no added advantage there, it seems this year's grid are just another step up in speed from last year.
Next up Marciello, Cassidy, Serralles, Leitch, King and Lester with the others not far behind.
Only testing though and no points or prizes for today.
No dramas for anybody and no damage repair to take care of, short of the obligatory removal of undergrowth, gravel and grass from the radiators and secret places it really shouldn't be.
Actually no real damage in the practice session but at the very beginning, as the cars were lining up to go out on track, the car of Victor Sendin, fixed up after his Thursday shunt, suddenly developed a major leak from the oil cooler.
This was due to some accident damage carried over from Thursday and was not immediately obvious when the car was being warmed up. He missed the session while repairs were carried out.
Unfortunately the practice was cut slightly shorter than the advertised time of 30 minutes due to a 'technical' problem causing a bit of consternation to lots of drivers who had a 'plan' for the entire 30 mins, as they do in Europe.
Practice 2 got underway, for the whole 25 minutes this time, and lots of new tyres were in evidence on the cars.
It seemed a pretty frantic session from where I was standing on the exit of turn 1, entry to turn 2 and 3. A few drivers got the corner a tiny bit wrong and slid off onto the grass but all got going again fairly soon.
That is going to be a corner to watch at the start of race one...and two.... and three for that matter.
A red flag came up after about 10 minutes due to Dmitry Suranovich losing the back end and sliding off, beaching the car. He had to be brought back to the pits on the back of a truck...well, at least the car did, not him.
Surprisingly, Felix Serralles chose not to take part in the session saying that he and the engineer were happy with things. Perhaps some tyre strategy going on?
We shall see.
The times were perhaps a little mixed up with different drivers on new or used tyres but Jordan King came out on top with 58.167 then Hill (looking fast and stable), Marciello, van Asseldonk, Cassidy, Auer, Berthon, Leitch, Lester, Engineer, Sendin (looking a tad ragged and on the edge), 'Top', Moh, Vlok (a bit of a spin at turn 2 in tune with some others), Suranovich, Cerruti and finally Siddiqi.
Some drivers were commenting that it was difficult to accurately spot the braking point for some corners, especially turn 1, due to a lack of marker points.
As an aside, after practice I took the Toyota FJ Cruiser (voted 4X4 of the year by Top Gear Magazine New Zealand) for a bit of a run around the block.
The actual car that Top Gear tested as well.
After a bit of getting used to with the comparatively soft ride I thought it was magic. A ceck of a car and fun to drive.
I shall have to work on an extended loan of one!! (hang on, I.ll put that in capitals)...”I SHALL HAVE TO WORK ON AN EXTENDED LOAN OF ONE”.....there, that feels better.
At the end of the day and after the stewards meeting, three drivers were found to have broken the pit lane speed limit of 40kph.
Two of them at 51kph and one at 43kph.
Not so bad today as all you have to do is go see the headmaster Mr Snellgrove and look suitably chastened and humble but do it over the weekend and Race Director 'Robbo' fills the MSNZ coffers with you hard earned dollars.
At the very end of the day the Fujitsu Motorsport show on Sky TV NZ broadcast the Teretonga round from last weekend.
Normally I wouldn.t mention this but for this year there is a whole new production team.
The commentary is being done by international commentator Jonathan Green and the entire show is dedicated to the TRS.
I thought the show had a great „international. feel to it and the production was great.
Bear in mind we only got in about ten racing laps out of forty eight at Teretonga, and the conditions were dreadful, but the on board camera work was fantastic and the production was fast and skilfully done.
For various reasons I was concerned about the commentary and how it would work out but I have to say I thought it was excellent and my compliments go out to Jonathan.
I have been doing the „expert. comments for the last few years on the commentary and I was perhaps a bit disappointed (although I would never admit it) not to be doing that job again, I very much enjoyed it, but Jonathan is far more „international. in his approach and that is the aim of the series, and of Toyota NZ, to gain as much international exposure as possible.
I think this new way of producing the show will achieve that.
I hope the rest of the series proves to be as good as the Teretonga event ....but drier, warmer, no hailstones, no waterspouts with a threat of tornadoes and a reduced possibility of frostbite.
More later........
Bob
See also
- Bob's Blog: Hot testing at Timaru
