Bob McMurray writes from the Toyota Racing Series at Timaru (Round 2)....
Apparently things that are not good come along in threes.
I am waiting for number three and it’s only 08.30am!!
First was a look outside the motel window and seeing the light drizzle from overcast skies.
The forecast for today is cooler temperatures (very true already) and occasional showers. I guess this is one such ‘occasion’ we are in at the moment.
Not wet though, just a bit damp.
Second was my wife telling me that she had got a parking ticket yesterday...in Timaru!
We have successfully negotiated the Auckland bear pits they call parking bays and the controlling werewolves in council uniform for months and years without penalty and she comes down to sleepy old (and very friendly old) Timaru and gets a ticket.
Third??? ....well...I’ll let you know later if it happens.
Still dry with about an hour to go until the TRS qualifying.
How dry? Well a little Suzuki Swift had an engine problem just a few metres short of the pitlane entry and parked the poor little thing on the grass temporarily. He had to move it real quick however when the very short, but very dry, grass underneath the car caught fire causing lots of extinguishers to be aimed at the spreading small flames.
Almost a prairie type fire raging over the savannah it was, well it could have been but all was extinguished after about 50sqm was charred.
That’s how dry this area is. Clearly the conditions from the previous weekend didn’t get this far north, about 400kms actually.
Timaru has been described as a ‘technical’ circuit. I am still not sure just what that term really means as I have heard it used for just about every track in the world.
It is the shortest track we use in the TRS at 2.4 kms and a relatively simple one in terms of layout.
From the start line on a fast lap in the dry the drivers have to brake from about 215kph, get down to 3rd gear and turn a quick right and left at about 105kph before accelerating to 137kph and then turning the long left hand turn at around 85kph in 2nd, then getting the power down as soon as possible without oversteering off the track, grabbing 3rd, 4th, 5th and changing into 6th about halfway down the back straight reaching about 230kph before braking, down into 4th and turning left at around 155kph.
Another straight and up to 186kph, braking again to turn the long left turn 5 at 103kph in 3rd, accelerating to 125kph, sharp right turn at the hairpin at 61kph in 2nd and then up to 115kph for the left turn in 3rd, grabbing 4th before the front straight and gradually going through 176kph at the pit lane entry point and up to the start line at 215kph.
A dry lap that gets you to 58.168 seconds.
Sounds easy really!!
(Those figures courtesy of Richard Moss the TRS car electronics guru for the series)
Out front of the TRS hospitality unit has suddenly turned into some sort of Lexus dealership now. With the IS350 and the CT200h on prominent display and Jasmine and, very experienced in the way of car sales, husband Chris on hand with the order books. Not sure how many they have sold so it’s probably best they swap the white shoes, gold RayBans and gold chains for more suitable gear and see how that works out.
Next up was qualifying. The weather was perfect with slightly overcats skies and cooler temperatures than the previous days, and apart from Nathanael Berthon having a bit of a spin and then Victor Sendin causing a red flag by getting beached on the kerb after his spin (3 place grid penalty for that) and one or two others getting over excited and dropping wheels onto the dirt (all four wheels for some of them) all went fairly well.
Marciello had a lurid 360 degree spin on the dirt at the far end of the circuit but kept it all going and just sped off into the distance leaving clouds of dusty dirt in his wake.
So, a real qualifying session for the first time this year to be fair.
Various drivers tried various strategies like waiting in the pits until the rest had gone out (Auer and Cassidy) and putting in a sighter lap or two before waiting for the quick run on new tyres at the end of the session (van Asseldonk) or others trying to go plain ‘balls out’ from the start but it all boiled down to van Asseldonk, Bonifacio (good speed for him here), Cassidy, Leitch, Serralles, Hill, Auer, King, Marciello (including the spin) and Lester making up the top ten grid places for race 1.
Victor Sendin’s car (number 9) caused some confusion after his rear wing broke just at the beginning of the session and his team borrowed a spare wing from the team car of Melvin Moh (number 8). The number 8 on each side of the rear wing end plate was made into a 9 with the aid of the ubiquitous black race tape but it looked like a smudge of dirt at speed so the commentators (including me!) were a bit confused (very easily done I might add) especially when Sendin had his spin and Moh was blamed.
The TRS two seater had an important cargo today. My wife Shaune actually.
It all came about after TNZ General Manager and CFO (and TRS leading light) John Fowke suggested she go for the ride at lunch.
Her mouth was full of food at the time and as the answer was not immediately “NO” it became assumed the answer must have been “YES”. And so it came to pass. Mr Fowke is like that!
As Mr. Fowke pointed out after some discussion with her, she had previously (in our Formula 1 days) turned down rides with the likes of James Hunt, Keke Rosberg and a few other racers in the past so she could not possibly turn down the offer of a ride with TRS star Sam MacNeil. I guess there was some logic there (?) but in any case she got suited and booted, had the seat fitting and was in the back seat of the car to lead the pack around for race 1.
She ‘expedited her egress’ from the car with a beaming smile. A great experience.
Race 1 started with some excitement with the front row car of Bonifacio sitting there with waving arms. His engine had cut out some seconds before the start and the yellow flags were immediately deployed.
However the race was still started with him on the front row and in the blind crosshair gunsights of most of the grid!
How the heck a serious accident was avoided I do not know.
Only good fortune and good driving by those unsighted drivers two or three rows back to be honest.
Surely the race should have had a delayed start??? But no apparently not!!
The officials turned off the lights and away they all went.
Some frantic action to try initially to get the Bonifacio car started but that was unsuccessful so he was pushed backwards to the pit lane entry and into the pits. Not before the pack had come past at some speed to try to pick up the safety car though.
His car was finally started and he joined the race but eight or nine laps down.
A very uncomfortable period though and a potential ‘BIG ONE’ fortunately avoided!
The race report, as always, can be found elsewhere and especially on the TRS website, www.toyotaracing.co.nz
A good race, a proper race for once and there were battles all the way down the grid but the two kiwis won the day. Cassidy from Leitch from Hill in third.
Various drivers slipped down the grid and some benefitted from the confusion at the start. Marciello for one had seen the waved yellows and, as is the custom in Europe, he did not start immediately but waited for further instructions like a ‘Start delayed’ board. Only momentarily though as some of the other cars streamed past, so, in the interests of self preservation, he got going pretty much straight away.
The battle at the front got very interesting just a couple of laps from the end with the car of Cassidy seemingly slowing down some.
Leitch and Hill caught him rapidly and a real close battle ensued.
A problem?? Unlikely.
Nick playing tactics? Probably.
Perhaps his intention was for Hill to get past Leitch to minimise the points for his championship rival (Leitch) at this point in the season. If so, clever, but it didn’t work and Leitch keep his place and Cassidy’s car remarkably came back on song for the last lap or so.
A bit of consternation amongst the teams (yet again) about the start but the results stand.
All in all a good racing day.
We had speed, competition, cars off the road, good battles and controversy.
Bring more of it on tomorrow please.
More later.
Bob
PS.
The third thing hasn’t happened....yet!!
See also
- Bob's Blog: 'Come a hot Friday'
