Podium Lost in Final Minutes for Team Australia at Japan MX-

[hot rod]

Team Australia ‘Lite’ cruelly missed out on its first ever podium in Mazda’s MX-5 Party Race last weekend, north of Tokyo, Japan, finishing 20th when they were in a position to win.

Team Australia even led during the four-hour enduro at Tsukuba Circuit, but with just minutes to go, their MX-5 ran out of fuel, joining 12 other cars that suffered the same fate.

The Mazda Festival race started well for Team Australia, who raced in memory of Peter Brock, with support from Laminex and the Australian Embassy in Tokyo. From the 27 car field, they qualifying 7th, their best ever result.

The traditional ‘Le Mans’ run-to-the-car start and a quick getaway had them up to fourth by turn one. Five laps later, Team Australia was in second place where they settled to conserve fuel.

The four hour endurance race is as much about economy as pace: teams are allocated just 90 litres (full tank plus two 20 litre jerry cans) to complete the roughly 400km event. Designed to avoid teams having four ‘professional’ drivers, the race rewards strategy and economy.

Team Australia employed lower revs, higher gears and took advantage of an early crash and the race’s only pace car period to pit early and gain a lap on most of the field. As starting driver John Boston handed over to Peter Lyon, Team Australia maintained a strong position as the differing fuel strategies and consistent pace saw them rise through the field. Following ideally paced and drama-free stints by Dean Evans and Ian Luff, the team was briefly in the lead before the final driver change had them back in second place, within sight of the lead car whose pace was suspected to be too fast. It was, and the leading ‘The Motor Weekly’ entry was the first to run dry.

With Boston back in for the final 50 minute run to the finish, Team Australia tasted the lead for a few laps before realising the fuel may not last. Revs and gears were readjusted, lap times dropped significantly, and with 25 minutes remaining, cars in the top ten started running dry. Five cars in the top 10 ran out before Team Australia met a similar fate with just 12 minutes to go. “It just stopped,’ bemused Boston. “No surge or hint or anything. And it must have been the corner because there were seven other cars in the same spot.”

In the final 10 minutes, lap times for most cars had dropped by 5-7 seconds with some cars even crawling around in fifth and sixth gear at 80km/h.

Ultimately, the 2006 Mazda Festival four-hour race was won by Japanese ‘Tipo’ magazine, and by race end it was those from the bottom half of the field who found themselves elevated to the top.

Motivation Australia’s Ian Luff was naturally disappointed but pleased with the effort: “To be in such a good position, for all the drivers to do their jobs, and for everything to go to our strategic plan is pretty much all we could do. That we weren’t the first team to run out – and far from it - at least proves we were doing something right.”

The father of the MX-5, Takao Kijima stated after the race that the 90 litres [of fuel allocation] was 20 litres less than last year, but “we will run the same fuel for next year as we believe it is the ideal test of driving and strategy.”

Team Australia calculated, even on its economising strategy, it would have needed another 10 litres of fuel to finish. Luff added: “For one, two, even three cars to run out of fuel makes it interesting, meaning you ‘need’ a strategy. But when half the field runs dry, it says that ‘very’ slow and steady wins this race. You needed an average lap around three seconds off normal pace just to finish.”

Team Australia organiser Peter Lyon was pleased with the drivers’ efforts: “To be as fast as a couple of Japan’s top Super GT drivers is very impressive and earns us a lot of respect. Too bad our strategy didn’t work out as calculated but we proved that on speed our team can run with Japan’s best, and we’re very happy with that.”

Note: Team Australia, as represented at the Mazda Festival, is not affiliated nor associated with any other Team Australia motorsport organisation.

[Benny]

I think they did a great job!

Personally, I think the limited fuel idea is a good one for racing.
I would really like to see it introduced into F1 racing together with some other rule changes like no displacement limits on motors or weight, and just using a fuel allowance as the only major rule for the cars.
This way, instead of the F1 brigade trying to make as much power as possible, they would have to go for a really good power/economy balance, and I'm sure with all the money that is thrown at F1 that the engineers would come up with some fantastic fuel saving ideas.

[jules]

DON'T GET ME STARTED ON WHAT THE FIA IS DOING TO POLITICALLY DESTROY F1.

Actually I heard something intersting today. What does the following statement mean to you taken from this weeks draft regulations?

\"draft regulations for devices to use waste heat and exhaust gases to assist the engines in propelling the cars\"

Hmmmmmmmmmm


Jules

[Slugoid]

"draft regulations for devices to use waste heat and exhaust gases to assist the engines in propelling the cars"

Jules

Stop! Turbo time

[JBT]

"draft regulations for devices to use waste heat and exhaust gases to assist the engines in propelling the cars"

Jet engine with reheat?

[DAJ333]

Personally, I think the limited fuel idea is a good one for racing....

I can't say that that's a view that I share.

Racing is racing. Why pay to watch an economy run? Tactics are tactics, and watching a driver work tactically over a number of laps to force an error, or create a gap is much more interesting than looking at a bunch of cars travelling tactically at 90%, trying to recreate the Total Fuel Economy Runs of the 70's.

The ACO buggered up Le Mans years ago with all the politically correct (at the time) nonsense of fuel limits and such. F1 has even been down that path, which is absolute rubbish.

When fuel's the cheapest part of a racing car, why try and conserve it?