Willowbank 300 on 3-4 May

toppertee · Postby **toppertee** » Tue May 06, 2014 8:52 am

Also thanks to my mates who came out and helped, in the pits. ZoomZoom(tim) Reece, Brian, Cullum

Also turn two and my co-driver for giving me something to hang in the shed :mrgreen:

MattR · Postby **MattR** » Tue May 06, 2014 9:24 am

Tbro and I had a great weekend, car ran faultlessly all weekend until 30 laps in where a puff of smoke out the back and then two laps later Terry is parked up in the crossover for the next hour and a half. Won't know what broke until Terry has the time to have a good look, but it didn't smell too good when we got it back into the paddock at the end of the day, hopefully it is not too bad.

We did better than a few others and we were slowly creeping up the page and looking good for fuel as well, which was a major worry for us not knowing what the actual fuel use would be for the event and whether we could get to the halfway mark on a standard 40 litre tank.

I didn't get much time in the car but what time I did get was great, Terry can set up a car that is very easy to drive consistently. Only around 20 laps in the car for the whole weekend and I was within 0.2 of a second of Terry's qualifying time and I still had a bit left in me, so we were looking forward to a great result, but it wasn't to be.

Next event should be the one hour in October for us.

Next year we will be back, and hopefully able to choose between two cars to run if some work things come off for me in the next week or so.

mazmad · Postby **mazmad** » Tue May 06, 2014 10:24 am

Bad luck Matt. On the livestream it looked like some poor sod was still in the car all that time.

corners · Postby **corners** » Tue May 06, 2014 10:26 am

mazmad wrote:Bad luck Matt. On the livestream it looked like some poor sod was still in the car all that time.

Yep tbro had to wait it out the entire time...

toppertee · Postby **toppertee** » Tue May 06, 2014 11:07 am

Hopefully Scooter will be out and running soon :wink:

Postby **Boyracer** » Wed May 07, 2014 9:39 am

How did the radio things work? we had them at Wakefield and they didn't work well at all, wasn't really happy about having to fork out $110.

MattR · Postby **MattR** » Wed May 07, 2014 9:51 am

I found it worked well and in a lot of ways gave you more warning of what was happening around the track rather than just arriving on the scene after a flag point.

We knew what the incident was and where the car was on or off the track and could plan evasive action accordingly.

little decks · Postby **little decks** » Wed May 07, 2014 12:11 pm

From standing on the pit wall the safety system they use up there with the radios, 3 "C"s, and no safety cars just looked downright dangerous, the c of c was so worried about a leader losing an advantage that cars were being recovered from the outside of corners while the majority of the field at full race pace and some competitors still overtaking, I get the idea behind the radios but not using anything near the conventional flag system alongside is just unnecessary and potentially confusing… the existing system works in every level and location of motorsport, why reinvent the wheel?

little decks · Postby **little decks** » Wed May 07, 2014 12:15 pm

Not to mention they used the radios to call cars to the grid in order, which caused the field to be gridded in the completely wrong order from about 11th or 12th place down.

Postby **Boyracer** » Wed May 07, 2014 4:07 pm

Agree Decks, might start a separate discussion.

From comments and feedback sounds like the event was pretty poorly run, I think if I was Wakefield/winton I would not be happy because they have a great formula for their events and this one could drive people away.

toppertee · Postby **toppertee** » Wed May 07, 2014 4:24 pm

It's not like drivers, are whiny bottoms. :lol:

My car broke, I was gridded up in the wrong spot, lost the rear bumper...... Still some how, I had a great time

.
It's club racing not F1. :wink:

S#it happens!

I'm sure they will learn and do it better.

I hope like hell they run it again next year.

P.S. I got a trophy, you are more than welcome to it :beer:

little decks · Postby **little decks** » Wed May 07, 2014 4:56 pm

toppertee wrote:It's not like drivers, are whiny bottoms.

It's club racing not F1. S#it happens!

P.S. I got a trophy, you are more than welcome to it

For the record I was not driving I was up there to give my Dad & Luke a hand in the pitstop and throughout the weekend, they won 1st in class, so it's got nothing to do with winning trophies mate, contrary to popular belief that's not what we are about, we like to race competitively and have a good time doing it, if we get a result rankly that is a bi-product of what we are there to achieve.

Our main frustrations with the whole thing were that the supp regs were changed and ignored multiple times throughout the event. This includes the 1:20 cut off and breakout penalties as well as the 5:00 pitstops (which was pointed out many times in the briefing and many competitors ignored).

Then you make the point that its club racing not F1…. well why does the c of c feel the need to completely reinvent signalling and safety that operates in motorsport everywhere for the sake of club meetings with racers that have been using the conventional system for years. It seems like a system brought in by someone who doesn't have much experience in racing other than as an official.

In regards to the radios its probably worth its own discussion, but I will say that our drivers could see the value in it but found it is awfully distracting having an official yell into your ears in the middle of corners for a long race.

zossy1 · Postby **zossy1** » Wed May 07, 2014 6:18 pm

Boyracer wrote:Agree Decks, might start a separate discussion.

Add me to tithe disgruntled list. Ok, I get the value of it, but there were various incidents in our races on 27 April that were not advised on the radio. So,..why were we forced to pay $110 for these $10 transistor receivers? To receive a "code word" before the race?

I call shenanigans.

toppertee · Postby **toppertee** » Wed May 07, 2014 6:24 pm

little decks wrote:
In regards to the radios its probably worth its own discussion, but I will say that our drivers could see the value in it but found it is awfully distracting having an official yell into your ears in the middle of corners for a long race.

Sorry I was trying to be funny. :oops:

I would think if most could put up with the radio noise for safety? I would rather have it than not. It's been up QLD for a while now. (you get use to it)

It's not like the QR race way owner, employees and helpers turn up to try and do a s#it job, they would have tried there best.

I'm sure they (QR) will have a meeting about the event, work out, what worked what didn't, what they learnt? Fingers crossed next year will be better.

I.M.O. I try and look at the positive, and would love to see more of these events, where GT cars and cheque books don't f#ck it for the club racer.

little decks · Postby **little decks** » Wed May 07, 2014 6:48 pm

Totally agree Toppertee, and the Wakefield and Winton 300s are great events, what I don't understand about QR is that they might have the best of intentions but they doing everything so differently that there is less innovation and more of a petrie dish for problems… It is a bit frustrating when all of the other tracks we go to aside from QR and Morgan Park use the Dorian timers… which work, 95% of the time if an official comes and tells you to check your dorian, it's not there or out of battery (your own fault) why does QR need a different type of timing transponder? I'm not sure if thats why the timing was so stuffed in the 300 but it makes you wonder.

Again with the radios… they would have some merit at a circuit like Bathurst full of blind corners, but where at QR or Wakefield do you come up to an incident that you couldn't see from 3 corners away?