The high level agenda for the weekend:
Friday: Practice
Saturday: Long Track (K)
Sunday: Short Track (E)
The goal for me was to work on confidence driving at higher speeds. Sprints and hill climbs (before the Gold Rush Hill Sprint) have seen me spend most of my time in first, second or third gears. I’ve discovered I am not comfortable at higher speeds on track and lack the confidence to push on at speed. Given how little driving I’ve actually done in recent years this is probably not that surprising.
The Barnes family from Rockhampton were there with their Blue Rocket (NA mx5) and Luke spent some time leading to show me the lines and following to observe my effort so he could provide some tips. It was very helpful, and I am very grateful. I really need much more seat time.
The White Mouse stopped running on all cylinders on Friday afternoon, with a miss that started out intermittent and quickly became continuous. I suspected a coil pack or an injector.
I called Burson's in Warwick, who let me know that their Toowoomba branch had NB8B coils on the shelf. It was 4 pm Friday and Toowoomba was over an hour away according to Google maps, making a dash possible…. …but, I also had a full set of spare coils at home in Brisbane (2 hours away).
I decided to pack up and head home, and try to fix it there as I would have more options for parts to swap from my ‘box of stuff’ at home should it prove not to be a coil. I would then make a call on whether to drive back out later in the weekend.
The drive home from Warwick is towards the North East, and with the sun setting behind the Main Range behind me, the sky overhead was stunning with blue, purple, and pink hues and set against lush green landscape thanks to the recent rain. With the window down and the warmth of the fading day on my face, the drive back to Brisbane to fix the car was a highlight of the weekend in spite of the inconvenience.
Fast forward to 7:30 pm I was back home in Brisbane. I had swapped coil packs, identified the fault (the rearward coil of the pair), and The White Mouse was back to normal. I did not unpack but did enjoy hugging my wife and kids and sleeping in my own bed.
4:30 am Saturday, I left for Morgan Park, arriving with plenty of time to collect my transponder, unload again, and head to the driver's briefing.
The format of the competition is three ‘runs’ each day, with each day using a different configuration of the Morgan Park circuit. ‘Runs’ are completed in groups of vehicles with a similar pace, with two being released at a time from a standing start. Timing is by transponder and for elapsed time (not first past the post), so you can either leave together and see who makes it to the corner first, or you can leave a small gap.
For the first run, I was paired with a Morris Mini (the old original version, not the new BMW thing), and The White Mouse easily made it to the corner first. However, I quickly discovered that the Mini driver was more skilled than me and was actually quite a bit quicker around the track and I was holding him up in the corners.
In subsequent runs, I let him leave first, and he provided me with an excellent target to chase.
Morgan Park in the long track format has two sweeping corners that require higher speed confidence. The second of these corners in a single incident claimed two cars in one of the first sessions of the Saturday, both suffering extensive damage, one of which rolled and looked like a write-off. My best time on this course was a 1:33 (compared to sub 1:30 times for the Barnes NA).
One of the two victims:
Obligatory vision from day one on the ‘long track’:
Sunday’s competition returned to the ‘short track’ – my best time was a 1:12 (vs the Barnes at 1:10).
I did have another issue with the White Mouse on Sunday, with the passenger side axle nut loosening. The ABS on that corner lost sync as the sensor came out of alignment, resulting in the ABS light coming on and ABS switching off. I noticed when the passenger front wheel locked up in the braking zone at the end of the main straight – an exciting moment.
I rechecked and torqued both axle nuts after each run following this.
Morgan Park is a lot of fun, and I think I will have to find a way to spend more time driving there.
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