A beautiful sunny holiday weekend seems to have drawn the crowds to the Tasman Series at Pukekohe. Big crowd, top cars and drivers from all over the World in both F5000 and Historic classes... oh yeah I was there too.....
How I really must love this racing thing cos I aint been up at 5.30 am for ages. Linz and Craig arrived just before 6, we hooked up the trailer and headed to Puke. The Boys' much anticipated brekkie of Eggs Benny turned into McMuffins and BP coffee... sorry Boys.
We breezed thru scrutineering mainly cos Hitler and his bro from the previous meeting must have been on holiday... practise began almost straight away. What a buzzzzzzz!! I thought the first lap felt really good, on the second I found out what it is like to go straight ahead a the end of Puke's back straight at speed. I had come up to the hairpin really hot stumped on the picks and was about to make the sharp right hand turn into the corner when I noticed a Ferrari which I thought was about to dive underneath myself and the Escort I was following. Apparrently The Escort guy thought the same thing and hit the picks when I looked up I thought " OH S##T!!"
I dived onto the grass and that was it...no braking no traction and not a lot of steering but I managed to hook 2nd gear and rejoin the track.... then I made history I OVERTOOK the Escort!!
For the actual race a couple of hours later we were rushed onto the grid and lot of people including myself were caught out... I had only done half of my seat belt up ... I thought stuff it and continued on. I had decided the quickest way thru the esses at Castrol was to go as straight as possible using the ripple strip...GREAT idea Kezz until a radius arm broke causing the tyre to rub against the body.. I figured when the car started filling up with smelly blue smoke it was time to stop. Bummer but what a fantastic day!!
A couple of hours playing with my car mad grandson Zach ( not sure where he gets the obession from??) who is staying the nite tops off a great day in Paradise. Zach has added a new phrase to his 2 year old vocabulary "Noisy race car "
Thanx Linz. Thanx Craig. Linz you are a mate so I will not take offence to the statement that I may have "to shred a kilo or two to fit into the Exige"........ when I get it I will make sure I fit!!!
