Nostalgia Nationals, Avon Park

29th June 2008
 

click to view larger imageGet the car to the staging lane and climb in. Check all switches are on or off as necessary. Get helmet/gloves etc on. Pete does the safety belts up, (tight), fire up the engine. Check the burn out rev limiter is ON, (4,500rpm), steer the car round to the burn out box. Watch Pete and stop when he says, check with marshals, select first gear and mash the throttle. Grab 2nd gear, look at sky, (mmm, nice clouds), pull on brake lever as hard as I can. Manage to stop about 10/15 feet past the start line. Turn OFF the burn out rev limiter, select reverse, wait for Pet and press the trans brake button. Watch Pet to reverse me up, wait for Pete to remove and show me the parachute safety lock. Select 1st gear, move up into stage and press the trans brake button. Bring the rpm up to 5,000 and watch the lights. On green release the trans brake, look at sky again, (mmmm, that cloud looks like a really rude thing), shift into 2nd, (top), around 6,800 rpm with throttle hard down, pass the end traps keeping the throttle on, (for good speed), release the throttle and pull on the brake lever as hard as I can. Miss the 1st turn off lane again, bash my crash helmet on the roll cage as I hit the bumps, undo my belts and turn on the cooling system. Look behind to see if the other car is next to me, turn right at the 2nd turn off lane as hard as I dare without rolling the car over, pull over and wait for the crew to tow me back. When we reach our pits, check the car over and get ready to do it all again.

-Dave2Lanes

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The large tyres that we usually run are completely shagged so we had the smaller set on, pushing Brock on my own Saturday was proving to be hard work.
When we got back to the pits after our 4th run of the day for Saturday it was a welcome relief to see the cavalry had arrived –well, PD & Lunatic anyway. We got the car ready to go back out while they set up, then we were off again getting another 2 runs in before the track shut for the day. With the racing finished for the day I talked the lads through the checklist of getting the car ready after each run. That done, it was time for beer and food, followed by more beer.
Sunday morning arrived and about 9.00ish I thought I'd better get up and make a start. As the track doesn't open until after 10.00 it’s a bit of a lazy start to the day. Boy was I in for a surprise. PD had been up for hours, well long enough to have had breakfast, cleaned the tyres, checked the tyre pressures, fuel, oil, steering linkage and loosened the seat belts and put the battery on charge ready. The only thing left to do was fire up the generator, (he said he didn't like to start the genny in case it woke us). If only everyone was that considerate. Which left me to sit with a cup of coffee and a cigarette and do absolutely nothing. I could get used to this.
Brock surfaced just before 10.00 and fired her up ready to go. We gave a dial in of 10.03 as we had been running between 10.00 and 10.06s on Saturday. The 1st run and Brock managed a 10.04 -never been that close to dial in before so it was an excellent start to the day. 2nd run and a 9.90 –bugger, that's blown it. 3rd run, 10.02 -maybe we can pull it back. 4th run, 9.94 -nope we've blown it. Still, on the plus side we have never been so consistent. But then presentation time and we ended up 3rd, which was a real surprise! So on that note, once again a really BIG thanks to Lunatic and PD.

-Mrs Brock

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The Boys indeed done good, and then some. Tow back, stop in pit, have thirty seconds quiet time, get out and service the car. Not this weekend! Get out and the car's already unhitched and on it's way up on the jack, stands at the ready. By the time I'd sorted my kit the tyres were clean, battery on charge and fuel at the ready. I watched it twice and thought "What the hell am I doing, stand back, you're only slowing things up" I don't think they fully realised how much difference they made -the "manager" managed and the driver drove. Result ? -we made ourclick to view larger image first placing in two years! Not only that, but we did it in the tightest field I can remember seeing. After the first round run we were point zero one three seconds off and that was good enough for fourth place! After the third round we were good enough for second place but in the last run the driver got distracted chasing a faster car and missed his lift point by maybe ten feet, (moving at almost 160 foot a second at the time), and gave it away.
Lesley, (Mrs Brock), and I had a really first class weekend. Thanks Guys, you made it. We’re out again in two week’s time. If you can join us again it would be brilliant.

-Brock