So to the race.
First off the organisers were a great bunch of people. They had some good basic rules. If you spin, leave the track or touch another car come into the pits and head to the officials and self report. The idea being to make sure the driver had calmed down and understood to take it easier. Also if you had an issue with another team go to the officials, no punching on. If you don’t self report then expect to be called in and then have some form of penalty, laps deducted or time out etc.
Two hours were allocated for practice. The xr4 did a dozen or so laps with old tyres and then came into the pits for a check up. Some smoke was coming off the exhaust and there was a very minor oil weep from the relocated filter. Bugger, the filter was destroyed fixing that and we couldn’t find the source of the smoke. Expected it to be residual wash down on the heat shields and all good. Filters were left behind so a quick run to town for new filters. So no more practice laps.
Cars lined up ego first and we were at the back. First few laps were under safety car which was good because the xr4 had fresh rubber. We didn’t get a chance to scrub them in because of the oil filter weep. Car came in for a precautionary check over and no issues though the front brakes looked burnt. So lift and coast and give the brakes an easier time. We pulled the driving lights and left the gaping hole to feed air to the brakes. Brake ducts were something I was planning on but it was lost in the get as much light as we can…
First hour in and all good, second hour and still all good. Car was running consistent 1 minute 50’s and was at the pointy end passing all but three or four hard core cars. Brakes had cleaned up and pad wear was minimal. Tyres were good albeit just road tyres with no problems from the -4 degree of camber I set up.
Came into the pits and the smoke remained but not bad. Next driver went out and came back in several laps later, smoke in the cabin. Up on stands and we discovered that the flange joint between the extractors and exhaust had opened up, the shift cable grommet had popped out and was distorted from heat. And the cable sheaths were damaged. At this point I will mention that someone else decided to add an undertray and when I checked that it was bloody hot. We pulled the tray and discovered that the exhaust had been rubbing on body work and that was the source of the smoke. About an hour later with the exhaust and cable sheaths repaired and the grommet siliconed in out it went.
Car ran faultlessly until I went to bed at about 2 am. Got up at 5am to find the car came back in with the exhaust leak again damaging the shifter cables. New cables went in and more aggressive repairing of the flange leak. Found that the undertray had caused a rear mount to cook and the exhaust was hanging off the extractor flange and that and the bouncing broke the bolts. All fixed and out again. Then a few laps later full course yellows and yep the xr4 got towed in. I was fairly sure I knew what was going on. I went over the back to take some photos and the driver was hammering the xr4 back through the gears and you could hear the motor over revving.
Sure enough it threw a rod. The Duratec is a pretty decent motor but in stock form it doesn’t tolerate much more than 7,000rpm. Not an issue accelerating but if you throw it back rather than use the brakes then trouble is likely.
With 7 hours to go an engine change was on the cards. Yep we had a spare engine. 3 hours 50 minutes later and the car was back out on track and finished the race.
Observations. The undertray was dumb. The driving lights were pointless and brake ducts should have gone in. Take those two things away and the car would have not had those issues. And make sure when you tell your drivers to go 8/10s they can drive without hurting the car. Our driver’s best laps were all within a couple of seconds. Best night lap was 1’53.4” and best day lap was a bee’s dick under 1’50” which put it as the 3rd fastest car out there.
Finished with a stubbiness award for refusing to give up!
My respect for the organisers grew with a few talks and watching them in action. One car spent its life covering the racing line through corners and the middle of the track on straights. It was far from the fastest car and there was a lot of angst in other teams. It was pulled into the pits and grounded for 30 minutes with the whole team sitting in the scrutineering area like naughty schoolboys. They were still bad later because I think they had zero race craft. Another team were made to finish 5 jigsaw puzzles before they could resume racing because they were acting like pre-schoolers! And a couple of cars that were caught dive bombing were impounded for half an hour and then an hour to explain the error of their ways. Our crew didn’t have to self report and didn’t get called in. Three or four cars had battle damage and the blockers had body marks just about all around the car.
I still think it is a hard race on a car but it is an experience.
My job over the next week and a bit will be to replace the shifter cables and fit a new aluminium shifter (!!). Get the exhaust redone with the extractor joint further along the car and fit some brake cooling ducting through the fog light holes. The brakes were fine after the initial concerns and never faded. Oh and fit the Toyo R888Rs I bought for the Noosa Hillclimb and scrub them in.
