11th April - End of the Season

We thought we had finally found the cause the engine overheating problem, and were looking forward to getting back on the track last night and finishing 3 races in one night. But it was not to be. A DNF in the first race was due to breaking the alternator belt and running out of electrical power. At the time the engine temperature was also too high. We were lucky to be able to get a belt from Jo Giles (81) and so went out for the second race, but the temperature was rising quickly and rather than cook the engine we chose to withdraw rather than risk the engine and also get in the way of the other drivers.

So it's back to the drawing board to find the problem and a solution.

It is disappointing for my Sponsors that we couldn't produce a better showing and I am grateful for their continued support.

To all the spectators who attended the Glen meetings, thank you for your support of the Club and I hope you had many nights of enjoyable racing.

Until next season, drive carefully, stay happy, and we will see you in October.

25 Feb 2009

Well another week has gone by without getting the car on the track. We have not had a race since 4th Jan and I am starting to feel like I'm in the middle of the off-season. The Sunday meeting was cancelled and last Saturday the weather took a major hand in cancelling that meeting, so the next chance is 7th March.

There was not much point in travelling to Blenheim 14th Feb as we haven't had the chance to prove that we have finally fixed the overheating problem that has plagued us all season. It is a long way to go to DNF the first race if the problem isn't fixed. We believe that we have finally fixed the problem, but until we can get some laps under our belt under race conditions, we can't be sure. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Hopefully we will see you at the track on the 7th March for the 'A' Grade Canterbury Champs.

Stay happy and drive carefully, there are idiots out there.

30th December 2008

Well I have been putting this off in the hope that I would have some good news, but it is not to be.

It has been a miserable season with overheating problems starting at the practices. Every time we think we have the answer we find we are wrong again. We have checked every possibility we can think of including leak-down tests, pressure caps and fitting a better radiator, but all to no avail. Now we are down to thinking that we must have a cracked block.

 The next step is to remove the engine, strip the heads and have them crack-checked just to be sure, and then fit the new heads to the old engine. We never had overheating problems with the old engine and so are hoping that this will eliminate the overheating problems. At the same time we can check the block to see if we can identify the problem.

I don't know how long before we are back at the track but the season if effectively finished as a competition for us, so if we can get in 2 or 3 meetings to ensure we have eliminated the problem, then we will at least know that we are ready for next season.

If you scroll down the Home page you will find pictures from the latest meeting at the Glen, taken by Taz Racings Official photographer 'Tuts'.

I hope you all had a great Christmas and also hope that you have a happy and safe New Year.

Update 15 Sept.

The car has been run on the dyno, tuned and performance recorded. There are still some improvements to be made later.

 The first practice was last Saturday, and it was good to get back behind the wheel and get a feel for the car again. All in all it was a good run, and some more time in the seat will allow us to do some suspension adjustments before the first meeting.

 All that remains to do is a bit of work on the body-shell and have the new signwriting applied, so that should see us all ready for the first meeting on Ocober 11th. That's not far away now, so it's time for all you spectators to sort out your warm jackets and rugs so you are all set to go for the first race meeting.

Update 17 August

I have received the engine and it is going into the car this weekend. From there it is a matter of getting it running and taking it in to NZEFI on Thursday for tuning and a dyno run. After that it needs a little work on the body and fresh sign-writing and we should be all go for the start of the Season.

I believe there will be more cars in the fields this season so that will make for more interest.

Off-Season 2008

During this break we are tidying the car in general, and having a new engine built. MP Performance have reworked the cylinder heads and MPL Automotive are building the engine.

Work on the chassis and body-shell are mainly asthetic, but all the components including steering and suspension will be stripped and checked for faults before reassembly.

Hopefully this engine work will result in a more competitive racecar.

Another season has come and gone, well almost. There is one more race meeting on the 5th of April but "A" Grade Saloons are not racing as they have a meeting in Dunedin against the cars from down there.

Last Friday and Saturdays Easter race meeting at Woodford Glen went well until the rain came on Saturday night and stopped us after two races. Friday nights track suited us just fine and Saturday nights track was good also. Unforunately we didn't have many cars due to some breakages over the last couple of weeks and, being the end of the season, the enthusiasm to spend more to get back on the track for the last two nights may not have been there.

The disappointing thing that happened on Saturday night was that one of the drivers who was breath-tested in the pits between races came up positive. This will now go through the Woodford Glen Management Committee and then to Speedway New Zealand. SNZ has a zero tolerance policy as far as alcohol and drugs is concerned, and rightly so. Speedway has it's own dangers and risks, and to increase that risk for the other competitors on the track and the Public is not acceptable. Hopefully this will be a timely reminder to other Drivers and Pit-crews who may have or may considered transgressing, that it is not acceptable and sooner or later you will get caught.

John
28-03-08

Friday night was a good nights racing for us. The track initially looked very wet, but after we had been out and packed the track it came good. It stayed damp and had good drive all night.
The first race, starting from the back, was going OK until I got pushed out to the wall on turn four, which lost time and position which I didn't manage to recover. But, that is just one of those things in racing. The second and third races went well, with the car handling well and doing what I wanted. Unfortunately, the new exhaust system, having had the previous one fall off and get run over, was a bit too noisy. There wasn't much that we could do about it and so I was "Black Flagged" in the fourth race which was unfortunate as we don't often get to run four in a night.
Saturday night all turned to custard when the track couldn't be recovered sufficiently to make a safe raceable track. The meeting was cancelled and run as a Free meeting on the Sunday starting at midday. This meant that a lot of spectators missed the meeting due to other committments.
Next weekend, Easter, Woodford Glen will be racing on both Friday and Saturday nights. After that there is only the April 5th race meeting left to end the season.
I hope that we see you out at Woodford Glen at least once over Easter as there should be some good exciting racing to be seen.

John
17-03-08

The countryside needed the rain but unfortunately it was just too much for the track.
The Glen is not much above sealevel and the amount of water was too much for the pumps and the pits and everything else must have been a mess.

The meeting will be re-scheduled so keep your eye on the Glen website (refer LINKS at bottom of page) for the new date.

We have had a new exhaust fitted thanks to Midas Car Care Hornby so we should be all set for our next meeting which is not until the 14th March as we have a stand down on the 1st
Hope you will be there for the next meeting as there are not many to go until the end of the season

John
16-02-08

Canterbury Champs are over for another year Congratulations to Marc for his win But what a track It was probably the worst we have had all season
It was so dry and slick for our first race that the crews were setting the cars up as the would for the last race of the night and it got worse from there I had a lot of trouble coming out of turn 4 If I kept the power on the car would sledge out but if I eased off then we lost speed and were too slow coming out of the corner

Overall it was hard work trying to maintain clean racing lines and reasonable speed
The number of accidents and breakages was largely a result of the state of the track which was certainly not set up for good saloon racing
We had to make tyre and set-up changes after the first race just to keep control of the car We also lost the entire exhaust system out of the car towards the end of the second race
We went out for the third race with no exhaust system at all hoping that it would not be too loud and it wasnt noticeable to the track staff but it was too loud in the cockpit and made the eardrums very uncomfortable so I pulled into the middle

I also have two tyres that suffered cuts in the incident with Fluffy the other week that I was not aware of which have opened enough to let the tyres deflate too quickly Hopefully these can be repaired otherwise they will have to be replaced

Overall I finished 5th equal with Walter but the racing wasnt much fun due to the track condition Lets hope we get some better tracks for the rest of the season
The next meeting is the South Island Modified champs on the 16th February which should be a good nights racing Hope to see you at Woodford Glen that night

John
6-02-08

Well we made it out to the track last Saturday 19th after a lot of work checking and repairing the damage I did on Boxing Day when a flat tyre caused me to take out Fluffy in the second race Fortunately his damage although looking bad was not too difficult nor expensive to fix

We ran off the back all night because we had a completely new setup at both the front and back and needed to make adjustments during the night Better to stay out of the way until you know how the car is actually going to handle than to cause problems for other drivers by starting in the pack

The track itself wasn t the best to determine the best handling setup but we did make some good improvements as the night went on

The next meeting is the A Grade Canterbury Champs so we need to have the car handling correctly for that meting

So I hope that we will see you out at the Glen for that meeting If you are there pop down and see us in the pits either before or after the meeting You will find us under the Mitsubishi flag See you on the 2nd February

John
23-01-08

Had a talk to fluffy (73c) before last nights meeting and he said that the 73c saloon wasn t too badly damaged and apart from a couple of small things (that they fixed before the race meeting) it was all go

Unfortunately he had a coming together with anothe car during the night (that i didn t see) and it looks like he has more work to do before the next race meeting

Shame your racecar is going to be bent for some time as Jo from Cromwell Speedway said i should tell you to go down to race at Cromwell on the 11th and 12th to support the Streetstock Nationals But i guess thats out of the question now

Nic
29-12-07

The Boxing day meeting is over and what a disaster for A Grades
I got a flat right rear tyre making handling just a bit difficult and in trying to get off the track took out Fluffy who was coming through inside me It broke Fluffys right front stub axle and apparently I went over his wheel gaining a bit of air in the process Fortunately the damage to Fluffys car is largely confined to the stub axle and so he should be back on the track on Saturday
The damage to my own car is a little more extensive We need to do body repairs remove the engine to repair engine mounts and to check the chassis for damage and cracking
Consequently we will miss the meetings of the 29th and 2nd and with us on Stand-down for the 8th and 9th we won t be back on track until the 19th Jan That will give us time to check out the car properly and hopefully eliminate any potential problems
I hope the other guys who sustained damage don t have too big a job getting them fixed
Have a happy and safe New Year and we will see you back at the Glen

John
26-12-07

My apoloies for not updating this but we are re-vamping the site (this comments page being part of it) and each week I will add my comments about the last meeting
In the off-season we had an new Link G3 computer installed and overall it has given us some more BHP and Torque through being able to tune the car better As expected we had a few minor problems such as rev limiting due to the engine temperature getting to the original setting but that has been resolved We have also had cooling problems due to throwing a fan blade and also I suspect that they were getting a bit old and not spinning fast enough Both fans have now been replaced
I hope that we have now got rid of the Gremlins and from Boxing Day on we will have a good run and put in some really competitive performances
Have a happy and safe Christmas and I hope we will see you at the Glen on Boxing Day

John
18-12-07

Another season has come and gone. Overall it was a good season for the 'A' Grades who are a competetive but friendly and helpful bunch of guys, both drivers and crews. The driving was of a good standard with a minimum of incidents causing damage to other cars (there was the odd exception of course).

For us, the season progressed better and better. We made several modifications during the season and now have the chassis set-up sorted and working well. This means that with the improved handling it performs better in the corners and makes us more competetive. It also makes driving more enjoyable and less of an effort which is great for me. 

There are a couple more minor modifications to do in the off-season but no major changes. The most significant change will be the installation of a new computer and electronic ignition which will allow better tuning and hopefully better performance. Everything going to plan will see us ready for the start of the season with a car ready to perform.

My thanks to my crew of Bloss, Toffy and Amy, and Team Manager Nic. Racing is just so much harder without a good crew, so I am lucky.

Our thanks to all the spectators who support the racing at Woodford Glen. Without you we would not have anywhere to race. It is all you families and individuals who enjoy the the show we put on that makes it possible for us to race.

Finally, our thanks to all the volunteers who turn up week after week, and do all the jobs (many unseen by the public) that have to be done to ensure that we can conduct a professionally run and safe meeting.

I will update this every few weeks to let you know the progress on the car.

Enjoy the off-season, stay safe, and remember "The only place to race is on the track".

Well it's almost the first meeting and we are ready to go. Greensheeting is all done and finished. We had hoped to make the practices but found an engine problem we were not expecting and so by the time that was fixed and we were up and running, we had just missed the last practice. Now we have to finish running the engine in before the first race, but that should not be a problem.

Overall the car seems fine, but until we get it on the track we won't know for sure. It will probably need a few tweeks to the suspension but that should be all.

My apologies as we got too enthusiastic about re-assembling the car and forgot the chassis pics I promised.

We will give you an update after each meeting, so you know how we felt about the racing.

Get your seats, nibbles and jackets organised so you are ready for the Glen on 14th. Come through the pits and say "Hi" either before or after the meeting and tell us if there is anything else you would like to see on this web-site.

See you there on the 14th. 

The chassis has been cleaned and re-painted, and is currently being re-assembled. No major modifications are being carried out although we are doing one or two minor changes.

Once it is mobile and before it is panelled up I will post some pictures of the chassis (before it gets dirty again).

Check out the videos on the links page.

The Off-Season sees the teams stripping, checking, and modifying their cars for the coming season. Our car is currently stripped to the chassis for checking and painting.

Chassis and engine modifications are in progress to gain improved handling and performance. We will be racing the full season at Woodford Glen with trips away to 3 or 4 other tracks.

Options for sponsoring the car are still available at various levels.

For the new season the engine was rebuilt, a new gearbox fitted, wider rims and tyres fitted to the front, and a new body shell fitted, painted and sign-written.

At a practice session while running-in the engine and checking the set-up, we found that the clutch would not take the additional power and traction and had to be replaced. We also found the new rims would rub on the top suspension arms under full lock, which required the arms to be modified.

The last matter to reveal itself was a handling problem due to the additional traction. This was overcome by fitting a modified power steering unit. Even though the season was not an outstanding success due to the above teething problems, we now believe we have a car that performs and handles the way it should. This bodes well for the coming season.

First Season in the New Car

The GTO was purchased from Invercargill. The first thing we had to do was to find out how it was put together, and how to make it work best for us. (Generally, no two drivers will set up a car exactly the same way.)

Before our first season (2000 – 2001) with the GTO, we removed the body and repaired and repainted it. We also had front and rear GTO bumpers and side-skirts made to replace the plain panels it had been racing with. This, along with the addition of a GTO rear spoiler made it look much more like a Mitsubishi GTO than it had previously. We also studied the suspension to get an understanding of how it was set-up and what improvements we could make to it..

Our first season was one of experimentation with the set-up, to get the car handling how we liked it. We had reasonable results during the season. We did not achieve any wins, but we did manage to achieve a respectable place amongst the field. By the end of the season we had a set-up which worked for us. One thing we did determine was that the gear ratio was not correct for the way it was being driven and that we would have to find a better ratio to be more competitive.

In the off-season we gave the car a general tidy up, and made a few modifications which we believed would be beneficial. We also calculated the gear ratio we believed we needed and went in search of a suitable gearbox.

How it all got started >>>

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