710 Motorsport dominate 3E production class at Morgan Park
On the 9th and 10th of September 710 Motorsport travelled to Morgan Park for round 4 of the QLD circuit racing championships, this would be our first foray into serious production car racing with qualifying, standing starts and multiple sprint races. We would share the track with the improved production and sports sedan classes which are extremely fast cars and we would need to have our wits about us.
We took three cars with us (Darren Goddard in the Audi A4, Russell Greaves in the A4 Quattro and Shane Logan in the Toyota Camry) and whilst our main goal was to stay out of trouble and get our first signatures in our licence books the thought of filling the podium was always in the back of our minds.
Having missed the practice sessions on Friday we were straight into qualifying first up on Saturday morning and it would be the first drive of the Camry that wasn’t just on and off the trailer! From the first moment Shane touched the brakes he knew there was an issue… While trying to bed in new brakes there was a huge shudder in the front end anytime the brakes were applied. After 25 mins of cautiously running around Shane had 5 mins to drop a lap time before the end of the session.
On his final lap he managed a 1:37.9 to grab the class pole (18th outright) by a full second over Darren who would start beside him on the grid for race 1. Russell was struggling with a loss of boost in the Quattro and could only manage a 1:40.5, well below the car capabilities.
Race 1
Darren in the outside land got the jump on most of the surrounding cars and shot off to a great start, Shane would eventually tuck in behind and follow him around for most of the race still being hugely affected by the front end shudder, the superior grip of the Audi through the corners made it difficult to get into a passing position and Darren cruised home for an easy class win (15th outright) and would take the extra point for fastest lap with a 1:38.8. The Quattro had gone into limp mode and Russell could not complete race 1 ending with a DNF.
Race 2
Starting in our finishing positions from race 1 (Darren 15th, Shane 15th and Russell 21st) it was the Camry that got the launch off the line over Darren in the Audi as they followed the screaming IP cars into turn 1. Hoping a change of rims on the front of the Camry would ease the shuddering, Shane found no difference as he jumped on the bakes hard for the first time at turn 4 into Gumtree.
Building a small lead over Darren, Shane managed the gap and brought the car home for an uneventful class win (16th outright) over the A4 and also bagged the extra point for fastest lap with a 1:38.1. Russell was still struggling with a lack of boost in the quattro but managed to complete the race in 20th place.
After inspecting the Camry further after the race we thought it may have warped rotors, so it was a quick run down the road to pick up 2 new rotors and installed them on Saturday afternoon. We would have to wait until Sunday morning to see if it fixed the problem.
Sunday… We had a quick 10 min warm up before race 1 and gave Shane a couple of laps to run in the new rotors on the Camry and see if the issue was fixed. After 2 slow laps Shane had time for 2 flying laps and with some confidence now in the car he dropped a 1:36.3 and had no shuddering under braking! Game on!
Race 3
Shane got off to a flying start grabbing a couple of positions off the line and moved up the grid as they crested the hill at turn 3. Darren also got off to a good start and held position through the first few turns. Shane would hustle the Camry to a 1:36.8 on lap 2 to build a gap over Darren then push on over the next few laps.
Meanwhile Russell was battling with the Suzuki Swift for position and struggling to keep it behind him with the lack of power out of the corners. Shane continued to push the Camry but the road tyres were getting extremely hot and then he lost the rear of the car going into Siberia on lap 6. Shane hung onto the car but the tyres were incredibly hot and found he had no grip as he slid through the sweeper at 140kmh!
Shane slowed up a bit to get the tyres to cool down and managed the gap back to Darren to take his second class win of the weekend also with fastest lap and 13th outright. Darren came home 2nd in class in 15th place and Russell held off the swift for 3rd in class (16th outright)
Race 4
Starting from 13th place Shane got a great start on the inside battling with a group A Commodore all the way to turn 3, being mindful of the tyre temps in the previous race Shane took it a bit easier in the open laps to make sure there was some grip left at the end. But Darren in the A4 was flaying along behind, edging closer with each lap. On lap 6 Shane was compromised on speed as he waited for a gaggle of faster cars to pass him between turns 4 and 5, Darren could see the opportunity and stuck it up the indie into turn 5 with nothing Shane could do to stop it.
Darren pushed on and built a nice gap over Shane as he went on to take his second class win of the weekend. The last lap was crazy with a BMW spinning with 3 corners to go and a heap of fast cars coming through battling on the last lap for position.
Russell kept the Swift behind him yet again and came home for his second 3rd class finish for the day.
With Shane and Darren receiving the same results with 2 wins, 2 second places and 2 fastest laps it was the single point for pole that gave Shane the win by the narrowest of margins, with Russell’s 2 3rd’s and a DNS for the Echo he managed to jump up to 3rd in the points for the weekend. We all had an incredible time and seemed to gain the respect of our other competitors who many of came down to thank us for not getting in their way. There was no trophies or fanfare for our class but regardless we left there with our heads high on Sunday night and we are looking forward to round 5 on November 18-19.