It was the biggest build up to a Motor Events race since its inception. Word had spread that a bunch of V8 Supercar drivers were coming to race with us, including the reining champion Brodie Kostecki and all round good guy Chaz Mostert. Throw in Will Brown, Aaron Love and Kai Allen and there are some serious steerers in the mix. Media exposure and interest in the race has never been higher and the race that ensued would not disappoint. Of course us being us… we decided to dress up in our best Chaz Mozzie outfits with the blue hair and Pit Viper sunnies. Of course Chaz being the legend he is loved it and got a photo with us.
There has been no denying the speed of the A3 over the past few races but some small (and some not so small) issues had always hidden the true potential of the car. After a convincing win in our class at the Lakeside 7 hour in March we were bumped up into the ME1 class with all the 6-cylinder BMW’s plus Falcon’s and Commodore’s. These bigger cars are much more powerful than ours but no so light and agile.
After all the pleasantries had commenced the race started and it only took a few laps for Russell to make his way to the front and start pulling away from the pack. The car was running beautifully, and we led the field into the first round of pitstops but soon into the second stint trouble struck. Our seat bracket was starting to fail just like last year at Morgan Park!
As we were only 1.5 hours into the race we decided top stop the car and fix the issue. With 10.5 hours to go there was plenty of time to catch up. Unfortunately, the time spent in the pits lost us around 10 laps and put us almost to the rear of the field. But with our car speed we were still confident we could come back to secure a good result.
With one of the smallest fuel tanks out of any car in the race we had to drive very carefully to make speed but also conserve fuel. This meant short shifting (using higher gears to save revving the engine too much) and coasting around where we could. We were still setting great lap times despite the fuel saving and reeling in most of the cars in front of us.
We had started running on the shorter Clubman circuit during the day but at 3pm they changed us over to the longer national layout. Unfortunately, we lost all those laps on the short layout but now had to make laps back on the long layout.
While this was going on our team car #112 was quietly climbing up the leader board and soon found themselves in the top 3 cars outright and a huge lead in their class. New Driver Dylan Capstick had joined the team for his first endurance race but as an experienced Excel cup driver he has plenty of laps around QR under his belt and he punched out fast clean laps every time he grabbed the wheel.
The 710 car had now pulled itself back into the top 10 and was catching back up to the lead pack. Laszlo, Shane and Russ smashed out the stints with no errors or penalties making huge gains as the sun disappeared and we pushed on into the night.
Back in the top 5 and closing quickly on the cars in front Laszlo reported a loss of boost when a turbo hose blew off. Limping back to the pits it took us some time to isolate and fix the issue but we were back out there before long trying to make up all that ground we had just lost.
Car 112 had an incident with another car on the final turn leaving them stranded in the kitty litter, once a few flying repairs were done they returned to the circuit but had lost their class lead to Joels Comics, they ran strong to the end but didn’t have enough to catch up and finished 2nd in class and 7th outright.
As usual Barry had given us a great strategy to put us back in the hunt for a podium in our class but it was going to tight on fuel. Shane and Laszlo traded stints during the night to bring the car home. Another hour on track and the result may have been different but we ran out of time and crossed the line running on fumes in 4th outright and 3rd in class behind Farm Find and Double Decker racing.
The pro’s showed exactly why they are the best in the country at what they do by dragging their little excel up to win their class (ME3) and come 2nd outright. It was an absolute pleasure to race with these guys and see their skills behind the wheel while racing in close quarters with them.
We worked out that we lost around 20 laps in the pits with our issues and we were 19 laps off the leader at the end so it was certainly one that got away. Had we still been competing in our old ME 2 class we would have won by 5 laps despite our issues. Personally I think that would have been a hollow victory and we are relishing the challenge of running with the big boys.
We have a bit of work to do to the car before our next race, the 20 hour Night Moves at Morgan Park in September. If we can rectify these issues and have a trouble free run we will be very hard to beat.
