1998 has seen a continuing growth in the popularity of GT Production racing in Australia.
In addition to the championship series and the Bathurst 3 hour endurance race at Australia's legendary Mt Panorama circuit in Bathurst NSW, two more special events were scheduled.
The Sandown 1 hour race and support races at the 1998 Honda Indy Carnival on the Gold Coast.
Unfortunately with these events being additional to the championship season, the financial drain on our budget did not afford us the luxury of competing in any of these special events.
As a result I was approached by one of Fitzgerald Racing Services customers, Ed Aitken to run with him in the two endurance races in his 911 RSCS which is also prepared by Fitzgerald Racing Services. I committed to the Sandown 1 hour but held out for the 3 hour Bathurst race in the hope that our major sponsor Falken Tyres might come through with the necessary budget. Ed runs on Pirelli tyres and it was a good opportunity to see how I would fair against this years championship winning car of Dominic Beninca which would also be running on Pirelli.
The weather conditions were changeable for the Sandown 1 hour qualifying were changeable and unfortunately I got caught out on intermediate tyres on a drying track qualifying 3rd behind the Maserarti Ghibli Cup car and the Ferrari 355 Challenge which were both on slicks.
The only real comparison that I had for that weekend was Friday's practise where I was over a second a lap faster than the Porsche RSCS of Beninca.
The phone call from Falken came on the Friday of the Sandown meeting and an agreement was struck. Jim Richards (Multiple Australian Touring Car Champion, GT Production Champion (1996) and multiple Bathurst 1000 winner) and I would again attack the Mt Panorama circuit and try to shake off our reputation for coming 2nd in endurance races.
In preparation for the most prestigious event on the GTP calendar we left no stone unturned in the preparation of our Porsche. Ed's car had failed at Sandown with a broken rear hub and we figured it was time to renew all the suspension on our car. Every corner of the car was replaced with new suspension as well as drive shafts and gearbox flanges.
Part of the deal with Falken was that they were to produce a new tyre for us for this particular event. A tyre that would withstand the higher temperatures expected at Mt Panorama later in the year.
Falken produced 2 new tyres and we set about testing them the week prior to leaving for Mt Panorama. We ran this years compound tyres as a 'control' over a simulated race distance of 25 laps. The new compound tyres, although offering no more grip than the control tyres certainly were more consistent in the heat of a 30 degree Celsius day.
During the test I decided that the gearbox synchros needed replacing so it was back to the workshop to drop the engine / gearbox out for the overhaul.
All was readied in time and we set off for Bathurst on the Tuesday before the race weekend.

Thursday Practice - Non Qualifying.

The first practise session was cut short due to poor weather conditions. Despite the conditions, after my 3 laps we headed the time sheets by over 2 secs. in the wet. In the afternoon, the session started damp and I sent Jim out on intermediate tyres to give him some time in the car. He quickly got down to a 2min 30.9 second lap in the drying conditions. I hopped into the car (which was now fitted with ex test day slicks) and we clocked a 2min 28.9 sec lap which was still the quickest time of the day.

Friday - Qualifying.

We deliberately went out with about 30 litres of fuel with the track damp at the top of the mountain. As the track dried out the times came down. Whilst on my 'hot' lap behind the Mazda RX7 SP I was badly baulked and and stopped the clock at 2min 27.1 seconds. The Mazda on that particular lap clocked 2min 25 seconds 'dead'.
I pitted for fuel only to be told that we were not allowed to refuel during qualifying. This later turned out to be a mistake by the officials and as a result we had to be content to sit out the rest of the session as we were bumped back to 4th.
The Mazda did not improve its time in the second session of qualifying. In fact they were now in serious trouble with a damaged engine, a legacy of the first qualifying session.
I again went out and improved my time with a best result of 2min 26.1 seconds which moved us into second spot on the grid. A puzzling thing about this time was that it was 1.5 seconds slower than my previous years time and .6 seconds slower than the time I qualified Ed Aitken's Porsche RSCS on Pirelli tyres one earlier at Porsche Cup race that was held in support of the AMP Bathurst 1000 Super Touring event at the same venue.

Race Day - Warm Up.

As Jim had not had any more laps in the car due to a red flag (session stopped) situation in the last qualifying session, I decided to give him some more time in the car. This proved to be a good decision and Jim set the fastest time of the warm up session with a 2min 26.7 second lap. All was looking good for the race.

The Race.

Long distance races are always strategic in nature as often many things that are beyond your direct control can affect the outcome. As an example, a pace car situation can take away a well earned lead such as the 50+ second lead we had over the Ferrari early in the race.

Other considerations such a 'maximum driver time' also must be factored into the race strategy. The rules for the event state that no driver can drive more that 2/3rds of the distance. With this rule in mind, using pace car periods and subsequent driver changes to your maximum advantage is critical.
This is the reason that Jim had to stay in the car to the finish of the race.
Due to the timing of the second pace car period, my finishing the race would have seen us violate the 'maximum driver time' rule which in turn would have resulted in our disqualification. So for those of you who saw the telecast of the race and were wondering why I did not do a second driving stint, this was the reason. Aside from that I knew Jim was as quick as required and he was already showing he could hold out the challenges of the Ferrari of Neil Crompton.
After a good start I took the Mazda going into 'Forest Elbow' on the 2nd lap. This put me into the lead momentarily, that is until the Dodge Viper of Gary Waldon ran me down going up mountain straight. He had obviously used up the Viper to catch me as immediately after he passed me he was considerably slower over the top of the mountain. This allowed the Beninca Porsche to catch up with the two of us. I was not concerned about this as both Beninca and I soon got past the Viper under brakes at the end of Conrod Straight. Beninca and I then set off on our own little race with our positions and gaps between us changing repeatedly depending on slower traffic.
The first full course yellow flags appeared shortly after the 1 hour mark and I radioed to confirm that we had past our 1st fuel window. I decided to pit to give us the advantage of a full pit stop (4 tyres, fuel, driver change) under the yellow flag condition. Beninca made an error by completing another lap before he came in to do the same (without driver change) and this resulted in him being some 13 seconds behind Jim on the restart.
Jim was now in the lead and was coming under constant pressure from Crompton in the Ferrari but held off the attack until the next full course yellow. This yellow came a little too early for a driver change, however I made the decision to take advantage of the pace car period to make our last stop. Aitken and Beninca came in before us due to their positions further down the field and Jim was in next. The Ferrari team continued and as a result took the lead with a clear track ahead as Jim battled overtaking slower traffic in 4th position.
Jim quickly moved past the Aitken and Beninca Porsches to take back 2nd place on the road however the gap to the 1st place Ferrari had now opened out to 38 seconds. I felt confident however that the Ferrari's next stop would put us back into the lead and that is exactly how events transpired. Jim re-took the lead by only a small margin and what ensued was a riveting duel to the finish.
The gap altered depending on slower traffic but with 3 laps to go Jim reported in saying that the low fuel warning light had come on and the car was occasionally missing. In testing the 'miss' had not happened until 3 laps after the indicator light had come on so we were concerned that we may not have enough fuel to make the finish.
In the end we did not run out of fuel and Jim held on to win by a mere .28 (not a misprint) seconds. It was a truly nail biting finish and Jim and I had broken our jinx.
It was the weekend of Porsche's 50th Anniversary celebrations here in Australia so it was a fitting way to celebrate. More importantly Falken's continued support had been rewarded at the highest level.

Fitzy