A new year and a new challenge

Melbourne 1-4 March 2001
Reflecting this popularity this event, a non-championship race, attracted a bumper field.
The regulations for this year were revised to allow fairly significant changes to the Chrysler Vipers, Ferrari F360 Modenas and the Lamborghini Diablo, but not correspondingly for the Porsche GT3’s. The intent is to even up the competition; this is good for spectators as the variety at the front of the field will increase but at the expense of the Porsches for whom it will be especially tough for.
The Grand Prix circuit is better suited to the characteristics of the Lamborghini and the Ferrari, of which there were 8 entered here. The layout is fast and flowing and cars with power advantages do well there. Nonetheless, races are not won by outright speed alone.
We did quite a bit of testing in the off-season, however this didn’t produce any substantial improvements. A fair amount of time was spent pursuing sponsorship funds to ensure we can commit to the season on a competitive basis. I am delighted to announce that the quest was successful and I am pleased to welcome Golden Spike Energy Indonesia Ltd. and Enjo, manufacturers and marketers of an amazing range of environmentally friendly cleaning products.
I’ve raced at this circuit before, the year the Grand Prix came to Melbourne, and I absolutely love it.

Practice Session Thursday 10:15 - 10:35.

There was a hiccup prior to Practice Session. As usual there was a group of our clients competing in the Nation’s Cup, and our crew extends support to them. One of these needed a mechanical part and the only thing available was one off my car. This meant that I couldn’t take to the track for Practice Session, naturally I would have preferred to be out there but this was not a Championship round.
Ominously, there was only one Porsche, Richards, in the top six.

Qualifying Session Thursday 12:55 - 13:15

The results were not that surprising and an early pattern was emerging. As predicted the Ferrari, Viper and Lamborghini headed up the timesheets. Jim Richards was the highest placed Porsche again, in fourth, with me in sixth, 2.4 seconds behind him and 4.7 behind the leader.
Being my first visit to this track in several years I had a lot to get my head around with respect to which gear was required for which corners and the correct braking points for the corner apexes. So overall, 6th was not a disappointment nor surprise.

Race 1 - Thursday 17:05 - 17:25

This was our first race with the new rolling start procedure. I was on the right hand side of the track, the inside for Turn One.

As we headed into the corner I made a late move down the inside and was a little out of control, but I managed to keep it together and picked up a handy two places to fourth.

I was able to hang onto the leaders for a couple of laps as the Lamborghini and a Ferrari were dicing and holding each other up.

 

Jim’s car was putting the power down a bit better than me and pulled away a bit, there are two compounds of Falken tyres here this weekend and I think he may have made a different choice to me for this race.

I thought French’s Viper might have been more of a threat than it was. I decided I needed to get away from it as quick as I could as his enormous power advantage would take over on the long straights.

One of the Ferraris spun at the corner onto the main straight so the race went under a Safety Car period and on the restart I was waiting for a challenge from him that didn’t arrive.
The Falken Tyres Porsche was getting a bit skatey toward the end and Jim was still moving away from me so I conserved the car and tyres and settled for 4th.
I pulled my times down by 1.6 seconds on the same tyres that I used in Qualifying Session and I’ve still got four tyres up my sleeve for the next races.
We did make some changes to the car that showed improvement so we will now sit down and analyse the data to see where we can find more time.

Race 2 - Friday 16:55 - 17:20

The start was a really busy affair. In the first corner I went to go around the outside of Brian Thompson but he chopped my nose off, he then pulled wide and there were cars going all around us, he then baulked with a missed gear change and that was it, I got a run around the inside and I took off.
As the laps passed so did the Lamborghini and two Ferraris, my tyres were noticeably going away toward the end of the race and I lost fourth gear. Jim was coming on stronger but I calculated that I could keep him at bay and I crossed the line in 5th.
The gearbox was starting to crunch when changing gear, this can bur the gear hub and it can lead to a major problem, it’s the sort of thing you need to rectify without too much delay because it doesn’t take long before you’ll lose all gears. So the only real choice we have is to take the Falken Tyres Porsche back to our workshop tonight and remove and repair the gearbox. I am so thankful that I have such a dedicated crew.

Race 3 - Saturday 17:05 - 17:30

The starting order was derived from the combined results from races one and two and the Falken Tyres Porsche was fourth. Lining up for the race McConville’s Ferrari had a gearbox failure that left a gap on the grid in front of us. The lead car, Stokell’s Lamborghini was setting the start pace and the race commenced.
The start of the race saw the Falken Tyres Porsche dicing with French’s Viper in the first few corners. Just before the end of lap one Noske’s Ferrari suffered total electrical failure and parked at the side of the track.
The Lamborghini and Jim scooted away and I took the Viper under brakes for third position.

I then diced with the leaders for several laps until I made a small mistake on turn six and got the car sideways, I gathered it up and settled into a rhythm again.
Shortly later Stokell was shown a black flag, for travelling too fast and exceeding the 80kmh limit as he took the Starter’s Flag in the rolling start. A black flag means a trip into pit lane for a Stop/Go penalty. Shortly after, I was also given the black flag for the same supposed infringement.

I communicated with the team over the radio and disputed this because I was simply keeping pace with the leader and I was keeping pace with Jim Richards so if he didn’t infringe, how could I? But the penalty for ignoring Officials’ instructions can be hefty so I obeyed.
A Stop/Go penalty effectively spells the end of your race: the time spent slowing down and crawling along pit line at the speed limit, and then stopping, starting and getting up to race pace.
By the time I rejoined the race I was back to 11th. Any hope of a top result was gone but I put the remainder to good use and moved up five positions but ran out of laps to pass Greg Keene’s Porsche and finally finished in 6th just behind.

Summary

Its predictable to say that I would like to have finished higher but under the circumstances and new regulations our results (except for the black flag) were not a real surprise. Being frank I have to add that the rest of the year will shape up to be similar. The Ferrari, Vipers and Lamborghini have been given a very real advantage over the Porsches. It is obvious that the Organisers are seeking a different outcome to the championship from the previous several years, and that is that Porsche has been the superior marque.
These others are now guaranteed to be up the front without the need to stress their machines, whilst we will have to wring every last drop of performance lap-after-lap to hang onto them. Our strategy and hopes will now more than ever be based on consistent results and supplemented by the others making mistakes or suffering mechanical problems. Championships are won over the long haul so this is how we have to play it.
A significant footnote is the announcement after the event that the Officials are reviewing the procedure for the rolling start. In other words there is an acknowledgment of the way in which I was penalised in Race Three was incorrect. Its too late to change the result, I would have finished around third but for that, but at least they will hopefully sort out their rules before the championship points are up for grabs.

 

Fitzy

 

Peter and the team at Fitzgerald Racing Services would like to thank the partners for their much valued support.