Streets of Surfers close and tight.
14-17 October 1999
Interestingly, this is the second longest track in the Indy CART (Championship of Auto Racing Teams) season. However it’s not necessarily a great track.
Essentially a concrete canyon, very narrow and very unforgiving. The walls are close and there are limited, or no run-off areas. So, the margin for error is next to zero and any mistake usually means big trouble.
A sobering thought is that it only gives you three weeks to prepare for the biggest single event on the calendar, the Bathurst
3 Hour Showroom Showdown Endurance Race. Damage at Indy is the last thing you want. Whilst not part of the Century Batteries Australian GT Production Car Championship, Simply due to its high profile status the event is an important one nonetheless.
So it was off to Indy for the Falken Tyres Porsche.
Practice Session Thursday 14th October.
I had commitments to Porsche Australia to conduct driver training at Phillip Island on the same Thursday as the first Indy Practice Session. So, fulfilling this meant missing Practice and going straight out for Qualifying on Friday. And at the Surfers Paradise street circuit you "pay a price" for this.
Qualifying Session Friday 15th October.
Despite missing Practice the Falken Tyres Porsche was performing very well. I quickly got stuck into a few good laps and on what would have been a very good one I was talking to Bob, our Crew Chief on the radio.
Approaching ANA Corner I made a split second mis-judgment in juggling controlling the radio control button on the roll cage with my right hand and changing gears with my left. The engine over-revved momentarily and the RPM exceeded the rev limiter’s setting.
The Falken Tyres Porsche went into "limp home" mode momentarily which blew this lap time. With the session being scheduled for 25 minutes this didn't seem too much of a problem.
I continued and was on another quick lap. I caught a slower car and decide to back off. Rather than chug along behind the slower traffic I backed off to get some clear track for a flying lap. Having done this Jim Richards, in a Porsche 911 RSCS set his pole time.
With what I thought was plenty of time to go I did a cool-down lap. This allows the vital components, such as tyres, brakes and engine temperature to recover so that you can put in some more "blinders".
Inexplicably the session was cut short to 15 minutes without any warning whatsoever. Advice to the Crew Chief of each Team is expected in these situations so that your session strategy can be revised. But we, and probably a good deal of other competitors were just cut short. I would also have to say that this style of management is inexcusable in today’s motorsport world, especially at such a high profile international event. I should also say it is pretty much typical of Indy management and the way they treat their support categories.
Notwithstanding this the Falken Tyres Porsche qualified in a creditable fourth position. As an interesting footnote, third fastest qualifier, the Porsche 911 RSCS of Cameron McConville was found to be 45 kilograms under the weight limit.
Race 1 - Saturday 16th October
Wayne Park in the Ferrari F355 Challenge jumped pole-sitter Jim Richards off the line. The main start/ finish straight is very long and ends with a 90 degree left hand corner into which the Falken Tyres Porsche went in third position on lap one.
At ANA Corner Jim took the lead with Wayne on his tail. A couple of laps later Wayne got a slow exit from the first chicane, reducing his straight line speed and I took second from him leading into the second chicane. I set after Jim caught and pulled alongside him heading into ANA Corner. He was however able to hold his line into the corner and retain the lead.
Later in the race as I was challenging Jim under brakes at the end of the main straight my ABS warning lights came on. I was lucky to stop at all and Jim got away as I messed up my exit from the chicane.
With the ABS light still illuminated I took it easy on the Falken Tyres Porsche and settled for third place, which, all things considered was a good result.
After the race we checked the brakes to find the cause for the ABS light illumination. We found that the rear brakes were down considerably and the front linings on one side were down to the metal. This meant a rethink on brake compounds.
Race 2 - Sunday 17th October
For this race we bled the brake hydraulic system, fitted new brakes to the rear and some good condition pads on the front.
The ABS lights from Race One were playing on my mind. Had we rectified the cause?
Without a Practice session in between I had to trust that we had.
I was somewhat concerned by this and was perhaps somewhat cautious during this race (remember what I said earlier about no margin for error and Bathurst three weeks’ preparation time away?).
The race went fairly predictably with the front three cars, Jim, Wayne and myself all holding position.
We caught a gaggle of backmarkers between the two chicanes on the rear section.
Jim and Wayne got past, and I didn't.
By the time I had negotiated the slower cars the two front runners had got a pretty sizeable jump on me. It doesn’t take too long for cars like ours to create a gap. At about this time it rained on this part of the circuit. Deciding discretion to be the better part of valour I chose against going flat out to catch Jim and Wayne and again settled for third.
Racing on a challenging and unforgiving track such as Surfers really requires the most preparation you can muster. Foregoing Thursday Practice put us behind the 8 ball all weekend.
But such is life. I really enjoyed Saturday’s race, we brought home two podium placings and a straight and undamaged car for Bathurst. All things considered. A good event.
Fitzy
Peter and the team at Fitzgerald Racing Service would like to thank the following organisations for their generous support during the season:
- Falken Tyres
- Porsche Cars Australia
- Graeme Cuthbert Prestige Smash Repairs
- Abelard Shirts
- Gant USA
- Unichip
- Revolution Racegear
- Meguiars Car Polishes