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Oran Park - Sydney - Round 4
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Round 4 of the championship for us consisted of 1 DNS and one Silver Star first placing. The weather was mostly fine although quite cold, and a series of technical problems saw the team working hard and late into the night to achieve a great result in the second race.
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Practice 1
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After blowing an engine at the previous round in Darwin and rushing to rebuild in time for this meeting, Practice 1 was used to gently run in the new engine and perform system checks.
The track was incredibly green after a long period of disuse.
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Practice 2
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During this session we began trying to achieve a balanced set-up for the car and were seventh fastest overall. A spin late in the session going onto the bridge resulted in a wild ride over the kerbs effectively wiping out both end-plates. Ouch!!
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Practice 3
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The session began well with several good, consistent lap times but had to be aborted due to a nasty drive-train noise that needed investigation.
The gearbox was stripped and we found that the bevel gear bearing had failed. A late night removing the back end of the car revealed that we had caught it early enough that the bevel gear was unscathed. After sourcing parts from Hocking Motorsport (thanks guys) we rebuilt the box and were ready for qualifying on Saturday.
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Qualifying
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Throughout qualifying Ian complained that the car was extremely twitchy. A pit stop revealed that a rear tyre was losing pressure and following the session the boys from Yokohama found a nail embedded in the tyre. All things considered seventh on the grid wasn't a bad result!
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Race 1
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For the first time in 4 years of Formula Holden racing, we failed to get off the grid!! The left rear drive shaft failed and was reported immediately to Garrett by competitor Rohan Carrig
(big thanks to Rohan) which prevented further damage to the car. A long slow push down pit lane was followed by a ride back to the garage by the recovery boys.
Once again Hocking Motorsport and in particular, Mark, saved the day with parts and advice.
A new drive shaft and constant velocity joint covers were installed in the nick of time.
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Race 2
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An average start from the rear of the grid kept Ian clear of a third turn pile up which took us up to seventh place. He caught Les Crampton and was preparing to pass when Les spun out in front of him leaving Ian in first position for the Silver Star. Ian then defended this position for several laps against a strong chase from Roger Oakeshott who then span off at turn two after a collision with Akihiro Asai. This left us with fifth outright and a first in the Silver Star.
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Crew
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Garret Gerhardt, Andrew Lydon worked long and hard all meeting on the car. Rebecca Peters managed the entire affair with her usual efficiency and was the trusted voice in my head while I was racing. Gil and Barbara Gerhardt came down for the weekend and provided all sorts of support including Barbs magnificent chicken schnitzels. (Thanks pitmom)
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