Race report V8 Spectacular March 7-9, 2008
V8 Photos - Day 1, Day
2, Day 3
What a weekend March 7-9 was at Eastern Creek. Running as a support category to the V8 supercars was such an exciting thought. We arrived at the track Thursday afternoon to set up. Shauna and I saw the huge 3m high superkarts/Endless Belt Service banner waving proudly in the breeze along with 5 others that were erected by Colin Moore earlier in the day. You could already see the prestige surrounding this event. Looking east of the skidpan you could see the v8 supercar transporters set up and looking a treat in readiness for their round 2. We unloaded, my good friend Patrick (Paddy) Atherton had already arrived and set up his bay with us as planned. We unloaded and went home for a relaxing night to be ready for the following 3 days.
I arrived at 6.45am Friday morning
and got stuck into organising for the day. Alan Dodge arrived with his
125 gearbox that he was running for this event and set up alongside
Paddy and myself. Paddy and I had a good catch up since he’s from
Victoria and we hadn’t caught up since Oran Park in November 07. We have
a ball together. It’s a real pity we can’t run every meeting together
but we’re in different states, so that’s the way the cookie crumbles.
With everyone arriving it was like one big party, catching up with
racing friends. I had a second banner out for the weekend, a nice smick
looking Horswell racing team/ Endless Belt banner supplied by John
Whitfield from Wild Digital. Our pit area got a lot of positive comments
on its look.
11am practice session. Being a promotional event we thought to try something different with a gearing change and find out if we can get a little more top end speed without sacrificing acceleration out of the corners. The first thing I noticed was the lack of brakes; it just didn’t want to pull up. Going into turn 2 and 9 I was way off the gas early, the speed felt good, but it wasn’t pulling out of the corners. On the 3rd lap I managed to get a clear lap as the kart in front pulled into the pits. Ripper! Time to go for it; well at least until turn 9. Oops!! Came in way too hot, trying to correct the sideways action I ran out of road, into the grass and just hung on. After a few 360’s I came to rest in the grass beside the tyre wall. By the time I got the thing out the session was over. Not the best way to start but that’s racing.
Qualifying session was at 4pm, Shauna
set the kart up back to its usual gearing, and it ran a lot better,
still I was complaining of no brakes, and I was thinking I’m not hitting
these corners the way I normally do. I was also struggling with the near
capacity field of 52 superkarts, 48 of them being 250 and 125 gearboxes.
After Shauna inspected the kart a sticking power valve was noted as a
problem. Graeme Taplin and Paddy had the same problem. I could only
manage a 1.58 while Graeme and Paddy got in the 1.56s. Paddy top job
considering it was your 1st time at the Creek.
On Saturday we had 2 races, and only Paddy and I were there for the day to represent the ROTAX. We decided that we’d try to have some fun with each other given that the weekend was a promotional event. Off the line I was gone thinking Paddy was close behind but after turn 2 I couldn’t see him. I thought he’d pulled off with problems so I just went about racing. After 3 laps the 250s came around and started rounding me up. I began to slow from the traffic and low and behold old mate Paddy pulls up beside and slips in front. Where Did Paddy come from!! I thought he was out. We crossed the line nose to tail with Paddy in front and came back to the pits side by side.
Saturday afternoon we were on the grid side by side and once again Paddy had major trouble getting off the line. After a few laps Paddy was sitting pretty close and we swapped positions numerous times coming out of the corners. This time I crossed the line in front with Paddy just behind.
Only
1 race on Sunday and Graeme was back for the day. It was a great day
that you could relax and take in some up close v8 sup
ercar action ( as
you can see by the photos Shauna took in the galleries) Come race time I
was gone once again and started to struggle in the traffic once the
gearboxes came around again. There went Graeme and Paddy!! I was sitting
close to Paddy and could see some of the gearboxes pushing their way
past. We were nose to tail down the straight and coming into the braking
area for turn 2 I saw Paddy get a slight wobble, I broke a bit harder
then coming out of turn 2 a lot slower, I moved left a little but just
enough for Jason in his 1800 bumper entry to ride over my back wheel and
launch into the infield like a plane during takeoff. I limped back to
the pits, all over red rover. Graeme crossed the line in 1st
followed by Paddy. Overall for the weekend, even though it wasn’t a
points event, Paddy finished 1st, followed by myself, with
Graeme rounding out the 3.
This event would not have been possible without the work of the NSW SUPERKART CLUB. Special thanks to John Pellicano. His wheeling and dealing was what got us there. Ron Ping had a lot of late nights dealing with entries etc, Clint Brown never got off the phone dealing with enquiries and then recovery. Phil Eggins, well this guy just didn't stop for the 3 days dealing with everything bar the kitchen sink, my fiancée Shauna Smith was non stop over 3 days assisting Phil as well as being the 111 Horswell racing team mechanic. Tony Annabelle for running the club kitchen. Tony just doesn't stop, even at 1 point while I was doing my usual, talking to Clint!! we both looked over, then looked at each other, and asked is Tony...... yep, Shauna's working on the kart and Tony's feeding her, we've now seen everything!!. Shauna and I would like to thank Craig Taylor for his advice on setting up a superkart, also for the laughs and jokes, Its always a good time when Craig's around.
What a weekend, an awesome display of superkarting. There’s nothing in karting that compares to racing around the v8 supercar circuits of this country. The amount of people coming over to enquire about the category was incredible. So many brochures were handed out and I think that the lack of cost to come join the party in the ROTAX ranks really took many by surprise.
WANT TO KNOW MORE, DROP ME AN EMAIL
Wayne Horswell
Horswell racing team
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