It sure has been a while since I was behind the wheel in anger, so when Eevee (Everard) sent through “Autocross Sat. Keen?” I was instantly onboard.
Thanks a million for sharing your car with me Eevee. It was an awesome day.
And massive thanks to Canterbury Car Club and everyone who makes these events happen. 80 bucks for a day at Ruapuna is damn good.
Naturally when you put Eevee and I together you’re going to get a certain level of chaos. That didn’t take long to come true when I arrived to the track to a call from Eevee. Benny couldn’t get the car started so could I go pick up his other car and we’ll drive that instead. Eevee would but had only just woken up so was now rushing to get to the track at all XD.
No worries I drive out to Benny’s which is only just down the road. Good news is he’s got the car started. Charged the battery enough to jump start. He chucks me the keys and we’re set to convey out to the track. And I immediately stall it. How dumb. Battery flat I can’t start it. So Benny stops and comes back with the jumper battery and gets me going. Leaving it in the car this time with no faith it wont happen again. And now we’re off. Benny gives me some pink glasses to wear for being the first fool of the day haha. We make it to the track in time to go through documentation and scrutineering without any rush. Eevee rocks up a few minutes later.
Eevee leaves me to take the car through scrutineering. Hopefully it’s all good because I don’t know much about what’s in this car. I also hope it starts again if they make me turn in the engine off, I’ve left it running in the pits up to this point. Wouldn’t you know it the first thing the scrutineer does is go for the kill switch on the bonnet. And it doesn’t kill anything. Um odd. I assume that’s supposed to work. We turn the car off and look under the bonnet. “Start the car please”. Not sure if a failure at this point will be the kill switch or the flat/dead battery but sure enough it starts up. The kill switch is not connected at the moment so we just take it out. Whew. After that the cars all good.
Onto the racing and I’m seriously rusty but having a blast. I took it easy at first getting back into the swing of things and getting used to Eevees car. By the third attempt at the first track layout, after a bit of encouragement to just thrash it, I’m comfortable enough to send. Eevees been going hard already scaring himself with a slide that brought him close to the wall. On that final run and the first half the track I’m feeling great. Pushing more than the previous runs feeling the car move around in predictable ways. Pushing the braking deeper than the previous attempts. Feeling like I’m finally back to myself. Up to the next cone chicane. I hit the brakes. Too late. I turn in but I’m too fast I’m back on the brakes. Eevees moment with the wall flashes through my mind. Now aimed at the wall I bail out, straightening the wheel rather than continuing to aim at the fence. BANG. Through the cone with the right hand side.
It was a proper hit too not just a slight nock on the side. I thought the cone would end up trapped and coming with me but thankfully it bounces back off to the side and I gingerly make my way back. Funny that I should be the one to clobber the cones after earlier having joked with Eevee that if your not over doing it your not trying hard enough. Grateful it was only a cone that didn’t do any damage.
Although it did damage my battle with Eevee. It’s not about the competition at all really but also we’re in the same car so of course there’s going to be a bit of banter about who’s quicker. Initially he told my I was 13th and like sweet that’s pretty good out of 28 cars. Then I learn Eevee is 8th. Dang haha. With two out of the three runs on each layout counting I had to count my first two attempts which were well down on the speed Eevee had. Well guess I need to send it harder on the next two track layouts. But also being 12 seconds off I knew I wasn’t going to catch up. A new scoring system was needed, bring on the switch to match play. Best two out of three layouts wins the bragging rights, I’d need to win both the remaining ones.
Track layout two had the first half of the course the same and then a new configuration at the end. Good I’d nailed that first half last time and didn’t need a repeat of the end of the old layout xD.
Again we’re having an absolute blast jumping in and out of the car taking turns.
Looking at the times it’s interesting to see how much I improve across runs while many other drivers do very similar times on all three attempts. I’m out there trying to learn every time, taking time to get a feel for it and get the most out of the car. Eevees more than a second quicker than me on the first two attempts but by the third run I’m on form and pull out two and a half seconds, setting the 4th fastest time of anyone. Now that I’m proud of. Could have been faster still but I missed a gear right at the end. The rust is shaking loose.
So it’s one all and comes down to the third track layout decider (I’m now 11 seconds behind on official times). This time the track comes back on itself so it’s not obvious which way to go if you’re not paying attention on the recce lap.
And wouldn’t you know it Eevee can’t have been paying attention because on his first flying run he goes the wrong way. We’re all laughing on the pit wall. But he’s heading back towards the start line! A bit of a scare but thankfully the officials are well onto it. They have been waiting for each car to pass that switch over point before starting the next one so there’s no risk. Thankfully Eevees good spirited about all the jokes back in the pits and after watching a few others take the course he’s sure not to make that mistake again.
With the bigger gaps between cars due to the switch over it takes quite a bit longer to get through the third layout. But that doesn’t take away from how fun it still is. This ones got more tight corners and racing backwards through the dipper. What a thrill! Eevee and I are both locking tyres as we have been all day. Full send having a ball. At this point we realise neither of us have checked tyre pressures all day. What a bunch of clowns. No use doing anything about it now let’s carry on xD.
Again I improve with every run and manage the 6th fastest time by the end of it. Really happy with that. I’ve beaten Eevee two to one, although he still is 9 seconds ahead officially. I ended up 9th with Eevee in 7th (after one driver was penalised for full drifting the final run of the day).
A lot of fun. Big smiles all round.
