State Championships Round 1 - Morgan Park 24/25 February 2007

The 2007 season started with a couple of very significant changes; a rebuilt engine and a new steering wheel.

The result of these changes was quite stunning. The engine last year was down on horsepower and was a major factor in the performance of the car. The cam shaft, lifters and valves were all replaced as well as the usual bearings and rings. The engine showed good horsepower on the dyno. It certainly showed its "grunt" on the circuit. Shift points were back to where they were during the successful 2005 season and so too were the lap times of that era.

The combination of the new steering wheel and locating the dash back on the dashboard made life in the cockpit a bit easier when things got a bit out of hand. It gave the car a whole new feel.

I qualified the car in a disappointing 4th place on the grid, but still in the 2006 elusive 66 sec bracket. Racing results brought a 4th, 2nd and 2nd in the three championship races for an overall result of second place for the round.

State Championships Round 2

Round 2 of the 2007 State Championships was an interesting event for a few reasons. The car was in good shape, felt strong and I was feeling comfortable with it but managed to only qualify in 6th place for the start of the first race. Finishing the first race in third place was a pretty good achievement given the starting position.

The second race was a solid event resulting in a fourth place finish. Nothing to write home about, that's for sure.

A funny thing happened in the third race. I was punting around during the race circulating at around my previous personal best (low 66sec) when I was distracted by someone's spin and took an excursion in sympathy myself. I was holding down I think third place at the time. Anyway, I was a bit annoyed with myself and set off in pursuit of the field. Now leading up to this weekend I had been bagging my old 1996 chassis saying that if only I had a newer chassis I could really take it up to these younger guys. Well, with my head down in hot pursuit of the field and a fourth place finish, I absolutely slammed my previous best into the ground with a 65.6sec lap! That certainly made me come to a realisation or two about how much of it all is to do with me and less of it is to do with the car. It was a very humbling moment I can assure you.

Now if I can only get back into that same head-space, I might be a force to contend with yet!

Carrera Cup

26 April 2007 was a vert special day for me. It was my day in the 997 Carrera Cup car at Queensland Raceway. Porsche Australia certainly maintained their high standards by putting on another full-on "day in the life of the professional race driver" event.

The format was pretty much the same as last year's day in the 996 car. The major difference was that I did a much better job. I guess part of it was having experienced the 996 car, I knew a little better what to expect. What I didn't expect was just how much more I like this car compared to the 996! The differences are a small few fundamental but hugely significant things.

Mostly, the car is quite a bit less compromised as a race car with the way it has been built and set up. The suspension is stiffer and the shocks are no longer adjustable. The brakes no longer have ABS, just bias adjustment. The gearbox is completely new and fitted with a sequential shift. The shift is also quite tricky in that a load cell on the stick cuts engine ignition on the up-shift so that you just hold the accelerator flat and pull it up through the gears. Sweet! Coming down is a bit trickier but very simple too. You just push the clutch in and bang it straight down the number of gear you want. You only need to blip the throttle to match clutch plate and engine speed on re-connection. Really good once you get the hang of it.

With the revised brake package and the simplified gear shift, I was able to concentrate on braking hard and late, hitting every apex (something I just did not achieve last year) and smoothly powering out of corners. My times as a result were consistent and improving throughout the day. The data engineer blew some wind up my skirt by telling me that based on that performance I would probably qualify around 10th in the current Carrera Cup field.

By the way, did I mention that they were BRAND NEW cars?! $300,000 each and they let a bunch of lemons like us loose in them! Wow!

Huge thanks to Porsche Australia for another great driving experience.

STOP PRESS - The Vector is SOLD! James Corbett picked it up at the end of April to embark on a new career in Formula Ford racing after punting historics around previously. It certainly feels a bit odd not owning a race car at the moment. The plan for the remainder of the 2007 Queensland Formula Ford season? Watch this space...

First Outing in the New Car

Having sold the Vector, I had to decide what I was going to do next. Based on needing to be part of a racing series and having a budget short of doing national Formula Ford or Carrera Cup, the answer was clearly state level Formula Ford in a later chassis. The best car available for this purpose was Shannon O'Brien's RF03 Van Diemen. It has all of the good bits on it including MoTec dash and data logger (including shock absorber sensors), Ohlins 3-way adjustable shocks and a hearty Troy Dunstan engine.

After paying what these things cost in the current market and having Brett look over it and pour me a new seat, the first chance to drive it came on Wednesday 20 June 2007 at Morgan Park. Couldn't have picked a colder, windier and more miserable day to do it either.

Anyway, I jumped in the car, which incidentally hadn't been raced since 2005 and was fitted with tyres from that era, and managed to get to turn two before I looped it. So much for an event-free start. I got a few more laps in and the car started to feel pretty good but in a really docile kind of way. It felt a much easier car to drive than the Vector. Softer in brake pressure required and very well balanced. I did feel that it was quite sluggish and began to think "Great, it's going to need an engine rebuild before I even get started!" I couldn't get below 71sec laps compared with my previous personal best of 65.6sec in the Vector.

Anyway, after chipping away all day, Brett checked whether or not I was getting full throttle when the day was just about over (he had checked the throttle set-up at the workshop and it was OK). He found that I was only getting around 50% throttle! He fixed that and I managed to get only a couple of more laps in before the track closed for the day.

What a difference that made! It went from docile thing to wild and crazy beast. It certainly has some mumbo. I will now have to start again on Friday 29 June and try to get where I was in the other car in preparation for the race meeting that weekend. Let's see how we go......

QLD State Championships 2007 - Round 3 Morgan Park

Well, this was the first race meeting in the new car. I must say that the car is a totally different thing to drive compared with the Vector. It is softer on all of its edges and a bit vague in comparison. I think that says more about me than it does about the car though. It will be a quicker thing for me; I just need to come to terms with it.

The race weekend went well overall. I brought the car home in one piece, so that's a good thing to start with!

I qualified pretty much at the back of the field and had to work from there. I did have some good racing throughout the weekend and ended up as high as fifth place. A penalty for kerb jumping cost me a few points leaving me with third place in the standings after the weekend.

We will be testing at Qld Raceway on Saturday 4 August mostly just to spend more time in the car before we take it racing again at the end of August.

Many thanks again to Brett and Bryce Francis for putting a huge amount of effort into the car at the detail level to get it working as best as they could for me. Thanks also to Dave and Simon for their technical support over the weekend.

QLD State Championships 2007 - Round 4 Morgan Park

This was the second outing in the new car. We had a relatively trouble-free weekend although we were still down on pace. We are beginning to wonder about the state of the engine; it gave little puffs of smoke from time to time. Also the shock absorbers were running out of adjustment range. Time maybe to also rethink the valving in them.

The overall result was a sixth place for the weekend gaining 24 points toward the championship. Two rounds to go; let's see what happens.

QLD State Championships 2007 - Round 5 Morgan Park

We set out this weekend with a fresh engine rebuilt by Troy Dunstan. He was the original builder of that engine and he said it was strong when he first built it and it is strong again now. We also had the shocks re-valved.

We started the weekend with a moderate sixth fastest qualifying time.

I managed to finish fifth in the first race after being punted off at the start. The second race was a dream. Everything that could have gone my way actually did for a change. I finished second among the formula fords. I didn't get the greatest start in the final race. After avoiding a car that spun in front of me, I managed a fifth place finish.

Overall a second place for the weekend putting me in the lead of the championship heading into the last round.

It is really down to the wire this year. Now let's see what happens.....

We would like to thank Digital Realism for all race meet photography.

Qld State Championships 2007 - Final Round Morgan Park

Well, you may recall that we went into the last round of the state championships at Morgan Park with a 6 point lead over Tony Chapman. Yianni Cassimatis was 14 points behind. There were three "defining moments" during the weekend's racing that ended up shaping what was to be the outcome of the state championships.

The first occurred during qualifying. We qualified on a fully wet track. That meant that if you were following someone, you couldn't really see where you were going. That meant you had to really pick your moments to put in a good lap time. I was held up during the early part of qualifying, so I decided to drop back a good distance and then push for a quick lap. I managed to get a half decent effort in when the session was stopped due to a car that had spun obstructing the track. I was ready to go out to set my scorcher when the session was stopped completely.

I ended up second quickest (my best effort all year) by one tenth of a second to Yianni Cassimatis. That meant he got the extra point for pole instead of me.

We also raced in the rain Saturday afternoon. That's when the second defining moment arrived. I was challenging for the lead at the end of the first lap when I was hit from behind by another car and punted off. I managed to recover to finish the race but down a number of placings. That meant fewer points for that race than I otherwise might have had.

The final defining moment came in the first race on Sunday. I was ahead of Tony Chapman when I just wrong-footed myself in the last part of the track and had a quiet single vehicle incident (I spun the car). Again a managed to recover and finish the race again a few points down from where I might have been.

The result? Well, as it turns out, Yianni and I ended up both with 197 points for our year's efforts, a tie. A count-back couldn't separate us either, so Queensland for 2007 has two Formula Ford State Champions! Yay for me!! I am also Queensland Racing Drivers' Association club champion for the Racing Car category.

I have to say that I am delighted with that outcome. Many, many things have to come together for any kind of result in motor sport. For that, many people need to contribute.

I'd like to thank my darling wife Dr Mary Dingley for her unwavering support throughout, the Cosmetic Medicine Centre for their financial support, Brett and Bryce Francis of BF Racing for always providing me with a reliable and fast car, Troy Dunstan for a strong engine and Mark Coorey for keeping my web site up to date and looking sharp.