Here we go again. After a 4 hour drive on one of Australia's shittiest, poor excuses for a major highway, I get to Bodangora airstrip and settle down in the middle of a paddock for the night. Not a sole for miles, unless you count the inmates of the correction facility just down the road. I was by myself but I don't mind that sometimes. It gets a bit spooky but the tranquility is superb. Up at sparrow fart and the club members turn up to set up for the day's racing. Did I mention that the morning temperature was 3 degrees Celsius (37F). Nothing like knocking star pickets in without gloves on at 3 degrees. I must be getting soft. Racing started around 10am but due to fuel issues with the 1 1/4" SUs I had installed I missed a couple of runs. Bystanders get worried when they see fuel dripping on hot headers for some reason. It's not every day you race a Mini with a 302 Ford in it. Another practice run, car won't rev as well with the smaller carbs but it's running consistent times. This is the second of my shootouts. I won this one but had lost the first one. No film of that one as I forgot to turn the camera on. The poor bugger didn't realize he was supposed to leave on his light. More action tomorrow so stay tuned sports fans.
Next run I took the win against a Holden V8 one-tonner. One of those runs where you are wheel to wheel for most of it. For some reason I can't change the filming angle of this camera to show the car in the other lane. I thought I lost the first shootout but I looked again at my timeslips after the crew chief typed them up and saw that I had won all 3. Four of us had won 3 so there was a run off for the final. This video will explain it all. Like I said, the car wasn't revving as well as normal but on a 9.40 dial I ran 9.49, 9.49, 9.44. Not too shabby when I think about it. In the run- off I short changed into 2nd gear and had no revs left at the end. I also snoozed on the line which didn't help. Just a short video to show the return trip and their setup. Finishing up with an arty-farty shot I took of the evening sky the day before. Hooroo
Curious as to why you went to the 1.25" SUs. This rough & dirty chart pretty much calls'em really thin on the top, breathing wise, even for a bone stock mill. Great vids, as usual. Enjoyed'em repeatedly. Really like that strip, as well. I expect there's a reason you guys gather & return on the strip itself, but there's no way our sanctioning "friends " here'd let us do that, even at Eagle Field. ps. Killer sunset too.
The reason for parking up at the other end is because it's still an airfield and there is no return road alongside. I think the other reason is because of the airstrip lights down the sides. Unfortunately you can't rely on people not driving over them and causing damage. I went back to the smaller S.U.s as a 'suck and see' exercise. Whilst they dropped the performance considerably, I was able to run fairly consistently. They came back off once I got home.
"ORDER the airfield folk to put in a parallel taxiway. " Forgive me, just couldn't resist that one. It's really a cool way to address the situation, return parade & all. However, one which our sanctioning bodies here'd truly freak out over. Interesting. Actually, having a physical top end limit via the 1.250" carbs'd work nearly as well as a modern rev limiter, atmospherics being the main variable, and likely reasonably consistent for a given day. Also, the flow rate restriction'd work very much like a modern throttle stop, minus atmospherics again. Leaving just launch and shift consistency in your hands. All in all, similar in effect to NASCAR's carb restriction plate move some years back. Makes perfect sense for the consistency you observed. Rather out of the HA/GR concept of course, but excellent for modern bracket racing while technically keeping to our rules. I think Smokey (Yunick of course, though possibly Stover as well) might approve. A way to "have your cake, and eat it too" in HA/GR.
I raced with a group called 1-on-1 Motorsports over in Germany. We raced on an old WWII airstrip in Bitburg and had to do the same gather and return parade. The only way to get to the autocross area was down that same strip, so we had staging areas at both ends. Cumbersome at times, but kinda cool too. ;-)
The Jalopy Journal
