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2017 Tasman Cup Race 2 Stratton Valley


kalbfellp

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This year Race 2 is at John Batich's Stratton Valley Raceway.

This track is much tighter than tracks used in previous series.

It was rebuild a couple of years ago after it was flooded.

Power is via a 30 Amp Regulated power supply set at 12 volts.

 

 

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The track was cleaned before qualifying to ensure no rubber was left on the surface this provided a very grippy surface for most tyres.

John qualified the cars on the middle lane.

 

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Some of the entrants thought the road into the Valley was a bit tight!

 

 

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The more financial teams could easily be picked out with their nice Rice Built trailers

 

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The field lined up ready for Qualifying

 

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Johns local knowledge and track setup soon proved that his car was the car to beat on this track.

 

 

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Drivers for the day were Callan Thomas,Dave Bantoft and myself.

 

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Race host John and Rob Golley who has returtned to racing after some 40 odd years.

 

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Big thanks to those guys who came along to marshal for us,Dave,Chris and Thomas out of picture)

 

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No sure if Bruce was marshalling or just try to get abetter look at Keiths car!

 

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This section of the track going under the bridge caused a lot of offs,the grip was very high and the cars tended to two wheel going under the bridge.

 

While Johns car was the leader for most of the event a few other car had some dramas.

 

Spoons Fergy was the first with problems breaking a lead wire during its third heat, the wire was too short to be repaired BUT a solder joint soon had it back on the track.The wire has now been replaced.

 

Scozz was the next problem, part way thru the first heat it started to bounce for no reason,we thought a tyre had come off!

But closer examination revealed that one of the rear wire braces had broken away from the motor allowing the rear to flex.

This was soldered back up BUT not being able to use a jig for setup it was still not right,but did allow it to complete the race.

Further examination in the workshop revealed that all four of the motor mounting points had also broken. the chassis has now been realigned and seems much better during private practice.

 

Manimals car lost a rear wheel during its second heat, I think this is common for Ferrari mechanics to forget to tighten wheels!

 

No other dramas and all the rest circulated without and problems. Slo's Brabham was one of the few cars that lacked a bit of grip on this track.

 

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When the dust settled the Grandkids car was just over 1/2 lap in front of John and FPR7 1/4 lap behind John.

 

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Shadow Rusty was just in front of my Lotus for 4th and Lenny just behind me.

 

Surprising Terrys car scored fastest race lap with Callan on Lane 3, it seemed to have a little less grip and Callan was very smooth with the car.

 

But just look at the mid field and how close that group was, we had to check the position of all those car to ensure we had the order right.

Just as well we mark where each car finishes,as I think RC had 4 positions wrong.

 

This track certainly gave some very different results,Terrys and Charles cars were just too grippy and yet Stu and Stubbo had not enought grip.

 

Dave Bantoft ran his Lotus 33 as a wild card entry for the two local rounds, and actually finished in front of the field, time he actually entered as his car is very good.

 

Thank you to all the drivers and marshals who gave up their afternoon to come along and assist.

 

The cars are now in transit to Shelmore Park for Race 3

Edited by kalbfellp
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Wow, that's very impressive difference for my car...

See, MJK's do work sometimes... :)

 

 

Thanks guys for the fine drive, and congrats to the podiumites...

 

 

ps. Any pointers about the cars?

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Awesome stuff, and a big thanks to all involved for fixing everything i had any imput in!

 

Oh, and 11th, again. Exactly midfield in another Tasman round, how many is that now? I doubt such an average avarage could be deliberately acheived.

Edited by manimmal

My mum says I'm an excellent driver

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Thanks for the great report and photos and for running such a great round to all who were involved.

 

Congrats also to the podiumites

 

When you get time I would welcome some comments on my car. Too much grip. Was car tippy? I half pie expected the narrow DART tyres to be on the loose side but clearly not on this track.

 

Also interested to hear what you think of motor. Is it just plain slow (a dud), handling or gearing. Any help would be appreciated.

 

Regards Chas Le Breton

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Thanks for the round John and thanks to all the helpers too, no doubt all the hot air got the track up to temp pretty quick ... Great report Phil!

Congrats to Dave... I mean, the Grand kids , John and FPR A tight mid field.

Terry, looks like a new shirt for Dave......

Thanks guys.

Edited by slo1quick
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No Terry Johns a track was built around 7 years ago, then altered more recently. My old track is now at Bruces and called Gotham Park.

We did not use it this year as the tape is in such poor condition that last race night we had 10 or 11 stops for track problems.

It is very hard to judge cars performance on this track, the lane I drove just was too grippy to ensble the cars to flow well.The " wiggle" just before going under the bridge would unsettle the car and they would two wheel around the left hander under the bridge, this section cannot be seen from the drivers station, so it it very hard to judge.

I will be qualifying the cars here in the next few days so will be able to judge performance much better then.

Michael the MJK,s worked on this track simply because of the high grip level,but your car would still slide a lot.

 

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Congrats to the Grandkids, John and FPR7. I'd hoped that my Cooper might show better at another type of track but, alas, no. It seems to be a solid mid-field runner but no more. Oh well, carry on.

 

Stewart

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I ran on the outside 'blue' lane which is generally slower, but for the Tasman cars it was perfect. Red and yellow are just that little bit tighter which is fast for every other class (larger cars like Slot.its) we run locally, but the Tasman cars didn't seem to handle the stop start nature of these lanes, more than likely due to their size and level of grip as the racing went on.

 

It must be said though that I am very impressed with the standard of the cars this year and apart from Scozz's car that had significant problems there were only 8 tenths between all the cars on my lane. Blue got better as the race went on which is why I was able to get a good time out of Terry's car that came in much later than JBs. Depending on where the car entered the race depended on the grip level and whether or not it suited the car.

 

I look forward to the next event at Shelmore as the cars are great to drive and look awesome racing round the track - congrats to everyone who has entered.

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Thanks for the race report Phil also to the team at John's nice Track. Very happy that the Elfin is on the podium with my highest result result so far in the Tasman Cup.

Might go & spray some Champers.Congratulations to Phil & John and all the other competitors - some great cars on the grid. It is going to be fun checking them out for the constructors prize.

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Just a few general comments about the cars:

Some of the cars do not have the rear tyres glued on the wheels, IMO this is needed. On a high grip track the tyres do move on the wheels and tend to become out of round or wobble.

Also the front wheels of several cars are very hard down on the track, the guide is just off the tape. This causes the front wheels to dig in on corners.

The fastest and best handling cars have the front wheels only just touching the track surface.

 

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