I
finished building my Oval in February after 9 years hard work. I built it to
show and to have a bit of fun on the racetrack. I didn't really know if it would
be competitive. Urged on by my panel beater I joined the Jaguar Drivers Club of
Australia to participate in the CSCA Supersprint series as a non-marque car.
Round 1 of the CSCA Supersprint was at Oran Park. This was the first time I'd ever raced the car. Round 2 was at Eastern Creek. I only did 7 laps because a press-fit plug came out of one of the 44IDF webers. This caused my car to leave a trail for shell Optimax from pit straight to my garage in the pit area. Someone said "You're leaking fuel", I looked under the car and saw fuel dripping off the hot exhaust and pooling on the floor. Quickly I stopped the engine and clamped the fuel line. The next few minutes ticked by very slowly as the fuel evaporated.
When I removed the carb to find the cause of the fuel leak the plug from the carb fell down into the head. This meant an expensive tow truck ride home, but I didn't care I had a car not a smouldering wreck.
On August 16th I headed down to Goulburn for Round 3 of the CSCA Supersprint series at Wakefield Park. I borrowed an engine because the plug sitting between the valve and the seat of my engine turned into a good excuse to do a few upgrades. Greg Ward was kind enough to lend me his spare engine, which is a Steroid spec Stan Pobjoy engine.
The car was handling well but tending to understeer. I tightened the rear swaybar and was keen to feel a bit of oversteer for a change. On my first run I felt the back end come a little loose on an off-camber third gear corner. I thought it would be cool if I could hold the car in a slide, so I attempted to help the tail come out a little. The next thing I knew I was doing about ninety kilometres per hour backwards. As I slid on to the grass the car kept spinning, I was hoping the wheels wouldn't dig in and put the car on its lid. They didn't and I came to a stop on the infield. I wasn't going to do that again.
On my next run I was paired up with a new Ford Falcon. I left it well behind and concentrated on learning the track. On my third lap I was heel-toeing when the side of my shoe lifted the accelerator pedal off the roller and when I pressed it down again it missed the roller and got stuck. I idled around into the pits and fixed it.
As we lined up for the third run an official asked me how I went. I said I kicked the Falcon's butt and I wanted to line up with something faster. She laughed and put me with a Honda S2000. The guy in the S2000 was a bit peeved that he'd been put with a slow old Beetle. He got out of his car and suggested that I let him go ahead (so he wouldn't be held up of course). I let him go and took off. Instantly I knew I wasn't getting full throttle. I kicked myself (which is not easy in a 4 point harness) for not checking that when I fixed the pedal. But bugger it I thought, I'm not letting him getting away. I didn't even let the tires warm up I threw the car hard into the first corner and came out on the ripple strip. I did the same through every corner and I'd caught up to him by the time we came on to the front straight for the first time.
The S2000 has a 9000rpm redline, a 150 kilowatts and 6 gears to play with and he pulled away on the straight and up the hill. But once again I caught him under brakes and through the turns. As we were coming into the last corner on to the straight I noticed he was being held up by an MG. I entered the corner late so I could come out at full throttle on the inside of the corner. The S2000 came onto the straight and moved out to pass the MG. He got the shock of his life when I came up beside him. It must've looked great, 3 cars wide down the straight. I couldn't stay with him for long and the MG was a dot in the distance by the time we reached turn 1. For the remainder of the lap I filled the guy's mirrors and almost went into the back of him when he backed off after the chequered flag.
After that I went straight into the pits to fix the throttle problem. I also changed the carbs to a leaner jet to allow for the high altitude of Goulburn. The moment I started the engine to head out for the fourth run it sounded snappier and crisper. I had my fingers crossed that I'd have a rematch with the S2000.
The official lined me up with the S2000 again. This time the driver came over and suggested that I go first and that he'd catch me. Fine I said feeling quietly confident I would whip his sorry butt.
The starting official needed to be told twice that the Beetle was going ahead of the S2000. When I took off I hit 7000rpm in the first three gears, then I slid through the first corner on cold tires. It wasn't much of a rematch. I only saw the S2000 in my rear vision mirror for three corners. Apparently I pulled half a lap on him in just 3 laps. Not only that, when I checked the times my best was 3 seconds faster than his best. Whoopee.
When I lined up for my next run one of the head officials walked over and said, "Gee, I love those Honda S2000s. I was going to buy one. But I'm not sure I want to spend $70,000 on something that can be beaten by a Beetle". Well that made my day. I was so stoked I didn't even bother trying on my last run.
The Bulahdelah Hillclimb on the old Pacific Highway in August was even more fun. I added a Porsche 911 and a 944 turbo to the same list the S2000 is on, but more about that later.