Our 2011 Season

Round 2 - Phillip Island 16 & 17 April 2011
the "Dallas Crane Challenge"

Due to a pre-booked holiday in Thailand for Rod & Kim, the team was unfortunately unable to compete at the scheduled Round 1 of our Club Championship at Winton, March 12 & 13. Our Club Championship allows all drivers to drop their worst round during the year meaning we would need to drop the Winton Round and ensure top results in all other rounds for any hope of winning the Championship.

This round of our series, being the 'Dallas Crane Challenge", is a race meeting, now held every year, to honour our previous President and 22 year veteran of HQ Racing, Dallas, who died from Cancer mid 2010. Needless to say, it's an extremely special meeting everyone wants to win.

The weather at Phillip Island was absolutely fantastic with clear sunny skies and temperatures between 19 & 21 degrees C. For Qualifying on Saturday morning, we were all a little apprehensive after a full engine rebuild due to the major failure at Bathurst. Keith Davidson, our engine builder, had done a fantastic job replacing damaged components and rebuilding the engine but there's always an element of concern after such a fatal engine failure.

Qualifying was uneventful and after the 20 minute session, the Rocket Racing Team HQ had qualified in Third place, behind Spud Wood on Pole and John Wise in Second.

Race 1 on Saturday afternoon, an 8 Lapper, was extremely close with several lead changes between Spud, Wisey & Rod with great, close racing between the three with no contact. This was also made harder with Keven Stoopman, Ken Wright & Cal McHenry hot on their heels. At the end of 8 Laps, Spud Wood took the Chequered Flag with John Wise in Second and Rod coming home in Third, all three crossing the line within Two Tenths of Second of each other.

Race 2 on Sunday morning was sure to be another close one but when Spud Wood failed to great the '1 Minute Board' in Marshalling, he was put rear of field by the officials. John Wise had a brilliant start and jumped to the lead. Ken Wright also got past Rod and for the first 5 laps of the 7 Lap race, that's how the order stayed. On Lap 6, Rod passed Ken on the front straight and then also took John coming into Honda corner on the same lap. For the remaining lap and a half, there was nothing in it between Rod & John as they built a small buffer on Ken and as they crossed the finish line after 7 laps, Rod managed to hold onto the victory by Three Tenths of a Second over John.

Race 3 and the 10 Lap title race for the 'Dallas Crane Challenge' was set to be an epic battle with nothing between the top 5 cars. Starting out of Pole position, Rod had a great start and managed to lead the field into turn 1. With Wisey, Keven and Ken all fighting for second position, Rod was able to get a small buffer until Wisey eventually managed to take the clear second position. Within a few laps Wisey had caught Rod and on Lap 8 passed him down the front straight. For the next two laps, the two cars were glued together with Rod content to sit behind John and hopefully get a last minute overtaking move done. Coming onto the front straight for the last time, Rod slip streamed John and came along side for the drag to the Chequered Flag. As the two raced to the flag side by side, it was anyone's guess as to who'd get the victory. In the end, Rod managed to take the Win by One One-Hundredth of a Second, not much more than a bumper bar.

A fantastic race meeting with no damage and some of the best racing Rod has ever experienced with the huge bonus and privilege of being the caretaker of the perpetual "Dallas Crane Challenge" Cup for the next 12 Months. Commiserations to John Wise for a fantastic driving effort but getting pipped at the post.

Again, as always, a huge thanks to Dennis & Mick for their brilliant work at the track over the weekend. Unfortunately, Jeremy wasn't able to make it but kept in touch for regular updates.

Bathurst (12 Hour Support Category) 4 & 5 February 2011

During the 2010 to 2011 off-season, the #33 HQ had extensive work to the suspension, differential and an engine re-fresh. We weren't so concerned about the asthetics this year as the car had only sustained a few minor bruises and bumps during the entire 2010 season.

Getting everything finished, including having the motor run-in and tuned, was tight but in the end we managed to have the car ready for our 2011 battle at Mount Panorama, Bathurst. The entire team of Dennis, Jeremy, Mike and Rod headed off on the Wednesday (2-2-11) before lunch with Mike again kindly towing the car so the Bus could enjoy a leasurely drive up. With the weather heating up and no air conditioning in the Bus, Rod & Dennis sweltered as the inside temp of the Bus reached 36 degrees. Mike & Jeremy reminded the guys in the bus on several occassions how cool it was as they relaxed in Mikes air conditioned car.

Between the towns of Cootamundra and Young, truckies coming the other way, got on the 2-way radio and warned of a huge storm coming towards us and within minutes it hit. With Visibility down to 20 metres, the guys decided to pull over and wait the storm out. After a 20 minute wait, the rain subsided to a level where we could get back on the road. We arrived in Young at 7:00pm and decided to have dinner at the local RSL. In previous years, we'd left home later on the Wednesday and had only made Young by late at night and then stopped overnight. This year, we were finished with dinner by 7:30PM and decided to press on to see how far we'd get before feeling fatigued. As it turned out, everyone was feeling quite re-freshed after dinner and before we knew it, we'd rolled into the Mount Panorama circuit at 10:30 Wednesday night, where a shower and then nice cold beverage were the order of the day.

As we weren't to be on-track till Friday morning, Thursday was a leasurely day, unloading and preparing the car and putting it through the mandatory Scrutineering process. My brother in-law, Gavin, and his mate, Pom, were also making the 12 hour drive down from the Gold Coast to join us for the weekend. They arrived at 3:00PM so some more welcome drinks were in order.

Friday morning finally arrived and after a Driver's Briefing at 7:15, the HQ field headed out for the Practice session at 8:15. As we had replaced all the brakes in the off season, the first 2 laps of the 20 minute session were spent beading everything in, nice and easy.

On the start of lap 3, I started to pick up the pace and set out after Keven Stoopman, who was 3 cars ahead. Heading up 'Mountain Straight', we seemed to be lacking a bit in power, and after turn 2, noticed some fuming coming from the Crankcase breather under the bonnet. The temperature guage started slowly climbing as the Oil Pressure guage started slowly falling, not good signs. Just after the 'Cutting' (turn 4) a distinct knocking noise started coming from the engine. Immediately, I knew this was fatal and started looking for a place to safely pull off the circuit. Over 'Skyline', I cut the engine and coasted down through the 'Dipper" & 'Esses' and managed to find a safe area just past 'Forest Elbow' to pull over.

After the tow back to the pits at the end of the session, Dennis and the guys had a quick look and after turning the engine over, we had a pretty good idea that a 'Big End' bearing had failed, a major engine failure. With no spare engine, our weekend of racing at the iconic Mountain was all over.

Friday turned out to be a real scorcher, weather wise, with temps up to 40 degrees, so the team settled back with a beer or 20, went for a tour through the 12 Hour category garages and watched the days racing from several locations, including "The Chase".

Saturday was much the same except we decided to go to the top of the Mountain at "McPhillamy Park" to see the cars come across the top of the mountain before decending over "Skyline". There was also a Big Screen Monitor there to view all the action around the circuit and PA Speakers to listen to the live commentary. Although our racing weekend was ruined, it was a great opportunity to view the racing from some fantastic locations, locations we hadn't visited before. Gav & Pom decided to leave on their 12 hour drive home to the Gold Coast after the first HQ race on Saturday morning whilst the rest of the team found some shade, iced up the Esky and continued to make the best of the weekend.

On Satruday night, we packed up and headed outside the circuit as the 12 Hour Race was to start at 6:00AM Sunday morning and the track would be closed at 5:00AM, preventing us from getting the Bus out. We parked the Bus just outside Pit Straight, giving us an ideal vantage point to watch the start of the 12 Hour Race, before starting on the trip home.

On Sunday morning, we were woken at 6:00AM with the blaring of the PA system around the circuit as the main event was preparing to start. A heart starter coffeee made by Mike had us ready to watch the start of the race, from right on the start line. After watching the race start and about 10 laps, we decided to start on the trip home. The weather was considerably cooler than the trip up, making it a lot more comfortable for Rod & Dennis in the Bus. The trip home was also very uneventful, always good, and we arrived back in Rowville at 4:30PM. After unpacking and unloading, we sat down to the remainder of the drinks in the Esky and proceeded to tell Kimmy and the girls how Bathurst 2011 was not our year and how we needed to build a spare engine.

Although a very disappointing trip, racing wise, it was still a great weekend away with the guys, watched some fantastic racing and drowned our sorrows.

Perhaps Bathurst 2012 will be more successful for the 'Rocket Racing Team'.