A Porsche Cup car is a formidable piece of kit. Its based on the 997 version of the ageless Porsche 911. It has a 450HP engine, racing suspension, stripped out interior and high tech aero kit. And it's seriously fast, lapping around 1:16's at Killarney. And you can buy then race ready from Porsche.
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| The Bigfoot boys in their Cup cars |
Thus, it was a source of considerable surprise to me when I managed to catch up to one during qualifying for our final race meeting of the season.
The howling South Easter of the preceding week had died down to a whisper leaving us with a perfect summers day in Cape Town. Despite the absence of a number of usual drivers, we still had a grid of twenty six cars. Unfortunately, Hennie, my main Class D rival, was away leaving just myself and newcomer, Rob, to play in Class D for the day. Craig was also away, contesting the Bulawayo 3 hour race up in Zimbabwe. You can read about his attempts to restyle his car during the race here. The Harper continent was thus made up of myself, Ant and Steve, so still a fairly good showing for Team Harper. Haydn was also present for the day, now sporting a shiny new Black Top motor in his red Harper, but he had been invited to race with the Fine Cars for the last race of the season.
But back to qualifying. I was again trying my new tactic of going out mid field for qualifying. This had worked well for me last time out, but sadly this time proved to be a bit of a lemon. I managed two clear-ish laps and was just about to get down to action when I caught the Porsche going into Turn 5. He was going so slowly through the corner, for a Porsche that is, that I fully expected him to pull into the pits. But, no, as soon as the corner straightened, a puff of smoke heralded six injectors dumping av gas into the flat six motor and the Porsche rapidly shrank ahead of me. I was a little bemused, especially when I caught him again in Turn 2. After a lap of this yoyo activity I figured the Porsche was either suffering from some mechanical ailment that in no way impeded its straight line speed, or the driver was new to the car. I realised I would need to pass him if I was to have any hope of a decent qualifying time. This was not to be however, as by now the front runners where starting to lap us and the prospect of passing a sickly, fast moving Porsche while being passed by a not so sickly even faster moving Porsche did not full me with delight. I called it quits and headed into the pits after posting a very pedestrian 1:31, which incidentally was on my warmup lap!
It was an omen of things to come.
The pit area was abuzz with chatter as drivers calculated theoretical results based on placings. The points for the season count both towards the classes as well as an overall championship. To win the championship you do not have to have the fastest car, in fact all you need is a decent number of cars in your class and consistent results near the top. I had come third last year, but this year was a way off down in 7th. Other drivers were much closer to the top, and with the last race of the day carrying double points, many of the categories were as yet undecided.
Eventually, with the bacon and egg roll and coffee done and dusted it was time to race. I remembered to attach, and switch on, my camera for a change so headed to the holding area for the start.
With our warm up and line up sequence completed the race began in ernest. The aforementioned Porsche was behind me and I had Rob in his Lotus 7 ahead. All I needed to do was keep the Porsche behind me and deal with Rob and anyone else I could in front of me. However, the best-laid plans of mice and men and all that .. While I was doing my usual first lap faffing about (I really need to focus on this next year!), the Porsche snuck past in Turn 3. Well, this could effectively chuck a nice size 19 spanner into any challenge I would have with Rob. I would need to pass this beast, and fast, if I were to have any chance of taking a win in Class D.
This would prove easier said than done. The Porsche was certainly having no issues with straight line speed. I suspected it might be the driver that was having the issues so set about trying to force an error. I could catch up around the rear of the circuit and under braking into Turn 5. I tried my best to poke my nose in everywhere I could. The idea was to fill his mirrors up with black Harper and be ready to pounce if he ran wide somewhere. He was having none of that though and we tussled for the entire race like this. I must admit, it was actually quite fun. Eventually, on the last lap, the leaders caught us coming out of Turn 1. This was my chance, all I had to do was duck in behind them and follow them through. Except for a small flaw in my plan. It was the Juno and the Mallock, two of the fastest cars in the race. I came out of Turn 1 on full throttle, but they caught and passed the Porsche before he even reached Turn 2, a distance of some 100m or so. He had plenty of time to close the door behind them. Anyway, I was now close on his tail and decided to throw a bit of caution to the wind for Turn 3. It was not needed though as the Porsche ran slightly wide into Turn 3 and I grabbed the opportunity with both hands and foot flat. Its not the best place to pass a faster car since they can usually stroll past you again on the back straight. However, I had a plan. I was going to drift across the straight making it difficult to pass. This seemed to work a treat and I was very happy to see the chequered flag at the end of the main straight. I had beaten a Porsche Cup car! How cool was that.
In the after race paddock I went over the chat to the Porsche driver. We shook hands and I thanked him for the dice. "Sorry to hold you up" he said "but may car has only got two working gears, its a bit of a challenge getting out of corners". He smiled, I smiled. Mine was a little fake I suspect. Great, I had just had my ass handed to me by a Porsche with only a third of working gearbox. Fantastic. I slunk back to my car.
Race two was a repeat of race one, except for the fact that I did not manage to pass the Porsche this time. Still, once I managed to put the whole broken gearbox thing out of my mind and just enjoy the dice, I actually had quite a good time. It was a good change to practice race craft, something I am sorely lacking. They say, when you start racing, it takes you a year to figure out you can't drive, then a year to learn how to drive and, finally, a year to learn how to race. Since this was only my second year I figured I still had a bit of time to learn to race.
In the end, it was a great day. I had a two fantastic races with a Porsche Cup car and, although by default, came second in Class D. This secured me the overall win for Class D for the year and left me 7th in the championship.
More to the point though, I had competed in every race day and only failed to finish one race due to my broken gear shift cable. The Type 6 prototype had taken everything I had thrown at it and just smiled. We had driven on the hottest recorded track to date in Feb, we had driven in the rain, we had driven almost 1000km to PE, raced, and driven back. I had changed the oil once and Craig had replaced the suspension bushes. This and the occasional wash was pretty much the only maintenance I had done on the car the entire season.
Of course, this could mean one of two things. Either the car is exceptionally well designed and built, or I am not racing it hard enough. I think it's a combination of both. The car is exceptional, but I am always cognisant of the fact that I need to drive it home afterwards. I suspect this does temper my racing aspirations slightly.
Still, it is a testimony to the design. Racing is probably the hardest thing a car can be subjected too and will quickly bring out any flaws or weaknesses.
So that was the 2012 racing season with Sports & GT's. A fun time was had by all, except maybe Paul who set fire to his GT40, other than that we have had a great season with consistently big fields of cars and some good, clean, close racing.
On to 2013 then. I'm not planning on doing anything new to the car at this point. There is still much untapped potential and most of it is being held up by the driver's lack of skill at this point. I might look at retrofitting the larger 17" wheels the two new Type 6's are being build to take. This could help to tame the rampant rear end and could assist in getting out of corners quicker, but again, there is something to be said for getting the best out of what you have before making changes.
But we will have to wait and see what comes of the near year.
The pit area was abuzz with chatter as drivers calculated theoretical results based on placings. The points for the season count both towards the classes as well as an overall championship. To win the championship you do not have to have the fastest car, in fact all you need is a decent number of cars in your class and consistent results near the top. I had come third last year, but this year was a way off down in 7th. Other drivers were much closer to the top, and with the last race of the day carrying double points, many of the categories were as yet undecided.
Eventually, with the bacon and egg roll and coffee done and dusted it was time to race. I remembered to attach, and switch on, my camera for a change so headed to the holding area for the start.
With our warm up and line up sequence completed the race began in ernest. The aforementioned Porsche was behind me and I had Rob in his Lotus 7 ahead. All I needed to do was keep the Porsche behind me and deal with Rob and anyone else I could in front of me. However, the best-laid plans of mice and men and all that .. While I was doing my usual first lap faffing about (I really need to focus on this next year!), the Porsche snuck past in Turn 3. Well, this could effectively chuck a nice size 19 spanner into any challenge I would have with Rob. I would need to pass this beast, and fast, if I were to have any chance of taking a win in Class D.
This would prove easier said than done. The Porsche was certainly having no issues with straight line speed. I suspected it might be the driver that was having the issues so set about trying to force an error. I could catch up around the rear of the circuit and under braking into Turn 5. I tried my best to poke my nose in everywhere I could. The idea was to fill his mirrors up with black Harper and be ready to pounce if he ran wide somewhere. He was having none of that though and we tussled for the entire race like this. I must admit, it was actually quite fun. Eventually, on the last lap, the leaders caught us coming out of Turn 1. This was my chance, all I had to do was duck in behind them and follow them through. Except for a small flaw in my plan. It was the Juno and the Mallock, two of the fastest cars in the race. I came out of Turn 1 on full throttle, but they caught and passed the Porsche before he even reached Turn 2, a distance of some 100m or so. He had plenty of time to close the door behind them. Anyway, I was now close on his tail and decided to throw a bit of caution to the wind for Turn 3. It was not needed though as the Porsche ran slightly wide into Turn 3 and I grabbed the opportunity with both hands and foot flat. Its not the best place to pass a faster car since they can usually stroll past you again on the back straight. However, I had a plan. I was going to drift across the straight making it difficult to pass. This seemed to work a treat and I was very happy to see the chequered flag at the end of the main straight. I had beaten a Porsche Cup car! How cool was that.
In the after race paddock I went over the chat to the Porsche driver. We shook hands and I thanked him for the dice. "Sorry to hold you up" he said "but may car has only got two working gears, its a bit of a challenge getting out of corners". He smiled, I smiled. Mine was a little fake I suspect. Great, I had just had my ass handed to me by a Porsche with only a third of working gearbox. Fantastic. I slunk back to my car.
Race two was a repeat of race one, except for the fact that I did not manage to pass the Porsche this time. Still, once I managed to put the whole broken gearbox thing out of my mind and just enjoy the dice, I actually had quite a good time. It was a good change to practice race craft, something I am sorely lacking. They say, when you start racing, it takes you a year to figure out you can't drive, then a year to learn how to drive and, finally, a year to learn how to race. Since this was only my second year I figured I still had a bit of time to learn to race.
In the end, it was a great day. I had a two fantastic races with a Porsche Cup car and, although by default, came second in Class D. This secured me the overall win for Class D for the year and left me 7th in the championship.
More to the point though, I had competed in every race day and only failed to finish one race due to my broken gear shift cable. The Type 6 prototype had taken everything I had thrown at it and just smiled. We had driven on the hottest recorded track to date in Feb, we had driven in the rain, we had driven almost 1000km to PE, raced, and driven back. I had changed the oil once and Craig had replaced the suspension bushes. This and the occasional wash was pretty much the only maintenance I had done on the car the entire season.
Of course, this could mean one of two things. Either the car is exceptionally well designed and built, or I am not racing it hard enough. I think it's a combination of both. The car is exceptional, but I am always cognisant of the fact that I need to drive it home afterwards. I suspect this does temper my racing aspirations slightly.
Still, it is a testimony to the design. Racing is probably the hardest thing a car can be subjected too and will quickly bring out any flaws or weaknesses.
So that was the 2012 racing season with Sports & GT's. A fun time was had by all, except maybe Paul who set fire to his GT40, other than that we have had a great season with consistently big fields of cars and some good, clean, close racing.
On to 2013 then. I'm not planning on doing anything new to the car at this point. There is still much untapped potential and most of it is being held up by the driver's lack of skill at this point. I might look at retrofitting the larger 17" wheels the two new Type 6's are being build to take. This could help to tame the rampant rear end and could assist in getting out of corners quicker, but again, there is something to be said for getting the best out of what you have before making changes.
But we will have to wait and see what comes of the near year.
