FOGG AND THE LG ZB FALCON WIN FEATURE RACE AT MANFEILD
Hi everyone following round five of the BNT V8s Championship where we chalked up a win for the feature reverse grid race. Here’s our meeting report for you...
TESTING : 3rd in session one and 2nd in session two
The car was again very good straight out of the truck, and we worked away at the setup to try and dial out a corner exit slide trait that was affecting lap times, other than that the car felt good, and all the hard work between Timaru and here looked like paying off….
QUALIFYING : 5th (1:13.563)
We were easily into the top 20 (second fastest), then the top ten, keeping our new tyres for the one lap shootout. Towards the end of session 2 it started to lightly drizzle, and we were on standby to quickly change the car to a wet setup if the weather deteriorated any further. Once again the Event Director’s decision was to completely change the proceedings, and as the rain began to fall he decided to cancel the top ten shootout due to “safety” reasons and revert to session two times for the grid!
RACE 1 (12 laps) : DNF
All was not lost as an inside grid start at Manfield is always better than the outside ! Having started in P5 we were 3rd coming out of turn one, and started to pressure Kayne Scott in front, the leader Edgell, Scott and ourselves opening a lead from the rest of the field . On lap two I felt a nasty vibration, which at first was intermittent, but by half way through the lap was really bad. Approaching the hairpin the vibration turned into a massive metallic rattle, and the vibration worsened to such a degree it felt like the driveshaft was going to come through the floor !! I thought the driveshaft had exploded like it had at Ruapuna so decided to park the car. Upon further inspection back at the pits the shaft had not broken, but the centre bearing had collapsed, causing the shaft to flail around and make the noise and vibration. Bugger !!
RACE 2 (12 laps) : 21st
After not finishing race 1 we were pretty pumped to make as many positions as possible in race 2. Starting 23rd we powered through the field to be challenging for 5th place for the final lap, however once again Lady Luck deserted us and the right front tyre exploded on the last lap! We wobbled to the finish line to finish 21st. Bugger !!
RACE 3 (22 laps full reverse grid) : 1st
All the bad luck in the first two races was about to evaporate (we hoped!!) Drawing grid position 1, and still having our new tyres, and showing good car speed, we really felt this one was in the bag, and so it was to be, powering off into a healthy lead, then maintaining the lead until the end of the race to cross the line first over six seconds ahead of Eddie Bell! YAY !!
WHATS NEXT ??
With a nice straight car, we can concentrate on the mechanicals and handling to put on a strong showing at the final round at
FEEDBACK
The LG ZB Falcon looked stunning this weekend, thanks once again to the team at Transvisual who did a fantastic job on repairing the bodywork following Timaru. The car looks brand new again, thanks very much guys! We still get excellent feedback with many telling us the car is the most well-presented car in the field (and we have to agree).
SUZUKI SWIFT CUP
Congratulations once again to our LG Motorsport team mate William Bamber with a couple of podium finishes and second overall for the round this weekend, and still leading the Suzuki Sport Swift Cup Championship.
Posted: Mon 15 Feb 2010