For The Guys Wanting Entry Level Motorsport!

[Risking]

Yesterday was the 2nd round or the MRA (Mini racers australia) championship.

Its a door to door series but the guys who race in it are not running for sheep stations and its a really friendly laied back event.

There has been heaps of people asking lately about entry level door to door racing and seriously this would be the category for you to run in.

There is two category's skylines can be entered in. Combined sedans or we get stuck with the sports cars if your quick enough.

There is a massive mix of cars from escorts to Radicals.

Yesterday we ran with the sports cars. In qualifing we split an intercooler hose. So drove home and nicked the hose off Duncan's race car which is in the garage. We managed 5th on the grid.

First race off the line I jumped from 5th to 2nd before turn 1 (oran south)

Car was performing perfectly on falken semi's. Before the clutch pedal stopper bolt got caught on the steering colom bracket and caused the pedal to stick on the floor. As I turned into turn 4 the clutch pedal came flying back up and speared the car into the tire wall. Data shows it coming off the track at 112K's

Race was red flagged so I actually finished 2nd going on a lap count back.

We bashed the bracket out of the way and cleaned out the rocks and stones from the under carriage.

Cleaned up the rear quarter and knocked a few dents out. All good

Race Two was a shocker. The front diff let go on the launch so I left two big black marks up the straight and lost 3 positions due to the car not hooking up like it should have.

Greg passed in the S15 and so did a lotus exige. Chasing them down was hard but on lap 4 or 5 the same intercooler pipe split again. (I gotta buy you a new pipe now Duncan)

Back to the pits with a DNF and back of the grid for the trophy race!

A mate just happened to have a silicon pipe in his boot that we made fit. New set of plugs and a quick roll center adjustment.

Race three from the back of a 8 car grid and no AWD to help me. Got off the line okay considering. By turn one I was up to 5th position behind the S15, exige, Radical and Debron.

There was a mini crash the race before so the circuit was not the greatest.

Battling with the Debron proved costly. Tried a few passing moves Duncan had suggested before making a big stab coming into turn two on the inside (wouldn't recommend doing it again)

By this time I was a fair distance behind the leaders so catching them was not going to happen.

As luck would have it the Exige retired with a vibration so I was placed 3rd in the trophy race.

It would have been good to get a clean pass on the Debron and have a good shot at Greg in the S15 but there is always next time. No one was going to beat the radical.

Natsoft shows my position as 2nd which is technically correct as greg started a 10th lap infront of the radical but did not finish it. where as I had been lapped and was only going to complete 9 laps. Club racing though and he was infront of me by 50m at the end so he did finish 2nd in our books!

Would be good to see a few of the other import cars being built coming out to these events, Its good competition without the stress and pannel rubbing of doing state rounds.

There is plenty of well built GTR's and silvia's doing the rounds these days. Entry fee's are cheap. you get a 15min morning session, 2 6 lappers and a 10lap final.

Anyone who thinks that sounds easy is kidding themselves. You stuff up one corner and get passed you pay for it dearly. Cant just forget that lap and start another "hot" one next time around.

Its a real eye opener and going off the number of guys here who want to do this sort of thing Id challege them to come out and compete, its great fun and the bigger the field the better!

Overall we had big oversteering issues and a slight mishap with a tire wall but it is really great fun!

I think we managed a 48.1** in the end which I was happy with considering the lack of preperation we did to the car ((still putting it together on the dumby grid) and the lack of slicks

Big thanks to JazzyJ for looking after the GTR all day we had plenty to do with very little time between races.

Natsoft Race results

Edited May 3, 2009 by Risking

[evil_weevil]

Great read up Brad, sorry to hear about the mishaps, hope it all gets sorted and fixed asap mate!

Ive been throwing up doing the MRA or the mx5 challenge next year.

They both certainly sound fun and as you say, its not as serious as other rounds and series out there!

Just for everyone else thinking about it Brad,

What is needed to do MRA?

Cheers!

Chris!

p.s. see you at OP South on the 13th mate!

[jazzy_j]

Chris here is a link to the Safety Rules and Regs page on the MRA site. It has the basic info on want you need to compete.

http://www.motorracingaustralia.com.au/rul...afety/index.htm

Your car would be perfect for it. They ran an MX5 class on the day.

[evil_weevil]

Cheers Jay!!

You setting up the grey GTR for this also?

[jazzy_j]

Yeah but probably wont compete until next year. I'll spend this year finishing it and setting it up. Brad did a round in it last year and won the round.

[Merli]

Are you guys allowed to run intercooler hard pipes in combined touring?

I have an entire set of standard rubber intercooler hoses for you if you want it...

[Risking]

You can run what ever you like there is NO strict rules like the CAMS sanctioned events. It really is budget door to door racing at its best.

The quicker cars obviously get stuck into the sports car category. A neat well driven GTS-T would be competative in the combined sedans as too would a well build GTR

Like Jay said I drove the old Grey GTR at a wakefield round last year and took out the event. It was pretty basic at the time. Had bugger all power but really well sorted suspension for what it had in it.

There are a few scraps during the racing over positions but very rarely does it end up in panel damage.

Chris there is an MX5 category. There was a billion of the bloody things out there on Saturday!

[BOZ22N]

Sounds good Brad, bit of bad luck but sounds like you still had a ball.

I spoke to Brian tonight and he has e-mailed me through all the regs and paper work so i am going to try and make it to the Wakefield Park August 2nd and/or the Wakefield Park October 25th rounds.

Very excited. I will hopefully be in the combined sedans.

Chris you definitely need to give this a go next year, You to Ando i see you watching.

[BOZ22N]

Here are some times at wakie for you Chubbs.

MX5 qualifying times

[Risking]

Yeah I guess clouting a wall puts a small dampner on the whole day. I wasn't that upset about it suprisingly.

Chris doesnt have to wait till next year. He needs to get an entry in and have a go now.

Edited May 3, 2009 by Risking

[evil_weevil]

Too true Brad!

As most of these days are run with AASA, I need that AASA license and log book with AASA, or do they accept a CAMS log book too?

[Sinful]

I was race control for the day and anyone that wants to get into this series is an eye opener and on the grape line is that MRA has the last event at Oran Park in December..

This is a great series and I encourage everyone that has the balls!!!! to get evolved in grid racing to try it and you wont regret it!!!!

Well done Brad for coming third Glad you and the car is ok!!!

P.s Waldo is a f**king classic!!!!You will know what I mean if you hang around till trophy presentation!!!

[jazzy_j]

Too true Brad!

As most of these days are run with AASA, I need that AASA license and log book with AASA, or do they accept a CAMS log book too?

They accept AASA or CAMS

[Sinful]

Only accept AASA logbook. MRA Series will not recognise CAMS Logbooks..

We accept CAMS licences but that's it.

[evil_weevil]

ah ok cool!

Will have to get that sorted, apparantly its easy as too

[Sinful]

Yeah AASA Logbook is very easy just takes awhile to come out to you that's all

Just to let you know - You cant race in MRA on a CAMS L2S either..Need to upgrade your CAMS licence or get a AASA Club Racer Licence or higher.

[Sir Lord Van Von Vader'ham]

just had a look at the regs, but couldn't find anything except for rules for minis...?

can someone point me in the right direction pls

[evil_weevil]

Yeah Im going to get the AASA racing one, actually...might get the CAMS PC instead..hmm....

[JDSracing]

This definitely sounds interesting, I think I will give it a go depending on how strict the regulations are and how much work I will have to do to the car to make it comply.

[Sinful]

DriftGTS the sup regs are not currently on the Webpage.

Please contact:

Secretary

Terry Denovan

Ph: (02) 8719 1100

Mob: 0414 459 775

email: [email protected]

He will be able to answer your questions