Quick Dutton Report and Thankyou's.

[Snowman]

Well after what started very promising ended at little disappointing.

Quick summary of events:

Thursday - me and Gerald accompanied by our trusty crewman James (in GOLGO) drove up to Sheparton and prepared the car with a quick wash and applied all the decals. We then went up to Rally HQ to check-in and have a quick look over some of the competition for the weekend.

We then got quite serious about the 3 days appoaching by getting blind drunk. This inlcuded a 1.4L margarita at Taco Bills plus a visit to one of the local night clubs for a while.

Friday morning was a slightly painfull 8:00am start for the daily breaky/breifing before heading to DECA for the first series of event. With the group being split into 2 lots (cars 1-40 went to the other venue) I was one of the first cars to run being number 47 - especially when cars 45 and 46 had problems before they even started. The very first event was a big motokana - something I'd never done before. The cars before me were mostly crazy GT3 porkas and the like so I was massively intimmedated I will admit. But after the 3-2-1-GO I was into it very quickly. Had a few little hiccups in the morning with me firslt going the wrong way at the figure 8 the first time :Oops: and once over-shooting the gate on the back DECA circuit. Meanwhile my co-driver was doing very well indeed.

The afternoon took us to Sheparton Airport for a return sprint, slalom and an 800m sprint down the runway. The 800m had you pitted side by side against another car in a true drag format. In our one we were pitted against a porsche 993 RS. It was extremely satisfying to blow him away. (For peoples info my best 800m time was 18.64s - top speed was about 235km/hr).

The end of the day had me in 3rd place in our class (Class A) for driver while Gerald was in 2nd place for co-driver. My early mistakes had me back in 22nd outright whilst Gerald was doing great in Equal 9th.

Saturday was Winton and the wet-circle. I was asked by the TV crew to have a camera mounted to the side of my car for this. Have seen the footage for this - it looked awesome. Anyways - was a bit annoyed on my first lap at Winton as I quickly caught the car infront of me and was held up (will look cool on video tough!) but the second lap was pretty clean. The wet circle was also good in the GTR.

Geralds run at Winton was where it all went sour. Lucky guy got to start from Pole so had clean track in front of him. First lap was great but just as he crossed the start finish for his first lap the gearstick burst out of gear, clutch pedal went to the floor and thats all she wrote. Couldn't select a any gears while the car is running. Still not 100% sure of the problem but we think its definitely a clutch issue.

Whilst this officially put us out of the competition it wasn't the end of the rally for us. The guys at Dutton were great - and James was even greater and we were allowed to continue on running on Sunday in Golgo. None of the times we set were counted but we still got to have some fun. Was interesting to go from an R34 GTR with coil-over suspension, good brake pads and sticky rubber to an R33 GTR with stock suspension, normal street pads and street tyres (and in a car I hadn't driven before).

It was also really interesting to do all of this with less than 4 hrs sleep as we sucessfully drank as much as we could into the early hous of Sunday morning.

Overall the weekend was a whole lot of fun - although bitter sweet in the end. I think if we'd been able to keep the car running we would have kept our class positions.

Some great people were met - guys like Steven Richards, Jeff Beable and Steven Gleeny were great to talk to and to see in action. Simon Athur (Simmo from the forums) was being a traitor and driving a damn awesome Evo 8 - and he won far too many tropheys. You need to learn to share mate! haha.

The event was eventually won by the Fuller boys in an EVO 3. Very impressive effort indeed.

A few quick thanks. Firstly to everyone that came down to give their support over the weekend. That was great.

Secondly to Jack from Citywide Towing for firstly driving all the way down to Winton on Saturday afternoon to get my car, but then for bring it along to Fed Square for the static display last night. Much appreciated mate.

Jamezilla and Golgo - you are both champs. James did a lot of looking after of both me and Gerald as we were quite useless at times - and the decision to lend us your car for the final day was awesome. I hope the video footage you have of golgo sideways through some of those final motokana's can put to rest any queries about Golgo being weak.

My co-driver and mechanic. Gerald mate you did a great job of driving the car fast and smooth and you and the others down at Ice Performance had the car feeling amazing. Your also a damn fine drinker. I'm already looking forwards to next year.

Finally to my main sponsor Austech Wire and Cable. We wouldn't have been able to compete in the event if it wasn't for them so if anyone out there needs some automotive cable you can find their products at all autobarn/supercheap/repco stores.

For anyone that's interested on seeing some footage on the event it will be coved this coming Sunday on SBS - I think from 4pm. Also we'll try and get some footage at one of the up-coming SAU club meets.

I'll also post some pics up later too.

[R31Nismoid]

good stuff... yet another essay from yourself (these are becoming far too frequent)

but great read! Pics look great too

[Leewah]

Great stuff Andrew. Glad you guys made it home. Pity bout the car. Racing is racing

I'm sure next year will be just as good if not better. I think you may also have tempted some others to take part next year.....

[meshmesh]

Spewing I couldn't make it to essendon at least..

Good to hear you guys had a good time, hopefully next year I might join you guys.

[adznight]

Good to hear you had fun but shame about the car but as Leewah said what would racing be if somthing didn't break!

I also spotted the Nobel M12GTO on Church Street last night at about 7:00pm. That was an interesting little rocket!

[inark]

good work guys!!

was pissed i couldnt make it down on sunday to see the cars... was way too hung over

[RagE]

Good job guys, I arrived at winton a little late and could only stay for a short time. Was looking for you but 1st time found an empty GTR and the second time it lining up to go onto the track... I then got to see it being towed off the track...

[Snowman]

Some piccies.

DECA Track

I hope this race is on TV!

One GTR down - lets find another one.

This one seems to go alright too.

Fed Square

I'll see what else I have later. But we definitely need a bigger SAU representation next year.

[inark]

nice pics.... id love to go in it next time.... but id be too scared to enter inase i killed the engine or something on the car.

[doxximus]

so did golgo have to go through an emergancy sticker procedure?

i thope they show that race against the porka as well would be fun to watch

and where the hell did you and gerald get those jackets?!

[Snowman]

Yeah Golgo got some quick sticker transplant. Mainly the big number - couldnt be assed with the 320 others that we had to put on the car.

Jackets and vests are all part of the package you get as a competitor. The stuff we get given, the meals, and everything is all first class. But you can't really expect anything less from an event run by the Porsche Club.

[doxximus]

so....next year....say i were to sign up to race...pay what ever ammounts needed, and....well decided not to race...could i punch someone in the groin, get my money back and make away with the jacket? even fit a lunch or 2 in there?

thats good how they look after competitors like that

btw, what tein's do you have?

[Interloper]

how much did it cost to enter?, i heard the dutton rally in NSW cost about $1600 each or $2100 inc co-driver. That was inc meals but not accomodation.

I might be entering with a mate in his GTiR next year- Were there any GTiR pulsars entered this year?

oh, and can we have some more pics please

[Horus]

Good to hear you had fun but shame about the car but as Leewah said what would racing be if somthing didn't break!

 

I also spotted the Nobel M12GTO on Church Street last night at about 7:00pm. That was an interesting little rocket!

the BOV's in that car sound like darth vader breathing

[Snowman]

Dox - running Tein HA's. Quite good but for this kinda of stuff there is better ones to be had.

Interloper - you are spot on with the costs to enter. It did include meals as you said but didnt include accommodation or alcohol (except for some wine each night and some beers on the first night and the end). Realistically to enter ALL Up is about $5-6K - this includes entry, accom, new sticky tyres, brakes and general car preparation stuff. Its made a lot easier if there is 2 of you to split the costs and even easier again if you have some sponsorship $$$.

There were no GTiR's but they would be a great car for this event.

James has all the pictures - hopefully he'll post some more up. He took 300 photo's!

[Interloper]

Dox - running Tein HA's. Quite good but for this kinda of stuff there is better ones to be had.

Interloper - you are spot on with the costs to enter. It did include meals as you said but didnt include accommodation or alcohol (except for some wine each night and some beers on the first night and the end). Realistically to enter ALL Up is about $5-6K - this includes entry, accom, new sticky tyres, brakes and general car preparation stuff. Its made a lot easier if there is 2 of you to split the costs and even easier again if you have some sponsorship $$$.

There were no GTiR's but they would be a great car for this event.

James has all the pictures - hopefully he'll post some more up. He took 300 photo's!

ok cool, thanks for that Snowman. I hadn't really counted the costs of semislicks but i guess they would add significantly to the total costs.

[doxximus]

ha's are they similar to my flex, or are they my flex? lol yeah i feel they are fine

so, cant wait for the vid now

[Jamezilla]

A truly fantastic weekend. Best I've had for a long while

I just want to add something Snowy left out - because he's so darn shy and modest...

We should all be very proud of the boys - they put on a great show and made a fantastic effort for their first ever event of this type.

Countless people over the weekend came up and asked what events they had done prior - and were genuinely amazed at the lack of experience compared to the results the car achieved. Glenny, Gainsmith and Beable were all teriffic and supportive of the guys - espescially since Snowy beat them all (and even Steven 'it pays to be a V8 supercar driver' Richards) in one event!

GT3's, GT RS's, M3's and the Noble all look great at full noise - but nothing beats the presence of the Blue R34 on the track. The car looked and sounded fantastic and was an absolute rocket - a real crowd pleaser. In case you needed confirmation - bronze wheels are the toughest!

Like I said - I had a ball freeloading at Porsche's expense for 3-days - but big cheers to Snowy and G for showing these guys a thing or two. Very much looking forward to next year where I'll be having a go as well

J

[Jamezilla]

Now for some more photos:

Professional raceing drivers preparing for the next day's events:

Even drunk freaky derros in Shep love the R34!

This guy said to Gerald "lend me the car for 3hrs and I'll get you laid for a month"

The 'GTR Support Vehicle' thing started as a joke... how wrong I was:

Being interviewed for the TV special - this coming Sunday at 4pm:

[Jamezilla]

Warren 'my GTR is not stock' Gainsmith:

The changing of the guard. Golgo gets more stickers.

Yes. Yes it does.

Noble - very cool, but $250k