Triathlon, Foremans Corner, January 2004

TCS Racing is sponsored by :
ALTO

Results for the autocross can be seen here.
Results for the motorkhana can be seen here.
Results for the hillclimb can be seen here.
Results for the triathlon can be seen here.
Photos from the weekend can be seen here.

This event was held at a farm just north of Whangarei, owned by George Foreman, hence the name. Thanks to George for providing this excellent venue.

Troy and Trevor left early on the Saturday morning and arrived about 9:30am. They had a-framed Jeff Torkingtons Honda Civic to the event (used by Jeff's Kids) while Jeff had towed SO863 up the day before.

The first day's event was a motorkhana held in a grass paddock, there were four circuits and each competitor got two runs of each. The new close-ration gearbox installed in SO863 also has a good quality LSD which made the MR2 much more suitable for the motorkhana, allowing it to be driven around corners on power. Even so, a few handbrake turns were attempted by Troy with varying levels of success - but mostly good ones (once he remembered to push in the clutch because the vehicle was rear wheel drive !).

Unfortunately on Jeff's first run on the last test the inner CV joint on the right rear axles collapsed when the bolts came out. Apparently the bolts had been working their way loose for some time and no one had noticed. Troy borrowed Chris Subritzky's Nissan Sentra (Thanks Chris !) so he got one run of the last circuit. Unfoturnately his time was destroyed when on the second to last turn he popped the front right-hand tyre off the car. The was a good effort on his part considering the tyre had 32psi in it at the time ! Chris had a spare, and we believe he was able to get the tyre reinflated using George's air compressor. There didn't appear to be any damage to the tyre or rim. Sorry Chris.

Jeff borrowed Don Rubie's Ford Escort, (thanks Don !) but unfortunately still failed to acheive a decent time as he went the wrong way on both runs.

That Saturday night Jeff and Troy drove back to Auckland to pickup spares from Troy's place and from Ade & Steve (of the MR2 Owners Club). The Sunday morning saw Jeff & Trevor attempting to repair the CV joint, with some assistance from Troy. Luckily the repairs were successful, although too late for Jeff and Troy to go out on the practivce run. As consequence both drivers first timed run was effectively their practice and they were one run down on everyone else for the rest of the day.

Troy showed a good improvement, getting down from an initial 1:48 ish to a 1:36 ish time, which placed him 15th out of 20 for the hillclimb. The course used was slightly different to the previous year. Where the old finish point was a set of cones were installed, which the drivers were required to 360 around and then drive back the way they had come, finishing back a the top of the hill just in front of the jouse, and having driven through the cutting only on the way down.

The good news is, Troy didn't damage the car at all (unlike last year). The bad news is that in addition to the CV joint collapsing, Jeff also lost the sump guard during one of his hillclimb runs. This was refitted so Troy and Jeff were both able to continue racing, but the bolt on the right hand side that holds the sump guard in is now cross threaded and needs repairing. The CV joint also needs replacing despite the repair, so we will probably end up replacing the short axle entirely. Jeff also punctured the right rear tyre, and although we had a replacement we were short of wheel nuts that fit it. We were loaned some by Jeff Harlick (thanks Jeff) and got back underway.

There weren't too many offs during the day, and most were damage free except for one incident involving Dean Boston in Dale Crossley's Chevron. While the damage is repairable, and Dean did seem somewhat humbled by the experience, perhaps the less said about the whole affair the better. Ben Bodley also took out a fence post and did some very minor damage to one wheel arch in his Mazda 323, and then Ben's father Peter did some more considerable damage to the passenger side.

The autocross was an excellent event, a figure eight circuit held in the same paddock as the motorkhana. Unfotunately it was very dusty which made visibility poor at times, but a good time was had by all. Troy started out badly getting lost in the dust and going the wrong way but improved on his next two runs. He was only about 1 second a lap slower than Jeff and was a fairway up the field in the results. Troy received several compliments on his driving after his second lap in the autocross. Several cars had problems with popping tires in this event, especially Harold Bennett who sadly didn't manage to complete a full run without at least one tire coming off the rim. Troy managed to place 10 equal overall, out of more than 20 cars so this was a good result.

The weather was extremly hot, and very dry except for a few sunshowers on the Saturday. Organisation of the event was not too bad, although there were some issues on Sunday morning which lead to a late start, but everyone (except Jeff & Troy) managed to get four timed runs in.

Thanks to the HCMC and George Foreman & Family for helping make this event possible. Also thanks to all the volunteers for each event, espcially Brett Atkinson, Sam Stubbs, Timothy Willmot and Dale Crossley.

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