Phillip Island 6 hour

[watty]

Hi,


It's saturday night, the beer is flowing and it is time for an update on the Phillip Island 6 hour.

We have running:

Tony Moore
Nicole Moore
Karina Griffiths
Fiona White
John Ernst
Aaron Watt

We have found so far it is quite hard to hit the circuit with cars passing you at 250+ km/h!!

Considering what we are running I think we are doing quite well. We have 2 cars running formula ford tyres, one on potenza circuit tyres and 2 on good road tyres.

We are not the slowest cars on the track which is great and the excel's are certainly copping the flogging they deserve!


So far the quickest lap times we have posted are:

Tony Moore 2.14.805 (circuit tyres)
Aaron Watt 2.24.465 (road tyres)
John Ernst 2.25.849 (circuit tyres)
Nicole Moore 2.26.137 (circuit tyres)
Fiona White 2.37.099 (circuit tyres)
Karina Griffiths 2.40.624 (road tyres)

It is great to see the lack of action in the excel garage. Whilst everyone has cars on stands, replacing brakes, and everything else you can think of, the excel guys (and girls) are standing around drinking coffee telling stories and waiting for the next run.

Also good to see a few queenslanders here for the event. I am sure we will hear from latho soon!!

More updates and photos to come post event!!!!!!!

Aaron

P.S
Rachel is a terrible alcoholic!

[luke_how]

Hey sounds great guys congratulations!!!
Would it be possible to run a 2.0 hyundai coupe engine in an excel in this event? I heard the conversion isn't that hard?

[watty]

6th outright!

Bloody great effort from everyone to finish 6th in a 50 car field!

Off to bed now after a hard weekend.

[superwoman]

Astonishing really!!!
I did the times just then, and looks like we were a solid 6th too..........a few bonus laps, a few penalties and a few lost laps, but even without the lost and penalties, we were defintitely 6th!!
Here are a few happy snaps from the two days.........
One of the horses in their stables , ready to have their 'rest for the night', and one of the garage from behind- we were a VERY well put together team!!

Thank you to the team for all of your support and encouragement during the two days.........it was petrifying and exhilarating at the same time, and I learnt so much..........and my car survived it's first little event............very proud, very very very proud...........
http://gi71.photobucket.com/groups/i130/6GTDGKQF09/P8300118.jpg
http://gi71.photobucket.com/groups/i130/6GTDGKQF09/P8300159.jpg

[Dave Scott]

You've got to be kidding !!!!

6th..... Fantastic job everyone.

There is the Qld 500 (no not the V8's) up here, I assume it is the same type of thing.

It was cancelled at QR and I think they are running it at Lakeside soon. Has anyone thought about doing it up here.

Dave

[ernysp76]

Hey sounds great guys congratulations!!!
Would it be possible to run a 2.0 hyundai coupe engine in an excel in this event? I heard the conversion isn't that hard?

Luke by the looks of the other cars you could do what you liked, but how much faster do you need to go.. we were nudging 200kph at the end of the straight.. and the rally set up rolled a lot around the corners given, consitancy was what it was all about this was a great first effort.

It was great to out brake many of the more tack specialised cars.


Sitting on the Grid at the start on the Phillip Island Straight was a once in a life time experince, got to thank Tony Moore for making it possible and Mick for his fantastic support to all of us. To the rest of the team thanks for a brilliant W/E, Bronni for loaning her house and our mates from Qld for being part of the fan club... Col for being there for support the whole way.

Was a real team effort which didn't go un-noticed by many jealous other teams. Stuff just got done and we all put in, it was kind of sad that it all seemed to finish to fast...:grouphug:

Oh and lets not forget Hyundai for building such a great car, it is no exageration to suggest that we were the only team out there of the 50 teams to not have a single breakage!!! We were literally surrounded by all forms of mechanical catastrophes...

[rexxus]

That's a brilliant result and a testament to the car, drivers and the whole team.

Bloody well done :clap::clap::clap:

[johnd]

Congratulations!! Great result!
And good to see a 50 /50 split girls / boys!!!
:hoot:

[HMCA]

Guys

Could someone pen something together and some pics that I can pass onto Marketing.

Oh by the way great effort:clap:

[Whitey]

Excels rock ...
WELL DONE GUYS (and GIRLS):clap::clap::clap:

[Col Vic]

A big effort by all involved.

It's not a race, but a regularity which needs consistent lap times and the winners were a team that has done many of these events and knows the "tricks".

Our guys and girls went in cold and just went around and around, sticking to their lap times in all the conditions, wet, dry, hail, sunshine you name it. The Excels just kept on going, being reliable and consistent while everyone else was running off the road and breaking cars. The Excel team was consistently running around 4th most of the day, I think they got up to 3rd at one stage and finally finished 6th including staying ahead of the Porsche team (who wrote the book on loopholes and tricks!) for about 5 and a half hours.

3 guys, 3 girls none of whom had and racing experience before, in fact it was Karina's first ever competitive drive.

The team was put together and managed by Tony Moore as well as his driving duties, well done Tony.

Everyone had a great time and I'm sure will all be wanting to go back for more next year.

Well done everyone, we are proud of you.

Thanks go to Mick who arranged a bit of "behind the scenes" help as well.


We should also acknowledge Peter Morrison and Sue Wasson who were in their Excel in the next garage with the Pakenham Auto Club team. Like our team, they also just drove reliably around and around all day, which unfortunately for them, the rest of the PAC team weren't able to do.

Col

[DaveTrees]

.... and of course one member of the team (who shall remain nameless) just couldn't resist playing rally driver and managed to finish the event with the car covered in mud :rofl:

Jan took a heap of pics of the cars & around the pits ... will forward them on via Aaron in next day or so.

[Mooa42]

W O W ! ! ! What a weekend!

So many thank yous to pass on.

Firstly to Michael Loxton (Mick who is Fiona's Nav) for keeping me sane and in check, as well as bringing a full workshop of tools and experience to look after a full team of Excels.

To Mel for braving the wicked winds and rain on the pit wall all weekend, (and somehow still smiling)

To all the team for running consistently all weekend and enjoying yourselves! To Bronni for letting us all invade her families fantastic holiday home, ( I wish we had more time to enjoy it; right on the beach too!)

To Col for his smiley face and constant encouragement.

To Hyundai for providing their tent, (and building such reliable cars!) and Greg Moulden for providing us with some Formula Ford tyres to keep us stuck on the track, (well most of us :-)


For those that don't know, we had a team of 6 drivers, 3 males, 3 females and 5 Victorian Rally Drive, Hyundai Excel Series rally cars. Our previous track experience consisted of 2 drivers with limited experience, 1 with some hill climb experience, 1 with drag racing experience, 1 with only rally experience and 1 who made their motorsport debut at the event! So hardly a threat you would think!

http://www.compellingeconomics.com.au/pics/pi6hr_garage_john.jpg

With out going into the finer points of the scoring system, (would only be of interest to people with a PHD in mathematics) the aim is to nominate a lap time for each driver and the team who runs the closest and most consistently to those times comes away with the cup. Our strategy (don't tell anyone) was to take everyone’s fastest time on the Saturday and then nominate a time couple of seconds faster so that we could all go out there on the Sunday and just go as fast as we could, and we did, and it seemed to work! The event officials updated everyone with positions during the day and the lowest we were during the day was 10th and the highest 3rd.

The officials and organisation of the event was astounding. There was 50 teams, each of having at least four cars but most had 6. Vehicles ranged from a Renault Alpine, (Col's favorite and 1 of only 4 in the world) to Excels, Gemini’s, Porsche’s etc etc.

Pic of about a quarter of the paddock.
http://www.compellingeconomics.com.au/pics/pi6hr_paddock.jpg


Some police to keep us in check
http://www.compellingeconomics.com.au/pics/pi6hr_mustang.jpg

To the team, I really can't thank you all enough for the weekend and I hope you all had as much fun as I did. For a bunch of people who are used to using side mirrors as navigation aids to let us know how close to a tree is, I think we all did extremely well to dodge some blindingly fast cars approaching at possibly 120kmh faster than us. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

My car at the end of the event.
http://www.compellingeconomics.com.au/pics/pi6hr_muddy.jpg
It hasn't been this dirty after a rally! Details to come :-)

HMCA Mick, I'll draft something tonight and get it to you .

[paulie]

Outstanding!
woot!
:eek:

I think that sums it up.

Paulie

[Rallymel85]

Hey all.
Congrats again on your effort on the weekend.
I Know it was a bit nail biting at the end trying to find Tony in his Mud Excel but you got there.
No one broke anything, we didnt have to do a gearbox change or anything, you all got to chill and support your team-mates.
FANTASTIC EFFORT!!!!!!!

I'll put pics up somewhere soon.

[Wassa]

Thanks Col for recognising the 'other' Excel that kept the Excel Team on their toes :potstir:.

It was a great weekend, with Phillip Island providing a full bag of weather conditions. From blazing sunshine to pelting rain :wtf: the mighty Excels just kept on going.
Below are the times from Sunday's Session

Team PAC (the other Excel)
43B Peter Morrison
2:42.2717 2:29.2584 2:22.4098 2:24.6349 2:23.8110 2:26.3398 2:27.2502 2:25.7874 2:21.7378 2:17.7537
2:17.3137 *:**.****p
2:32.9672 2:21.3509 2:20.3407 2:22.6244 2:21.7733 2:42.6824 5:15.2384 4:56.7156 4:27.3589

43F Susan Wasson
2:42.7732 2:30.3973 2:28.9324 2:29.7417 2:29.8711 2:32.0069 2:50.0943 2:43.0730 2:43.0013 2:47.4363
*:**.****p
3:01.0507 2:53.6865 2:49.5766 4:56.6476 3:46.8889 2:54.4540 2:48.6174 2:48.9803 4:12.5355

Excel Team
44A Tony Moore
2:28.6263 2:19.5819 2:17.4324 2:22.9434 2:18.6962 2:20.4144 2:20.0062 2:13.9097 2:14.8750 2:16.7759
2:14.1657 2:15.7722 *:**.****p
2:50.7923 2:34.1248 2:32.7154 2:36.7142

44B Nikki Moore
2:39.4097 2:38.9335 2:45.4059 *:**.****p
2:52.2081 2:37.6381 2:32.6968 2:27.6621 2:26.7548 2:29.5845 2:29.5032 2:27.0183 2:26.9402 2:25.3626 2:24.8924 2:24.9846 2:38.6623

44C Aaron Watt
2:33.1791 2:24.4455 2:27.7278 2:30.2274 2:30.3044 2:23.5317 2:22.9285 2:26.5150 2:21.4738 2:24.0331
2:24.9040 2:27.4474 2:25.0160 2:21.4768 *:**.****p2:46.9495 2:41.6845 2:35.9785 2:37.9356 2:49.2404
3:02.6269 2:37.3393 2:43.9576 2:36.0001 2:33.5404 2:38.3998


44D Karina Griffiths
2:57.1028 2:47.6048 2:50.7724 2:46.7345 2:49.4830 2:44.4321 2:46.4281 2:44.5989 2:46.5126 2:44.6816
*:**.****p
3:33.2647 4:57.6446 3:53.9318 3:48.9340 3:06.5490 3:19.7149 3:04.8268

44E John Ernst
2:36.9611 2:23.8451 2:25.4152 2:30.2600 5:56.5690 4:01.3641 2:30.4906 2:29.4878 2:32.4948 2:28.8645
*:**.****p
3:40.8608 3:26.7449 2:50.5519 2:46.7235 2:50.9730 4:01.3299

44F Fiona White
3:38.6614 4:24.0934 3:58.3382 2:57.4283 2:47.1653 2:49.2403 2:46.5245 2:41.8558 2:40.9370 2:42.1242
2:38.3891 2:39.9535 2:43.1325 *:**.****p
3:09.5527 2:58.4885 2:51.5798 2:51.0244 3:13.2733 *:**.****p
3:26.1737 2:55.0478 2:49.4140

(p means pitstop changeover, and long laptimes would be under Safety Car)

Well done to everyone and a big thanks to all that helped over the weekend :clap::clap:

[Wassa]

PS: forgot to mention that Team PAC came

8th overall.

:clap::clap::clap:

[Andrei]

Well done everyone, great effort :clap:

[Lucky67]

Top effort by all involved in the Vic crew.
I know what an effort like that is. A 6 hour race requires about 3 days at the track from dawn to dusk !!
I have been Team Manager for a Team of (ssshhhh) Volvo's in the AROCA 6 Hour Relay up here at Eastern Creek a few times.
The best we did was a 5th on Handicap.
AROCA use a similar system of nominated laps times, and yep it does get a bit complicated.
The Outright result was never in the realm of possibility for us as it was scored on the max possible laps in the 6 hours. And Clubbies and Sports Sedans on slicks running up to 20 secs a lap faster than us clock up A LOT more laps then we could do in 6 hours !!
So well done :clap:

[watty]

What can I say, it was a great weekend. Having rocked up with no expectations and walking away with 6th was bloody brilliant!


I had a great day on sunday and especially liked driving on the wet track. I found myself overtaking Porche's, Datsun's, Jag's and many others through the corners, although they did round me up on the straights.

Considering the cars we were running I think the lap times were great, especially Tony running 2.13's.

I think I was the cause of the penalty laps as I run a couple of seconds quicker than my nominated time on a couple of laps which was a bad thing but at the same time great.

I think a massive thanks goes out to Tony for keeping us all very organised, Mick for also keeping us very organised, Melissa for stepping in and helping us out, Jan for getting some great photos, and everyone else that popped in during the day.

I have footage from my stint in the wet which I will put up on youtube a bit later on.

But in the mean time, here a few pics. There will be more to come.

http://img50.imageshack.us/img50/2965/img0093ng6.jpg
This is me chasing the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I never did find it.

http://img114.imageshack.us/img114/8395/img0090vy4.jpg
The batton change

http://img114.imageshack.us/img114/2695/img0010dc0.jpg
The cars hanging out in the garage waiting to be repaired. We never did do it, we went and had coffee instead.

[Mooa42]

Here you go.

Click here (http://www.compellingeconomics.com.au/pics/spin_0001.wmv)

I thought it was a minor slide, so I kept the boot in and a little bit of oppisite lock, and then it decided to let go big time!

The hand was on the way to the gear stick to grab first when I hit the last cars wheel ruts, hence the mad waving action.

I guess I was doing around 120, maybe a bit more, I was in fourth and hitting that corner a bit faster each lap to find the limit, I guess I missed it :)

[watty]

Here you go.

Click here (http://www.compellingeconomics.com.au/pics/spin_0001.wmv)

I thought it was a minor slide, so I kept the boot in and a little bit of oppisite lock, and then it decided to let go big time!

The hand was on the way to the gear stick to grab first when I hit the last cars wheel ruts, hence the mad waving action.

I guess I was doing around 120, maybe a bit more, I was in fourth and hitting that corner a bit faster each lap to find the limit, I guess I missed it :)


That was gold!

I like the fact that you hadn't even finished the spin and you were trying to get back onto the track. If only it was dry you would have been straight back on.

[watty]

More photo's....

http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/8108/img0122cu9.jpg
The only time a car was jacked up. Putting some tyres on more suited to the we track.

http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/3328/img0139gg7.jpg
You certainly wouldn't see a circuit racer smiling this much after getting his car that filthy

http://img115.imageshack.us/img115/6086/img0148yp3.jpg
All finished and nearly ready to go home!

[Rallymel85]

Great Footage!!
Love the crazy hands Tony :P

Oh and some pics for you all...

http://rallymel85.deviantart.com/art/Karina-s-Goin-FAST-96683484
Karina flying in the Rally Kat

http://rallymel85.deviantart.com/art/Excel-Rally-96683021
Sooo Much mud!

http://rallymel85.deviantart.com/art/Excel-Rally-Kat-96683313
Karina getting Ready to roll

http://rallymel85.deviantart.com/art/What-are-you-saying-Tony-96683863
What ARE you saying Tony???

[Rallymel85]

Have a funny feeling this didnt work.
Sooooooo go to http://rallymel85.deviantart.com/

[ernysp76]

Footnote, as some at the 6 hour were aware I had lost my Log Book, CAMS Licence and Car Permit papers at the Document check before the event. It appears some nice person found all my stuff put it in a envelope and when I got home from work last night it arrived in the post with an annonomous note saying "I thought you might need these". Got to love motorsport people:clap:

[haggers]

Here you go.

Click here (http://www.compellingeconomics.com.au/pics/spin_0001.wmv)

I thought it was a minor slide, so I kept the boot in and a little bit of oppisite lock, and then it decided to let go big time!

The hand was on the way to the gear stick to grab first when I hit the last cars wheel ruts, hence the mad waving action.

I guess I was doing around 120, maybe a bit more, I was in fourth and hitting that corner a bit faster each lap to find the limit, I guess I missed it :)


car sounded a bit sick - did you get it going? I expected to see a continuous Gardemeister recovery.....:)

Haggers

[bloric]

Do you realise that PAC finished 8th, just behind you, and we didn't go bush bashing.

[Mooa42]

car sounded a bit sick - did you get it going? I expected to see a continuous Gardemeister recovery.....:)

Haggers

I was hoping for a continuous Gardemeister recovery but it was sooo muddy. I did manage to get it back into first while I was spinning and had mild acceleration but it got beached in the wheel tracks of the car that spun 2 laps earlier. Some of the noise you can hear before the spin is the rear tyres rubbing on the guard but most of the awful noise is just vibrations of the camera mount I think.

Do you realise that PAC finished 8th, just behind you, and we didn't go bush bashing.

Sue posted it up earlier, nice work too! :clap: I think half our team are PAC members, maybe next year we should have an Excel PAC team as well? We did try and get Peter and Sue in our team but there just wasn't the room. I reckon next year we could probably get 3 teams of 4 cars provided it doesn't fall on a rally weekend.

[HMCA]

and circulated throughout the Hyundai Family

[haggers]

and circulated throughout the Hyundai Family

Good press release Mick. Impressive performance by the guys and girls. Haggers

[Dazz70]

Well done guys and girls, 6th outright, is there nothing the mighty little excels can't achieve :clap:

Dazz

[Mooa42]

Photos are finally up!

The team:
http://www.6hourrelay.com.au/TEAMPHOTOSCOURTESYOFZOOMPIX/ateam44a.jpg

Rallycat overtaking a mini
http://www.6hourrelay.com.au/PHOTOSFROM2008EVENTCOURTESYOFGREASEMONKEYCONCEPTSP TYLTD/imgl0061.jpg

http://www.6hourrelay.com.au/PHOTOSFROM2008EVENTCOURTESYOFGREASEMONKEYCONCEPTSP TYLTD/imgl0062.jpg

http://www.6hourrelay.com.au/PHOTOSFROM2008EVENTCOURTESYOFGREASEMONKEYCONCEPTSP TYLTD/imgl0063.jpg

[BudgetRallyTeam]

wow, what a variety of cars!

great pics, and well done on the result guys - fantastic effort! :clap: