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Round 1 Wakefield Park
March 2001
If you catch the Porsche Cup on TV in the next couple of weeks, look for the black 928GT towards the back. The plan was to be with the
front-runners. But motor racing is about infinite variables - as follows.
Round 1 at Wakefield Park was always meant to be a shakedown. The 928 has not raced for six months. The cause? A major
mechanical failure at Winton, Victoria last year (to be outlined in a future article).
Friday: Practice
day - First Run.
Warren (the mechanic) and I planned to set-up for the circuit. Traffic and red flags ruined that plan! The
best we managed was to set tyre pressures!
Second Run.
Magic in a straight line and under brakes into turn one!
For the record - I found I could brake later by hitting the Apex of the kink at the end of the main straight. Warren however,
suggested staying wide so that the car was as straight as possible for Turn l. Any suggestions?
The 928GT cruised through the pack. This may have been a shakedown but the ‘landshark’ was just two seconds off the leaders.
Second last lap - ran wide in the back straight - lost steering - pulled onto the grass - back to the pits on the back of a truck, driver’s
side wheel going the wrong way. The steering arm had snapped! Frantic calls everywhere for a new arm. None. By 7pm we had run out of options. Pack up and go home - or take a chance and
try welding the pieces back together.
With nothing left to lose and not knowing whether the different metals would weld, we put the pieces in our support car, drove
back to the garage at Eastern Creek and set up the welding gear. 11pm: Success!! Into the car, back to Goulburn, collapse for too few hours.
Saturday:
Cuppa tea, out to Wakefield Park yet again - Warren with the steering arm, me to the Drivers’ Briefing.
Qualifying 1:
A couple of clear laps. Car still not showing its best (1.07’s). Towards the end of the session, coming down
the hill I felt the steering go again. Hardly surprising - the crankshaft pulley had come loose and thrown the alternator belt and the
power steering belt. By this time the truck driver was greeting me like an old friend. Grrrrr!
How often have you thought it couldn’t get any worse - and then it did? That sums it up really!
Everyone else gets ready for the second session. Warren and I drive to Canberra to pick up a new crankshaft bolt. At least we also
found a press there to try to straighten the pulley, courtesy of Gulsons.
We missed Qualifying 2. But
everything went back together with Loctite and we were done by 9pm. Should the beast go out on the track again with the pulley not entirely straight?
Executive decision time. Skip warm-up practice on Sunday and go straight into Race One.
Sunday:
8.30am. Last car check - a fracture had developed in the right front disc rotor.
Could we risk racing now? Everyone had an opinion! But the dramas we had gone through and the efforts we had made to get this
far decided us. Warren’s strict instructions: Don’t use the brakes hard.
If I could feel vibrations through the pedal I was to stop immediately.
We couldn’t do well but maybe we could finish the race.
The marshall signals 5 seconds.
The lights go Red and revs rise.
Lights out.
I’m wedged in with a GT3 in front and no track either side.
First turn:
If the brakes seize I’ll go into everyone. They don’t. 928 is through but the field is still too packed going up the hill and its too difficult to follow a racing line and brake late.
End of the second lap:
I now know its possible to manage without brakes in all but three places ... the end of the main straight
... back down the hill to the spoon curve and braking for the hairpin before the main straight.
Everywhere else a dab of the brakes and sliding the car would have to do to wash off excess speed. This is defensive driving but the
drivers behind me aren’t passing.
A couple of clean laps and a break is made. The car naturally understeers and this became more of a problem as I slid through
the corners rather than use the brakes like everyone else. By the last lap they were closing in fast and time to try something different. I tried getting onto the power a bit earlier. I had a
‘lose’ at the bottom of the hill at the spoon curve and a cloud of dust engulfed the action. But at least everything was still holding together.
As I crossed the finish line there was a loss of steering. In the rear view mirror a power steering belt was bowling along the main straight, chasing the car at serious speed. It was mine
- and it was catching up fast! The pulley had let go again!
To cap it off one spectator later ‘consoled’ me with
'Its not whether you win or lose - its that all the car’s parts cross the line - attached
or not'.
Thanks to everyone I spoke to regarding parts that weekend! I quickly met many 928 enthusiasts.
With a bit of luck and a lot of sweat, the new parts will arrive from Germany (and Canberra) in time for Round Two.
- Tarek Bisher, '90 Porsche 928 GT No. 56
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