QLD Nissan/Datsun Nationals, Warwick

Armidale has been set up for ZedFest 2010 (Zedfest is an event for this forum only). Z Nationals for 2011 is somewhere in NSW, yet to be confirmed.

 

2011 nationals

Are at Wakefield Park Goulburn,
The 2010 Zedfest is at Armidale.

 

next year is Armidale Renee - book now

 

More Pics

Chili, getting glass splinters

Devious Easter Bunny

Awesome BBQ at the show and shine

My best lap of the day

Etaf tempting fate

What the weekend is all about

 

2010 - Zedfest - Armidale, NSW

2011 - Nationals - Goulburn, NSW

Oops, there's an echo starting to happen.

 

That's a quick lap around Philip Island Ron.

 

Locked it up

Be an engine out to see what the cause was.
fortunate that he brought it up on the trailer.

 

Waiting

For someone to pick up on that Dino, couldn't be bothered reprogramming it.

 

What a great weekend, despite everything! I think I walked under a ladder to avoid a black cat, knocked the ladder into a mirror and smashed it ......

Picked Jack up on Wednesday afternoon; the drive up was good, a first run for the trailer, but the Z probably needs to be positioned a few inches further back for better balance. The Falcon was a bit tail heavy, see sig pic. The Falcon fuel computer tells me I averaged 16 litres/100km, gotta verify that with my own calcs later. Tows OK at a constant 110km, the speed alarm was set at 120 and we heard that a few times. So that side of things went well, thumbs up.

Arrived in Warwick early Friday afternoon and drove straight to the circuit, got in a few sighting laps. Then off to scrutineering - all OK, but where's my driver's licence??? No licence = no race!!! Lost it on the way up, insert must have fallen out of wallet! Off to police station, get a stat dec signed etc etc, have to hope for the best.

Friday night, great food and time was had at KaosZ party central - big thanks to Craig and Kristy for all that they did for this event. Black Baz wouldn't let me have a turn in the Easter Bunny suit, bring on the pics !!!

Saturday morning, up and out to the show and shine with RZ2. A good representation from the Z32 community, a shame that a couple of cars weren't rewarded with trophies. Not a single show and shine trophy for any Z32s ... but it appears the organisers for Wakefield 2011 will have a separate class for the Z32 if the handover introduction at the dinner is correct. While there, got the licence saga sorted out, I was back in!

Saturday afternoon, back out to Morgan Park for the drags - 1/8th mile, at a separate facility close to the circuit. Unfortunately, rain, rain, rain was all that happened, and the drags were postponed to Sunday. This would pose a challenge for those people doing circuit as well.

Saturday night was a great dinner the Vic Zedders; great food at the Coachman's. Lots of yapping and quizzing Blipman about Japan and his current activities. The rain continued .....

Sunday dawned, it wasn't raining! Off to the circuit, it was relatively dry, with 1 big puddle that stayed on the last corner all day. A fairly tight track, with only 1 short straight to speak of, the lighter 240's and 1600's would have a ball. Gonna be hard work for the heavy Z32's around here. We had about 6 Zeds grouped together, which was good for us, hopefully for the spectators too. Unfortunately Aza, Peter Black, and another red one were in separate groups, possibly due to capacity (no 1.7 turbo factor)

I had a ball in all my sessions, although I don't know what my times were in the last session - I hope they were my best ... they had better be! I learned that I need to look at all my front suspension bushes, big time shudder under brakes with new rotors, pads, lines, fluid and rebuilt calipers. I also need to check out my The Bilsteins didn't get to go in, so I ran on stock suspension sitting fairly high, plenty of body roll. I also need some PCV rework as the motor was choofing out gobs of oil smoke on the right hand turns - I'm sure some pictorial evidence of this will turn up. Times improved significantly in session 2 before slowing down for someone elses yellow in session 3, but still faster than session 1.

After session 3 I zipped straight over to the drag strip, where it started spitting, and racing was stopped. The circuits kept going, so a nervous wait ensued. I didn't want to miss a track session. The track reopened just in time, and I had 3 side by side runs with Doug (red32), both representing Victoria. Unfortunately, they 1) lost my times, or 2) didn't record them ........ bugger!

Got back to the circuit just in time for the next session. Was going well until the last corner of the last lap - Chili says he heard a knocking, I heard something on the straight, and backed off. Continued around under light or no throttle on the cool down lap, but the noises got worse. Knocked the car into neutral, and the motor stopped instantly, with no chance of it re-starting. Suffered the embarrasment of being towed back to the pits, when a lot of the guys chimed in to try and find the cause. The crank wouldn't turn, but there was no other evidence of failure - the best bet at the moment seems to be a spun bearing causing seizure. Why? Don't and won't know till later. Turns out it was a good decision to buy the car trailer!

Thanks to Wykked, Wizard, Anthony, Ian, Jack, Gary, Ben, Rob and any others I've missed for their input and assistance in the pits and helping push her back on the trailer.

I copped some burns from hot engine parts which blistered up nicely. Went to a doc here in the Gold Coast, and my Medicare card is somewhere on the road with my driver's licence ... so no bulk billing for me . All looks OK, needed a tetanus shot though.

At the award presentation dinner, we did fairly well. Especially well done to Dino, picking up first in class on his first time out! Also well done to Ports, Caz, Peter Black, Nick, JP and Doug for their trophies, and one of my runs gave me a 3rd in class! I think I got more pics than most shown at the dinner, there was one section with about 15 photos which went: RZ2 parked on track, RZ2 with tow ute (several), RZM lying dead on track next to RZ2 (actually I was hooking up the tow rope shackle), RZ2 being towed (many), close up of RZM steering dead RZ2, ..... still it could have been worse. For those at Phillip Island, remember the Datsun 1200 that rolled? Yep, it happened again! This time with Karen's hubby Sean at the wheel. He's OK, the car isn't. I hope they call it quits at 1 all! Also at the awards night, Mark Berry in that awesome looking R34 did get the trophy for fastest on the day. Unforunately he was in the group behind me - I never got to see him or his teammate in the R35 in action. Damn.

So, all in all, a great time with an unfortunate ending. Armidale is likely to be a no-go for me, but at Wakefield in 2011 - I'll be back!!! Now somebody bring on more track pics - please!

For now, it's a day or so on the GC, with me occupying the Coke Corner at Black Baz's Chardy Shack extravaganza tonight. Then we hit the road, with a Melbourne arrival sometime on Friday.

Cheers to all Zedders I've re-acquainted with, and those I met for the first time, catch you all later, Mikey.

 

Great write up Mikey. Shame about the engine failure

If you are coming to Chardy Shack then you can get more track pics there

Only $5.00 for 375 RAWberry flavoured action packed Hi-Res photos with REAL LIGHTENING!

 

test pic.........
<a href="http://s301.photobucket.com/albums/nn68/mareehood/warwick%20weekend%20-%20easter%202009/?action=view&current=P4121899.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn68/mareehood/warwick%20weekend%20-%20easter%202009/P4121899.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

 

damn it...........pics up later when i can work this stupid thing out..........facebook pics are up though for all friends

 

will upload the pics from my camera tonight when i get home

some pics from stef's camera of the two verts

my ass




red and blue...nice contrast






old vs new....











this was right after the cruise, so the vert is a lil dirty

 

PhotoBucket should give you some 'forum code' to show them in this forum.

 

Maree, it's the

 

Here ya go Maree:

 

take 2.....

 

ok, thanks 571cky....here they are........

 

thanks buddy.......finally worked it out and have added the rest

 

ahah rick and andy you sexy beats