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Hampton Twilight Trackday (was Taupo Dual Sprints)


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Let's be honest, it was a bit of a shambles at times. I saw a little bit more of it being a spectator rather than a driver, who was out there doin' it. 

 

They had only run a half arsed practice by lunch time, which was more like a track day, where some cars seemed to just keep going back out. Sure I saw a couple of them do 2 or 3 runs, while everyone else just did a single run to set a time.

 

By 1pm they were finally getting into the runs, and it started running a little bit more smoothly. Except for a rogue lady in a turbo Capri, who cut across both lanes nearly taking out her competitor, then spun on the spot narrowly missing the wall. She had no idea what had happened, and all from her grid spot, before even crossing the start line. Then there was the Evo who got carried away and launched from third spot with the two first cars, and flew past them, before pulling over and slowing once he realised he did something wrong. Neither driver even got a warning.

 

There seemed to be quite a number of drivers leaving after only a run or two, and I heard a couple people spitting the dummy about how shambolic it all was.

 

Don't get me wrong, it was a cool little club day, and it turned out well for those who genuinely participated, but I think it's worth mentioning that it was an eventful afternoon.

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Interesting. The first one ran fairly smoothly. The main people running them changed recently , I think the first round was their first attempt at running the sprints?

 

The first few seasons I went to years ago (around 2008/9) were really well run, and they re-matched you each run, so you were always very closely matched. They also used to open the track up at the end of the day, so you could get a few extra runs in against your mates and so on, that was really neat. 

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Yeah I guess I missed most the shambles fixing some rim clearance issues.

Last one I still think they had most of the assistance from the old organisers. So it ran better and ran just as VG said above. This time from what I could see they were left pretty much to do it them selves. As I didn't see many of the old faces about till the shambles needed to be sorted out. Biggest problem was they tried a new way to do dummy grid and every one got confused as anything and didn't know when to line up. At the end of the day when half the field had gone or retired and you just lined up and went racing everything flowed well again. So yeah hopefully they get it sorted for next event.

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The big issue is that for Dual Sprints you are required to run the field fastest to slowest. Grids are supposed to be grouped together so that very fast cars and learner cars are not on the track at the same time. None of this was being done at all.

 

There was a couple of incidents with some of the novice's running being lapped by much much faster cars, and being that the were MSNZ representatives attending and competing they couldn't be seen to condone this organization.

 

I still had a good day, improved my PB and bet my previous PB twice carrying passengers, I only managed 3 Races before having to head home due to an alternator failure.

 

Thanks Brad for the escort home, we made it back to the workshop with out any sign of missfire which was good.

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Thanks Brad for the escort home, we made it back to the workshop with out any sign of missfire which was good.

I'm pretty amazed tbh. It must have a super efficient ignition. The last cars within failed alternators that I've seen haven't gone that long without an issue.

 

I could see the indicators were very dull, could barely tell they were on. Thought you might want to pull over and change the battery, but stoked that it got all the way home sweet. 

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