Manfeild track has some great straights to get your speed up – and some tricky corners. My favourite (because I’m a ghoul) is the first corner at the end of the straight where the cars start off from. Lots of cars spun out on that corner over the weekend – no driver was hurt, most being able to point their cars back into the correct direction and carry on. Made things nice and spicy for us spectators though!
Another furry corner was helpfully right in front of the stands – good views! The ‘off road entertainment’ I saw was the first race out on Sunday morning from the Suzuki Production Racing – and it was damp.
Recovering the Suzuki out of the gravel pit
In the photo, the rescue truck with its lights on is facing the right direction. The little Suzuki (William Bamber was driving – Earl’s wee brother) got caught on the edge of the track and spun, sliding parallel to the gravel pit (you see it as the grey area directly above the fence of ads). The gravel is quite deep, catching the wheels which stopped the car sliding. But the momentum of the car encouraged the body of it to keep going and so it rolled, quite sedately I thought.
William was fine – although if I was his mum I’m not sure I could watch. My fingernails would definately be bitten to the quick.
What these gravel pits are called?
Kitty litter 
Tyres – very important things! This weekend’s racing meet has been interesting in that we’ve had a variety of weather conditions – very wet on Saturday, slightly damp Sunday morning and dry in the afternoon, with the rain turning up YET AGAIN for a bit of fun.
Hmmm - what do you think, treads or slicks?
I was talking with one of the Porsche team mechanics about who dictates what tyres get used – slicks or the treaded ones. Under wet conditions track officials tell teams that treaded tyres must be used, dry – you can use the slicks. But under damp conditions it’s down to each individual team – so pressure is on to make the correct call, it can make or break a race.
Porsche tyres - slicks above, treaded below
Why are racing tyres for dry conditions smooth? I’ve been told basically there’s more ground contact (those wee grooves in the treaded tyres are essentially negative space), so more control. The drivers do a hotlap first, the rubber heats up and gets sticky – better traction.
For the wet, water needs to be taken away from the contact area in an organised fashion – by way of the tread grooves.
However – I was also told that treaded tyres are softer than slicks, and as you go around a damp track it will dry out where most of the cars are driving. The drying will cause the treaded tyres to heat up and get softer – not good for speed.
That’s my very basic take on it – if you can add to that (or correct it!) please feel free to comment.
The shape of all these cars is incredibly important – they’re designed to move as smoothly as possible through the air. Sticky out bits causes friction and can slow you down.
But if you are too aerodynamic and travelling at very high speeds this can get furry when you talk about handling and control – this lessens.
Adjusting the wings on a Toyota Racing Series car
The Toyota Racing Series have back wings (and sometimes wings off the nose cone) that can be adjusted. They help with the down force applied to the car. But its a very fine line to get it just right. Wings flat, mean you go very fast on the straights but not good for cornering, wings tilted create the opposite effect.
The aerodynamic control have to be tempered with the mechanical controls as well – steering, shocks amongst a miriad of other things.
I’m finding that its not just about pure mechanics – there’s the chemistry of the fuel mixes, the chemistry behind what some of these cars are partially made of (like carbon fibre).
But physics really sneaks in too. The Toyota Racing Series with their wings create havoc with the fluid air so if you follow too close behind one you loose some of your down force and therefore control. I was told it’s kind of like a plane hitting an airpocket.
Look mum - no wings! Formula Ford on the starter grid
But in the Formula Fords where the cars have no wings, there is benefit in following close because of slipstreams.
Sneaky science!
This area is where cars are randomly pulled in and checked out incredibly thoroughly. The rules and regulations are very strict so this is one way to make sure they’re adhered to.
No Police Officers to ask for your Drivers Licence though – some of the guys here wouldn’t have one anyway – the youngest driver I’ve heard of so far at this race meeting is 13…
Each of the car series have their own areas, so as you’re walking through it becomes Mini city or Suzukiville.
I checked out V8 alley mostly because I know that my bro would expect me to. So this blog is for you Patrick
V8 alley
There are 23 cars racing in this series, with two races today. In each of the tents a whole lot of mechanical work is constantly going on – I was enjoying body-under-car moments:
Body under car shot 1
Sorry Pat - they’re Fords
Legs under car
28 February 2009 – 9.14pm
The dummy grid is where the cars get organised by the grid marshalls before going out onto the starter grid for the race.
Dummy grid complete with the Grid Marshalls
It reminds me of when you take your car onto the Cook Strait ferry. You have to turn up at least an hour earlier so they can organise the cars in a grid formation at the wharf so they can confirm that they can fit you all on board the ship.
Dummy grid for the Porsche GT3 Cup
… but they make you bring your luggage on separately… like all your tyres:
All the tyres you might ever need
It’s when fans who are allowed in the area can get a closer (within reason) look at the cars, and the photographers can take some good pre-raceshots. The V8s were popular - TVNZ filmed the cars coming from the dummy grid.
The Marshalls organising the V8s
28 February 2009 – 7.14pm
I’ve been very lucky and been given a media pass (thank you Graham ) which allows me to get out into the pits and up very close by the track – very cool!
The pits seen from media room balcony
The pits are used by the Toyota Racing Series cars. All the other races (V8s, Porsches, Minis etc) come from their various areas, are sorted on the dummy grid before going out on the starter grid.
The pits seen from beside the track
I expected eveything to be very well organised – but I think I expected to see, well, dirty stuff like oil, grease and black smelly stuff like that. All beautifully neat and tidy!
28 February 2009 – 12.13pm
Unfortunately I’m no spring chicken and you’d think that I would be pretty knowledgeable about my likes and dislikes by now.
But I’ve surprised myself – I think I may be… *sigh*… a racing petrolhead groupie.
You see, I don’t even know the proper name to call myself!
It hit me as soon as I parked the car and turned off the engine.
The noise! That reverberating vrooming of the Toyota Racing Series cars – it rocked! I was so excited I instantly rang my mate Jane just so she could hear it too. So far I’ve resisted earplugs – maybe as the weekend goes on those amazing sounds may pall.
I don’t think so though As I’m typing this blog, I’m upstairs at the Media office and some cars have just gone out onto the track – I can see them now – they’re V8s, and the sounds as they go onto the track are vibrating through the building.
Maybe I should soup up my wee Nissan…
27 February 2009 – 11.01am
I’m off to Feilding this Saturday and to be honest am quite excited about it – why? you ask
Motoracing!
But I’ll back the car up a bit and explain why I’m going: part of my job is to be visitor advocate, mostly in the exhibitions we create, but also online product such as mini-sites, computer games, and blogs. We try to make sure that the storylines make sense, is there a different way to tell this story – should we do it by a label beside the object, or an image, or can we tell the story in an audio visual?
But to be a good advocate you have to have some understanding of your visitor. It’s pretty tricky trying to cater for absolutely everyone all at once – so sometimes you’ll find we put on exhibitions that you’ll be dying to go see and other times are quite happy to miss. Certain exhibitions for certain audiences.
But – what if you’re an advocate for a potential audience you really don’t know much about? How will you know what they might or might not like?
Do as the Romans do – get in amongst them, watch and learn.
So – I am going to the New Zealand Grand Prix at Manfeild raceway to check out potential visitors. I have never been to motor races before in my life and thought that seeing all this from a first-timer’s point of view would be interesting to share.
Keep checking in over the weekend as I’ll be blogging live. My job really rocks sometimes
