Saturday 17th October, 2015 – World Time Attack: Day 2
With Tom now more comfortable with the car, he pulled in after session 2 with a smile and a lap time of 1:50.11.
He knew that the 1:4x lap time was on the cards in the next session, that was until he noticed the CV grease all over his left wheel.
With a split boot from the second hand item that was fitted to the car (due to a lack of time) a fairly quick decision was made to sit out the final session.
When asked why he wasn’t going to attempt a repair in the 4 hour break Tom replied:
“Well, I didn’t come all this way to lie on the ground changing drive shafts. I came to win a free steak.”
A CRX repair kit was acquired and provided a temporary solution which would ensure the car got home under it’s own power for victory beef.
Not wanting to waste the rest of the day, I mentioned that we should enter the car in show and shine. Tom jokingly said if I could get the car a spot, he’d move it up there.
Tom forgot that I know the guy who sponsors the show and shine.
While we’re hear, let’s take a walk around and see what’s on display. There is no one better to do this than with fellow Grape King Adam, who had flown up from Melbourne the day before.
Adam is all about the low life so he loves checking out stance cars.
From a galaxy far, far away.
Rocket Bunny and Liberty Walk kits seem to be what the kids are into. I can appreciate the workmanship, but it’s not really my thing.
Brett, pay attention to the wheels.
Notice how they are the same front and rear? 😛
I tried to think of something witty to say about this.
This would surprise a few people at the lights.
When in Rome…
Two KE’s with different execution.
This was one of my favourite cars on display and I forgot to take a photo of it in it’s entirety.
In bad news, Suzuki had to retire due to a 3rd engine failure that weekend.
Back in the pits, we had caught wind from Lucia that it was Justin’s birthday so Jally and I went and picked up some decorations the night before and ninja’d his garage while he was out on the track.
He arrived back from his session to find everyone singing Happy Birthday very loudly.
Back in our garage, Jim Jim was doing quite well sitting in 6th place in Club Sprint.
As Jim was only 2 tenths off 5th place, all camera’s were on Jim as he headed out to try crack the top 5 to get into the shoot out.
With warm up lap completed, Jim was a man on a mission and laid down a super clean hot lap. Just as he was about to complete his timed run, the red flags came out and the camera’s switched over to the Green Civic from the day before.
He had made the exact same mistake as the previous day but fortunately was not so lucky this time and hit the wall.
The red flags meant Jim’s time was not recorded and he had to come back into the pits. As he waited anxiously to go back out the devastating news came that they were ending the session early.
As per the rules, Jim was allowed to go out to attempt another lap if a car in the top 5 didn’t go out however, the weather gods had something to say about that.
As did the track marshals. Jim wasn’t going to be able to run.
With nothing more the team could do, it was time to take a group photo and enjoy the rest of the event wind up as the track dried out.
SVG + S13 + SMP + Sideways = Crowd favourite.
Tarzan pre-emptively apologised to Duncan in case he crashed the Evo in these conditions.
The Tilton team took out top honours again this year with a new record time of 1:23.
Celebratory smooches.
While the celebrations were going on, Tom had already packed up his car and was ready to drive back to the accommodation.
That is the smile of a man who knows he’s about to eat a free steak.
Well done on finishing the car, competing in WTAC and driving the car back to Melbourne Thomas! It’s been fun documenting this journey and we all know this isn’t your final form and that you’ll be back next year in a revised set up to have a proper go.
But enough of this CRX Tom, remember how you said you’d we’d get started on the Starlet after WTAC?
There may be no more CRX updates for a while on this blog but another black car with a K motor sitting dormant in it’s engine bay should be returning to these pages shortly… 😉
Noisy Ninja 