The Gantech Racing team's Big Picture People cars 33 and 34 were out and about at the Phillip Island Sprint event on the 13th and 14th of February, 2010. The Phillip Island Auto Racing Club (PIARC) event provided a familiarisation day on Saturday 13th and timed sprints on Sunday 14th. This was the first time the cars were entered in such an event; Car 33 was rebadged as car number 3 for the weekend, and Car 34 was rebadged as car number 134.
Owner driver of Car 33, George Christou, completed a best time of 1:51.6 for the weekend, finishing with the 8th best time of the weekend from a field of 86 competitors; this was a particularly good result bearing in mind that two of the entries that finished above Car 33 were karts. The lesser powered Car 34 driven by yours truly, completed a best time of 2:00.3 in the timed sprints finishing in 36th position. Disappointingly, this was a massive 3 seconds slower than lap times completed during the Saturday familiarisation.
Below is an interesting comparison of one of the better laps completed on the Saturday (left) next to one of the laps completed on the Sunday.
Take particular notice of corner 1; a much later entry to the corner on the Sunday sees the car reach a top speed of about 215km at the end of the straight (about 10km faster than the Saturday lap), but combined with uneven braking into the corner this results in a much slower speed being carried through the corner and by the time the car reaches corner 2, it is already down about one second on the Saturday lap. Comparisons like this can prove to be a good tool in highlighting some simple mistakes; whether they be caused by excitement of the event, lack of concentration, or simple rookie inexperience; in my case I think it was all three!
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