April News

A solid field of 61 descended into the valley, the opening rounds of both the Northern Rallysprint Series & the North Island Rally Series, it was a biggie event & it delivered.

The weather was favourable to the events organisers & the reverse direction course suited most bringing something new to the table. We hoped competitors enjoyed the new direction, a challenge to update the safety plan documentation for resubmission but well worth it to see people out there full throttle.

A real mix of our favourite competitors out in action on the day, PCC members were also flying the team flag enjoying the offerings of the road. The schedule was looking A OK by lunchtime, some having to double check which run they were on just to be sure. Testament to the drivers for staying on the road, an efficient day is always a good day. When it all comes together, events run very well & are enjoyed by all.

This is ClubSport rallying at it finest. Good timing as well, competitors using this event as a shakedown for Rally Otago. It all tied in nicely together & having the event used as rounds of the NRSS & NIRS, really beneficial. Both series acting as a feeder to develop todays drivers & get them competing through the ranks. NIRS particularly imperative to add to the north islands selection of clubman’s rallies, something we want to see more of.

Will this be a favourable direction for Bothwell Loop for the future. Well, we’ll just have to wait & see…

VICE PRESIDENTS REPORT

What a busy few weeks it’s been and it’s only getting busier!!

Firstly thanks to everyone for all their help with running Bothwell Loop Rallysprint, 61 entries was a fantastic field but also daunting to get everyone processed before drivers briefing at 9:00am. But we had a plan and everyone did their part to get the event underway on schedule. To see the first car off this line at 9:48 was so rewarding. I’m so grateful we have such a great team to work with and all the helpers that came along to help on the day, you are all absolute legends.

I will admit it is bloody hard work organising and trying to compete at the same time. From the early morning start setting up the timing gear and then Craig scrutineering the cars with his team of helpers and me running around making sure everything was in place sorting minor hiccups, took it’s toll on us both. With no time to get changed into our gear prior to reconnaissance we got back and seemed to be fighting to get ready in time for our first run. So a deep breath on the start line and a comment of lets just get through this run and regroup we headed off.

Making it back to the pits I was feeling a tad queezy, but I no sooner get out of the car and it was Houston we have a problem, minor issue with numbers which saw me running around the pits trying to work out what had happened. A quick drink and it’s time to go again. This time we are crossing the finish line and I’m seriously feeling very queasy, the belts are undone and the helmet off as fast as possible and the window down to get fresh air!! I wonder why am I feeling so bad this year, I know I usually get a tad queasy but this was on another level!! Was it the fact it was soooo damn hot, or the running in reverse direction with the downhill twisty stuff at the end? I then realise that neither Craig or I have eaten anything that morning, so lessons learnt!! But a huge thanks to Catlin Chubb for sitting in with Craig on the last run as I was done for the day after run 3!!

So it was nice last weekend heading off to the forest for round 2 held by South Auckland Car Club and not having to worry about anything other than making sure we turned up to the start line on time!

Friday night saw the committee take the residents of both Bothwell Loop and Limestone Downs out for a relaxed get together at Nikau Caves Cafe to say thank you for letting us use their road non stop since 2016.

It was great meeting so many of the residents and getting feedback from them as road damage is always forefront in their minds as well as the Committees. We are trying really hard to ensure we are proactive to get them the best possible out come after the events, because lets face it without the support of the residents we don’t have a venue. We’d also like to thank Rallydrive NZ for putting up two hot seat rides for us to give away to the residents. You’d have thought we rigged the draw with one going to a resident on Bothwell and the other Limestone Downs.

Our next big push will be for our Rally, so watch this space for more info but we’d also like
to look at providing some clubsport basic events so if anyone has ideas on venues please let us know.

This weekend saw Craig and I head off to the Ellerslie Car Show along with our fellow Heron Car Club members. Seen as our Heron is still a work in progress we took the Stratos along “identifying” as a Heron. It was great catching up with many PCC Members past and present who were there also. Luckily
the weather played ball and the rain stayed away although getting a tad chilly by the end of the day. Hat’s
off to the MX5 club for an awesome stand it was my favourite!!

Next stop a bit of glamping as a belated birthday getaway and then round three of the Rallysprint Series – Piakonui Road on Sunday.

Until next time.

Cheers
Suzie

RALLY CARS ON THE RACETRACK

But not destined for back country gravel roads, Steve has recently been competing in the Taupo GTRNZ GT3-4 series & showing just what rally drivers can bring to the table. Coming in 2nd equal place with Ben Goebel in the GT3-4 race, hats off Steve, job well done! Jump on board with Steve below for a couple of laps in car ..

We still get treated to three wheel driving action even if its on a race track now. Good luck Steve as we watch the ex rally car unveil itself further as an undercover track monster.

I SPY WITH MY LITTLE EYE A ………. ORANGE ESCORT

We wish them luck & hope to see them out at further NRSS rounds. Go team orange!

Its great to see our favourite cars back in action but equally to see new generations of co-drivers being inducted to the sport. Parents un-weave the bubble wrap & ensure rally helmets are safety affixed, their offspring fizzing as they launch into action & leave the start line in a cloud of dust. Noel Miller, also with grandson Tyler at the NRSS round 2 at Maramarua Forest who looked every part the professional co-driver.

SOME TIME IN THE MAKING

POSSUM BOURNE’S 20TH ANNIVERSARY

Also 40 years since he first started with Subaru, so just added to the event.

The loyal team & supporters then went into Pukekohe main street to his commemorative spot with 2 of his special cars & paid tribute to the iconic legend. This was followed by a team dinner & a very special gathering at his burial spot.

1990 – 2023

CRAIG BREEN

The rally community is still in shock on hearing the recent passing of Craig Breen in a testing incident in Croatia.

Breen, the son of Ray Breen, a national champion in Irish rallying, died on 13 April 2023, aged 33, after a crash driving his Hyundai i20 N Rally1 rally car in a testing session for the 2023 Croatia Rally.

A deeply sad time in the rally world.

Knowledge Corner

POD RACING: Fluid Monitoring in Formula One™

One of the core elements of their solution is called The Link, a real-time fluid condition
monitoring system that allows users to have an instant, quite holistic picture of their assets,
including fuels, coolants, oils or other fluids they depend on. Because the system is mobile,
battery-powered, and can handle a range of different fluids and applications, it was the
perfect fit for a type of customer that demands performance, reliability and cleanliness at the
highest levels – Formula One racing teams.

Speed, Reliability, Accuracy

If you’re familiar with Formula One, you probably already know that the profitability of a
racing team and the reliability of their race cars go hand in hand. Each “Constructor” (the
teams who design, build and race two new cars each year) has a budget cap of $140 million
to create their cars. Estimates for the total revenue generated by the sport for 2021 are
around $2.14 billion. Much like equipment downtime in a plant or mine site, if a Formula One car is not performing properly, the team stands to lose a huge amount of money in a
very small amount of time – the difference between finishing 1st versus finishing 2nd in a
Grand Prix might be a tenth of a second that costs the team $10 million or more in lost
earnings, depending on overall standings. Every aspect of the car must be at peak
performance on race day – but even the fastest car in the world will not win championships if
it is not highly reliable. But how do fluid monitoring and flushing fit into that picture?

Formula One cars don’t just have an internal combustion engine; they have what is known
as a Power Unit or PU. The PU brings together both internal combustion power and
electrical power to give cars the ability to “harvest” energy and store it in the Energy Storage
System (ESS) strategically during one lap to then release it in another, giving the car an
electrical speed boost on command. This system uses a lithium-ion battery that must
perform under extreme conditions – not just at high speeds but in drastically different
environments around the world. One week a Grand Prix might be cool and rainy in Canada,
with another race in the desert environment of Saudi Arabia two weeks later. In both
environments, the battery has to be kept at the optimal temperature through cycles of
charging and discharging during a race. But one racing team was struggling with a chronic
fluid contamination problem, and they were spending over two hours flushing and filtering
the system only to fail to achieve the Recommended Cleanliness Level (RCL) time and
again, so they called Wayne.

Contamination Solution

RCC’s v fit the bill perfectly, and this particular rig was outfitted with 23 different sensors,
monitoring temperature, fluid level, flow, filter differential, pressure, particle counts, relative
humidity and water content. Its ability to both monitor and clean the temperature control fluid
(sometimes a water/glycol mixture, but in this case a fully synthetic PAO) while outputting
detailed data to a cloud dashboard was just what the team needed. They also needed help
selecting the right Beta-rated filters to properly remove the fluid-borne contaminants to cut
down on flushing time between races. During flushing, RCC made sure that the flow rate
gave a Reynolds number greater than 4100 to achieve turbulent flow without causing a
pressure increase above 1 bar. Temperature was also a concern, needing to maintain
under 48 C. The recommended cleanliness level target was SAE AS 4059 REV F cpc 6.
The cpc in this code stands for Cumulative Particle Count. During the filterability trial, RCC
installed two offline filter housings fitted with 3-micron media on the flush line and return line
combined with a breather on the reservoir. When the first sample was taken from the
battery pre-filter’s return line, a cleanliness level of SAE AS4059F cpc 11 was found. After
flushing, onboard particle counters read a final cleanliness level of SAE AS4059F cpc 2,
and this result was achieved in a flushing cycle averaging 24 minutes rather than 2 hours. In
an environment where time is critical, both on and off the race track, these results were just
what the team needed. But, as mentioned above, it is always a good idea to verify onsite oil or fluid analysis results through sampling and lab testing. Fortunately, Wayne had that
covered as well with the help of a Luneta Condition Monitoring Pod (CMP) installed on the
flushing rig’s reservoir.