Line Honors at the 6 Hours of AROCA 2006!
I thought it would be a huge leap from Club Super Sprints to racing and I wondered if there was a slightly “smoother” way to transition. I had heard of the AROCA 6 Hour Relay Classic held every year in Eastern Creek (AROCA stands for Alfa Romeo Owners Club Australia). It is a relay race, which means that a team of drivers (a minimum of three and a maximum of six) and their cars compete for a line of honor or a handicap victory.
The race was 6 months away and I didn’t think much about it and, furthermore, I didn’t feel even close to being ready to race. As the months went by, the lap times were starting to drop, but more importantly, they were starting to show signs of consistency.
A month before the event, I emailed a couple of club members who seem up for anything when it comes to the track: Anthony Kosseris and Indiran Padayachee. Both Anthony Kosseris and Indiran Padayachee came to Phillip Island a few months earlier. We were all complete rookies when it came to racing and after a short email exchange we had our minimum of three drivers. I thought if I had to make the effort to build a team, then we had to at least try to finish on the podium. I did some research on the race and found out that a Lotus team had won it the previous year (2005) after completing 177 laps on a dry to wet track and that the average lap times for each car were between 1:46 – 2: 10. . While going through Natsoft’s files, he couldn’t see a Porsche team’s victory since 2002, when James and Theo Koundouris (along with David Guigni) won the race after completing 191 laps. I thought if no other Porsche team showed up, we could win!
I raised the team’s hopes with a couple of enthusiastic emails and then set about filling the team’s remaining spots. I thought we would need an experienced broker to clean up the mess made by newbies and several names were proposed and subsequently contacted. We end up with the following equipment:
Team Leader: Wayne Jones.
Radio: John Ramage and Amelia Jones.
Driver A: David Jellins – ’04 GT2
Driver B: David Reynolds – ’04 GT2
Driver C: Aaron Zerefos – ’04 Turbo X50
Driver D: Indiran Padayachee – ’04 GT3
Driver E: Anthony Kosseris – ’03 GT3 Cup Car
Driver F: David Reynolds – ’03 GT3 Cup Car
The team manager recommended that we “cross over” David Reynolds in two cars in order for him to come out and finish the team race. We were able to do this because we had five drivers instead of the maximum allowed of six.
Qualifying for the race consisted of simply driving six laps of the circuit on Saturday. Once all the drivers on our team had completed their minimum six-lap qualifying period, we (along with the team principal) nominated our own minimum lap times for the race. Race rules stated that no car may go below its own designated lap time or 98 seconds (1:38), whichever is greater. If a driver goes under this time, a penalty of one lap is applied. Another reason for designating a lap time is to allow handicap positions to be determined. A couple of our drivers needed more slick practice than their six laps allowed and were ordered to withdraw until their lap times were reduced. Indiran Padayachee almost ran out of fuel as he got used to the new tire.
Our team manager had ordered us to be on the track well and early the next morning before the race. The departure at 10 in the morning came very quickly and we were off before we knew it. David Reynolds had gained a 40-second lead in the first 20 minutes of the race, however the safety car was removed and our lead disappeared. Our team enjoyed the lead for most of the day, however “Team 20 Something” briefly took the lead in the second hour of the race. I spent most of the day interfering with the team manager’s work and in the minutes before each driver left, telling each driver not to turn under any circumstances. Naturally, I was the only one who turned. However, I will not make excuses if someone is thinking of using Cup Car tires (with different front and rear bearing diameters) on anything other than a Cup Car, then forget it! I managed not to hit anything, but the unfortunate incident cost the team around 15 seconds.
There are some drivers who say that Super Sprints are tougher than racing because each lap in a Super Sprint is like a qualifying lap. I can testify that the nervous energy associated with the drama, excitement, anxiety, and cost of your first run will make a Super Sprint feel like a Sunday trip.
All of the rookies had their personal best lap times at Eastern Creek during the race and it was only during the last hour of the race that our entire Porsche team began to show signs of a clear advantage. The final 15 minutes of the race seemed to last forever with the entire team huddled around the small timing screen in hopes that David Reynolds would pull off a drama-free victory.
The flagged flag finally fell at the six-hour mark and we had won the race! Our team had completed 194 laps, three laps ahead of the next team (Team 20 Somethings) and four laps ahead of the team after that (Jeff’s Lotus).
We were all excited about the victory and there was a little presentation after the race. When I got home that night, I walked around the house flexing my biceps declaring that I knew what it felt like to be Schumacher. This feeling of euphoria lasted for over a week and when reality finally returned, I began to realize how difficult it would be to repeat our performance in 2007.