On the 9th of June Grafton Sporting Car Club will host round 6 of the NSW Hillclimb Championships at there Mountain View Complex.
Confirmed starters are Heath and Christine in there orange injected Beetle and myself.
Regular competitor Glen, is unfortunately unable to attend due to a business commitment.
Grafton allways puts on a good event and fingers crossed a warm day will encourage some fast racing. Spectators are well catered for with a good area to watch the entire track and a canteen with hot and cold food.
See you all there.

Cheers Col

Good luck col....

Best of luck. Kick some gemini butt

yep i`m going to try to be there :-)

Yeah - best of luck to you all, even them that's *ahem* not VW powered !!!



Bummed I can't make it down, but them's the breaks I guess.

Hopefully next time !!!

Grafton Hillclimb, a personal journey.

I left at 7.00am Saturday morning and met my friends soon after. We travelled together through the early morning fog, deciding to stop at a park just outside of Glen Innes for some morning tea.
All was going well. Just after we left and continued along our way my falcon tow car decided to change itself down into third gear. Oh oh not good, it simply would not change up or down for nearly 10 minutes. Then randomley all was well.
Half way between Glen Innes and Grafton a ambo went screaming past me, not a good sign.
Sure enough a couple of kays later heres a motorbike rider laying still on the road and his bike a mess of mangled metal and fibreglass. The ambo,s wern,t working on him so I feared the worst and tried to put the image out of my head.
Driving into Grafton the auto trans went bat shit, changing randomly up and down gears, I pushed on to the track and tried to forget about the trans problem.
I set up camp and the car in a small confined area. Grafton Hillclimb pits are small but my space seemed tiny. I had 2 practice runs that afternoon and although the car felt strong the rear grip was terrible. I spoke to a few fellow drivers and they all said the grip level was excellent, mmm my old tyres were not up to the task.
I drove into town to have a bad meal with my fellow Tamworth racers and the car bucked and pigrooted all the way in, and back to the track, I was worried if it would get me home on Sunday.
I was camped next to a really nice bloke and his family, but they brought this huge crazy mental dog. It ran into and over everything, after it nearly knocked my car over i asked them to tie the f##king thing up. I went to bed worried, would i get home?. Notice a theme building here.
Race day dawned after a uneasy sleep, overcast with brief periods of sunshine which was how the whole day went. First run i went out and gave it 90%, the car felt strong and crisp, the cool morning air was to the liking of my engine. However the rear was awefull, i was sliding around every corner, first run time 53.50 seconds.
Second run i ran wide on exit of an early corner and heard a loud thump as the tramp bar bottomed out on a ripple strip. Shit it really put me off as i was constantly checking the oil pressure gauge and light for pressure drop as i raced around the track. My filter is mounted behind the tramp bar and i hoped it didn,t crash into it and pierce the filter, time for that run 53.10 seconds.
After arriving back at the pits i checked the rear and found no damaged to the oil system, hoses or filter. My tramp bar looked a little wounded but that was an easy fix.
After looking at the time sheets i was now convinced my old tyres wear not up to the task as everyone else was tearing up the track. Heath smashed the class record on his first run wow!.
Run 3, this was going to be max attack, i slid and drifted around the course. Run 4 was the same, times, run 3 52.65 and 4 52.59 seconds.
I loaded the car up and said my goodbyes to all than nervously headed for home. The car again bucked and played up all through the 60 zones as i headed through town. I got out into the open road and away the old Falcon went, perfect all the way home.
I was luckey enough to catch up with my old mate Jeff Unwin, he came to have a look with Damo Pell (Hellbugged). You know Jeff getting old when he complains about the sweet tunes of a twin carbed tough Beetle engine hey Damo
I also surprisingly meet Greg Ward at the track. He looked very well and happy, and it was very good to see him looking healthy and stressless, cool Greg.
Today i started to organize all my footage and GoPro footage. But the cursed weekend was not finished with me yet. The SD card slot has shit itself, so the pewter will need to go the doctor. I managed to get a couple of GoPro files loaded but more is to come later.
Allthough my cars grip level was not nearly good enough i must say i drove really well. This may sound like i,m blowing my own trumpet but it was a real handful to keep on the track. Nathan, you would have loved to see it.

Final times were,

Heath Campbell 2nd in class 50.44
Christine Campbell 4th in class 52.16
Col Mayman 6th in class 52.59

Heaths drive was outstanding and he was only beaten on the last run of the day.

Cheers Col

The very narrow pit bay i had.

Cheers Col

Great report Col.
Sounds like way more adventure than you were counting on.
Good to hear of the Volksy faithful in attendance

A very nice man kindly stood all day with my camera taking footage.
He was a little shakey.
This is run number 1

http://youtu.be/KQ4dAZN0qVc 

Cheers Col

Was good to get out for a look Col.... And see the beetles holding their own alongside those big HP others. The crowd was impressed with the "bugs" as always

Christene at her animated best amongst the spectators is always fun

Jeff has been working on the notch regularly of late and was into the shed today doing some 4 pot calipers to run with the front vented rotors . I left thinking a run at mountain view in my beetle would be a wise move before tackling it in the notch.... So thanx for the inspiration

http://www.revolutionracegear.com.au/index.php?PSO=245&PSID=3100000901&am...

Here is the incar footage of the above vid.
It doesn,t quite show how the car was breaking traction everytime I nailed it in second gear.
Believe me however, it was a handful.
Thanks for the link Damo.

http://youtu.be/eIv7FEuXzHI 

Cheers Col

F@k1n love your vids col....some nice soft tyres on the way???

Nice write ups too...

Fabo, Mr no race bug.....

Hey Colin, well done man & sorry i didn`t catch up with you, seemed to miss you every time i walked over somehow

anyways, i must admit i was having similar issues with years-old tyres (measured up at 75 on Dave Morrows durometer thingy (approx the softness of normal road tyres)

& my LSD turned into a TSD (total slip diff) at the last autocross a couple of weeks ago :-( spinning up the inside wheel every corner :-(

& my sd card was a little full before i got there, silly me forgot to wipe the footage from the last autocross so i only got the first & 2nd runs on video

slip sliding away :-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNQ2nRG_NNM

last time i was here was 15 years ago so i`m a little rusty :-)

& here my hotel room for the night --> The "Taj-ma-Hatsu" :-)


& yes sooper dooper well done to both Heath & Christine... both great drives
cheers
Matt

edit--> oh & i got down to a 51.33 on my last run

& the left trailer tyre decided to split/separate just after i left Grafton for the trip home so changed that on the side of the hyway in the rain :-) fun fun fun :-)

anyways,,, big thanks to all the club & organisers & volenteers it was an absolute ball,,, can`t wait for the next one :-)

Col

It's more fun if you don't have enough grip

Cheers Heath

What is it about you and the timing gear at the finish line Heath?.

Great photo dude, and a big another awesome drive .

Cheers Col

Great shot Heath :-)

did she get one of the side-board-trim flying off ? :-)

Quote:

Originally posted by POZOOM Col It's more fun if you don't have enough grip Cheers Heath

Couple of photo,s.

Cheers Col

Cheers Col

Some more excellent pics

There is one of Christine (Pink Number 1) hunting down Col

What fantastic pictures!!!

Well done

Run 4,
By now I had thought that the best track conditions were gone, so I just drove the wheels off it.
Luckely it happened to be my fastest run.

Cheers Col

http://youtu.be/K1McjfZjOao 

Def some great shots there, and cool vid too Col.

Well done on flying the Volksy flag so well !!!

Here is the incar footage of run 4. Slip sliding away!.

http://youtu.be/dnGaJSZZDZM 

Cheers Col

You are a good steerer col...I can learn from watching your vids....
Your suspension is very well sorted...


Cheers Fabo...

Superbugs are hot, this shot proves it!

Bet that got the adrenaline flowing

Thanks guys for all the positive comments.

Cheers Col

sounds like a geat weekend!