Geelong Motorsport Short Course Event

(By: Andy Fox)

Off Road Racing

Hi, my name is Andy Fox, I race a GQ Patrol in the Victorian Rounds of the Australian Off Road Racing Championship.

What does that mean?

Off Road Racing is like a small version of the Australian Safari. It’s racing along dirt tracks at up to 200kmh. The average event is 350 - 400kmh long. So to say it is punishing on the Patrol would be a gross understatement.

The Patrol

The car was originally built in 1992 as one of 3 cars for the Australian Safari assault by ARB… A few years later it won the Safari and a little while later the Finke Desert Rally, and in the same year it won a class championship at National level. The vehicle has had a couple of owners that have punished it thoroughly. Well done chaps...

Currently we run in Class 7 (Production 4WD), so we are restricted in the engine we can run and the development of the vehicle. Point being, the Patrol has to be a production vehicle with allowed upgrades to the suspension and minor mods to the motor. So what we race and what you drive would be reasonably close.

We (Karen my wife navigates), bought the car as a project to rebuild, learn what makes Off Roaders tick and go out and have some fun. Since the purchase of the Patrol we have rebuilt the engine, replaced the body and upgraded the suspension. We will be running through those journeys in later posts.

So these blogs will be following our journey as we scramble our way through the events, sharing what we find in terms of the tyres suspension and the human interest side of racing.

Ok Ok, let’s go racing...

First race this year was a Club event. Locally we have a track called the Geelong Motorsport Complex. Preparations were running a bit late so we drove in the gate straight to scrutineering and then turned left onto the track and race. Gotta love it!!!!!!

The format was a Short Course Event, which means we split the field into 2 groups and race over 7 laps in 4 separate races. Each lap is approx. 2.5 kms. Starting position was seeded. We were in Group 1 which means we started in the first of the two groups.

We felt this would be a great shakedown for the Patrol for the rest of the season as it would be the first hit out in anger, since the full rebuild. The key for the weekend would be to go out and sort the vehicle, find the bugs for the upcoming major rounds of the championship.

Race 1

We lined up for Race 1, raised the revs, dropped the clutch and took off. The conditions were really greasy, muddy and semi wet from the rain in the last 3 days. So we were feeling out traction, the performance of the engine and the suspension. We caught and passed a couple of the buggies, held our position in terms of the category. So all was good.

One of the things that really grabbed my attention was the change to the Yokohama MT001’s, the steering was noticeably sharper better lateral, braking grip and more feel than the other tyres we had used in the past.

Overall the race one was really successful. Issues were, we had some pinging in the motor and suspension issues.

We knocked a bit of timing out for the next race, and in terms of the suspension we would need to re-valve. The issue here was that the Patrol was landing too hard, the shock was moving through the travel of the stroke too fast, hence bottoming out and compressing the tyres and caused bounce after landing.

Good news, we were moving forward...

Race 2

We launched the Patrol off the line, the track was starting to dry out, awesome time for some real corner speed. We quickly caught the guys in front and passed them, there were a couple of others we let through, a Pro Buggy and a Trophy Truck…. Man those things are fast…

As the track dried we were getting huge grip, it about fried my head, how much more can these tyres stick… The harder we pushed the more the suspension was struggling. On the second last lap we blew a fuse in the fuel pump circuit and ground to a halt, replaced it and kept going. On the last lap the brakes were getting really soft. Something to check out on our return to the Pits.

The brake reservoir was empty and we couldn’t work out what had happened to the fluid…We topped it up and got ready for Race 3.

Race 3

We launched, and the Patrol leapt into life. Grip was way up. The clay type surface was now getting hard and there was no sliding to be had. Just Grip!!!! We were heading around the back of the track, there is a section that is a downhill left hand sweeper 2/3rds the way through there is a jump and a change of direction. We are going through there in 3rd at about 130kmh just before the jump. No movement only grip and man that plays with your mind….one slip and over you go.

We worked our way through one of the buggies and were in hot pursuit of another when the brakes went soft again. O Oh!!!! No brakes, 2.4 ton on the dirt at 140kmh at the end of the straight and no brakes…. Suffice to say we shot off the end of the straight and had to use a combo of the handbrake and drifting to slow and stop the Patrol.

After our excursion off the end of the track, there we many jokes about what Karen was doing in terms of navigation, as a dutiful driver I must have been obeying the directions….. All jokes aside, no brakes was quite an issue.

We lost one position and drove to the finish on the handbrake.

On further inspection we found the driver side front brake hose had split and was pumping out fluid every time we used the brakes.

No more racing from this point on, that would put a sealer on the weekend.

Overall the event was really successful, we found the weak points and have a list of things to fix. Perfect!!!!

We were very happy with the new Yokohama MT001’s, the new engine, the new grip levels and the engine performance, the suspension needed to be re-valved and dialled in. As a package we were really happy and can’t wait to the get the next event.

As they say in Side Show Alley, ‘everyone’s a winner’ and we won the highly coveted ‘Bright Spark’ Award. As we drove the Patrol to the track with no way of returning since the brakes failed.

Gotta love the sense of humour...

Yokohama is a global producer and distributor of premium tires since 1917. We offer a complete line of tires, including high-performance, light truck, passenger car, commercial truck and bus, as well as off-the-road mining and construction applications. For more information on our extensive product line, visit http://www.yokohama.com.au/ourtyres/