Meeting Report – 2009 Castrol Edge Winternationals
With the threat of rain hanging over the meeting, another huge crowd of over 38,500 witnessed the running of this year’s Castrol Edge Winternationals. With intermittent showers and a huge thunderstorm on Sunday, the crowd numbers show the importance of this event to the motorsport calendar and Drag Racing in particular.
As always we had a huge fan interest in our Toyota Aurion, with the added bonus this year that we brought out the 2nd car for everyone to see and it added to both Toyota’s and the Ultimate Motorsports team presence at the event.
Even ANDRA’s CEO Tony Thornton paid us a visit.
Following a successful test session the week before the team was full of confidence regarding our chances of adding another Winternationals title to our list. Our Toyota was punching out pretty consistent mid 6 second times around 335 KPH (210 MPH) so we felt confident that a 5th victory could be on the cards.
In qualifying, for the first pass the car bogged off the line carding a less than desirable 12.1 sec pass. This just pointed out that we needed do some tweaks to both the clutch and the boost.
One of the big issues with the running of this event is the dew that comes around as night time hits. With our next qualifying pass scheduled for 6.00 pm the 
following night, we elected to fit new tyres to the car in order to gain us maximum traction and in an effort to combat any dew that may be around. With showers throughout the day causing our qualifying session to be delayed by a further 1 ½ hours, and with the team watching the dew become increasingly heavier in the staging lanes, we were extremely concerned with our ability to hook up the car. Trying to maximise the potential of our Toyota’s horsepower is hard enough on an optimal track let alone one where the car skates and dances around. I did a strong burnout in an attempt to give our Toyota Aurion the maximum traction, but with all of the windows in the car severely foggy up, as the driver I elected not to make the pass. Its one thing to travel over 335 KPH, it’s a totally different scenario when you can’t see where you are going!!
For the third and final qualifier we made a respectable time running a 6.9 second ET at 209.99 MPH (335.98 KPH), following a little bog off the line. The difference in traction was really noticeable between the previous weekend and this event
The rain is playing havoc with the traction and the normally consistent track conditions that are the hallmark of the Winternationals, making it hard for us to get a handle on the track. In looking over the data from the run we felt that the boost off the line was down a little which may be causing some of our issue’s.
So in an effort to ensure we get off the line we performed a number of anti-lag tests in the pits to get our boost exactly where we wanted it. The sheets of flame that come out of the motor when it’s on the anti-lag attracted even more people than normal around our pit area and we spent some time answering questions and signing autographs.
Saturday’s crowd was one of the biggest I have ever seen at Willowbank and the support we received was tremendous.
Sunday dawned with a huge thunderstorm drenching the track and the pits not exactly the start we wanted to race day. It rained heavily for over an hour and dumped a lot of water on the track, but eventually the sun came out and we could get on with racing. Given the amount of water flowing around our pit, it was a credit to the Willowbank track crew that they had the track ready to go after only a short delay.
While the crowd was not as large as Saturday, most probably due to the rain, it was still an extremely large and happy bunch of people and the amount of well wishes passed on to us as a team made us extremely confident for the day ahead.
We made two changes to the car prior to racing, adding a little power in the form of additional boost and we elected to change back to the older rear tyres in an effort to free the car up off the start line. We figured that the older tyres would give us less bite on the start line when compared to the new tyres.
We knew we had a tough competitor in Rod Harvey from NZ and following strong burnouts from both cars we came into stage, and both sat there. Now I have no preference for staging either first or last but it appears Rod likes to go in last. My job as a driver is to make the driver in the other lane as uncomfortable as possible and not allow him to do what he wants. So we both sat in pre stage with my intention to make Rod stage first. After some time, he goes in and I follow and strap a huge holeshot on him gaining almost 0.25 seconds head start which is a race winning margin given the times we both had run in qualifying. The car hooked up and carried the front wheels right through 1st and 2nd gears, but it had a lot of tyre shake. Tyre shake is a phenomenon where the tyres are not quite hooked up and are spinning slightly causing the car to flex on the sidewalls of the rear tyres. It shakes the car real bad and in extreme cases can cause the driver to have blurry vision.
Well that’s where I was blurry vision with the car marching down the track already doing over 140 MPH (224 KPH) spinning the back tyres and not being able to steer because the front tyres are in the air, not exactly what you want as a driver. I could just make out that I was drifting towards the wall but with the front wheels in the air I couldn’t correct the car. A common problem with this is for the driver to over correct the wheels while they are in the air and this can cause the car to make a violent move once they come down and in some cases cause the car to roll. So you just have to ride it out or get off the throttle.
But this is the Winternational’s so lifting wasn’t in my agenda. Halfway through 3rd gear the front wheels came down and I could now steer the car but at precisely that moment the rear shocks changed to full soft (a time that we pre-set in the pits) which caused the car to hook up again and push me into the wall. Frustrated, I got off the gas and coasted well over half the track going through the lights still running over 120 MPH (192KPH), and worst still, bring on the win light in my lane.
However, in drag racing hitting the wall is an instant disqualification, and even though we won the race, we lost. To say I was disappointed is an understatement. The crew came down and I could see the disappointment on their faces as well, and true to form they tell what a great driving job I did. I point to the car and say if I did so good how come the car is banged up – only the second time in 30 years that I have hit the wall.
A very frustrating end to the Winters of 2009. We will have to wait until next year to add to our victories at this event, the biggest drag racing event held outside North America. Obviously, back in the pits we had a number of people come over to the car to look at the damage and pass on their disappointment for us as a team at hitting the wall.
After more autograph signing we eventually run out of our handout cards.
It really is the fans that make Drag Racing such a great sport and hopefully we added to our fan base and gave Toyota the exposure they desire from our sport. While as a team we couldn’t have done much more, but as a driver I feel I probably over drove the car today and should of got off the gas on the last pass. However, winning this meet means so much.
Well I guess if it was easy everyone would be doing it, there’s always next year.
