After offloading the cars and setting up the pits area on Friday morning the Shield team got off to a busy start with an Interview with Dave Petersen for the Saturdays Live streaming session on You Tube.
I was excited to get the Golf onto the circuit as we had managed to shave off roughly 1Okg of weight by converting the car to a 2 door through some nifty fibreglass work, and combined with a new refreshed motor, producing 122 KW and a 190nm of torque we knew that this power to weight ratio was going to make the Shield Golf quick. Quick it was and in no time, I was running below 1.14.00 and entered new territory (1.13.407) which is Class A performance.
Qualifying
Delmas at 7am is too cold to say the least which means the track surface is cold and the cars with cold air intake make more power which is recipe for disaster with over 30 cars all trying to get their tyres up to optimal temperature within a 10-minute session.
More complex for me was how do I not break out of Class B bracket with no timing device allowed in the car and a car that is eager to show the Class A Turbo cars what an 8 Valve Shield Golf can do!
Having to be cautious and trying to gauge a 1.14,00 pace is not as easy at it seems when you have no lap timing system to give you an indication of how you are doing and ended qualifying in 20th place on a 1m17.00
Heat1
Starting in 20th place meant I had to really work hard to get through the field if I was going to score pints and furthermore had to careful not to break out which was a challenge to say the least.
Unfortunately, in effort to make it to the front of class and doing the best I could to keep within the time bracket I broke out doing a time 1m13.8 which meant I had to move into Class A by 0,2 of second for the weekend.
Heat 2
With nothing to lose and everything to gain the Shield Golf mixing it with the Class A cars in the second heat was real crowd pleaser giving the turbo cars a run for their money as the Shield Golf would catch them in all the tight corners before they make a gap up the straight and then close in on them again – this was fun to say the least.
Hopefully the 111 committee will be lenient on me and give me a yellow card and points penalty and allow me back into Class B otherwise I am going to have a tough time trying to get the Golf onto Class A pace in in its current form.
Big thanks to Shield and The Team and look forward to seeing you all at the next event.
