Harmo's Blog - February 1

Wow, another year is almost underway. Welcoming new sponsors Rockstar Energy Drink, Valvoline Oils and PCS Dash Logger for season 2010 means we'll be kicking off the season in better shape then the same time last year.

Rockstar Energy Drink ( http://www.rockstarenergy.com.au ) is one of the market leaders in the energy beverage market. Well re-known and respected around the globe, we're over the moon to be associated with Rockstar Energy Drink for season 2010 and beyond. Valvoline Oils and PCS Dash Logger are also new faces for this season. Valvoline are another market leader and world re-known and respected company. Mark Hurt and the guys at Valvoline have offered their support for this season and have been welcomed with open arms. ( http://www.valvoline.com.au )

Last but not least, PCS Powertrain Control Solutions. Rob from PCS Australia has supplied us with equipment and support this season. Very popular in the Drag Racing scene, PCS have opened their focus on the circuit side of racing and are looking forward to showing just how good their touch-screen dash loggers are. Personally I have already had experience with Rob's Dash Loggers and all I can say is they are fantastic. With everything from GPS, RPM, Lap Timer, Oil, Fuel, Boost, Speed….. You name it; this dash can log it…. Check them out here - http://www.powertraincontrolsolutions.com/datalogging.php

2009 will go down as a learning year for us. We had a few up-hill battles internally that couldn't be resolved without conflict and they pretty much came to a head at around the halfway point in the season. Without getting bogged down in the “he said she said” stuff, a change had to be made.

Looking forward to this season, there is a new lease on life and a better working attitude around the camp. Everyone is pulling their weight and there seems to be limited knit-picking as we're all rowing the boat in the same direction.

Some of the issues we were finding in 2009 were not only lack of set-up; it was the motivation to do anything about it. Towards the end of the year, we enrolled the services of Nigel Bolling to give us an insight as to why the car was behaving the way it was and to attempt to fix it. Nigel spent around 2-3 days cycling the suspension, front and rear, along with other things to get an idea on what was working and what wasn't. Little things like 400lbs springs marked as 300lbs were discovered to name a few.

The results were instant, picking up almost 2 seconds a lap on average at Oran and 1.8 seconds a lap at Eastern Creek. With more to come from tweaking shocks and geometry of the suspension, there will be solid gains in overall performance moving forward. Another complaint was the lack of straight line power compared to the other front running Mazda's in the series. Closer inspection of the inlet manifold and exhaust system have also been changed to combat. The #16 Rockstar Gatorz Racing Mazda RX7 will hopefully be a healthier car heading into the season opener at Eastern Creek Raceway.

Rolling back the clock to the 2009, if we decided to finish off the season, we were looking at 2 nd Outright Over 2 Litre and 2 nd in Class 2000-3000 behind the defending NSW State Champion Ryan Brown, which considering what we were up against, isn't a bad result. Out of an 18 race series, we only competed on 10 races and still managed a Top 10 Outright and on the podium in the 2000-3000 class at season end.

We all love a new season. The feeling of having a clean slate and new livery, sometimes new challenges and new cars brings out the best in all of us. The IPRA rumour mill has been working overtime since the final flag in 2009 and has see everything from the Turbo Starlet of Dave Loftus, the RX7 of past dual NSW & VIC State Champion Leanne Tander and Combined Touring Champion Jim Pollicina in his 12 million horsepower VZ Commodore stepping up for 2010. One thing is for sure, no matter who decides to run the full season this year, IPRA will definitely be the series to watch. Long time IP fan and Rockstar Gatorz Racing team member Joseph Lenthall will be making 2010 his debut season in his Revolution Racegear Mazda RX7 also.

For us, we've got a fair bit of work to do in the coming six weeks to get the car back together, nothing out of reach however, we're looking forward to getting the car on the track for some testing in the coming weeks with 5 time National Champ and Selectmaz Performance Pilot Ken Douglas having a guest steer to get his opinion on things. Fingers crossed, we can just go out there and have fun this season. Too much shit in the past few seasons almost made it all too hard to get motivated to race. 2010 will be a great year, welcome again to our new sponsors…

See you at the track…

Harmo