Rally Quest

Hello friends. You might notice something different about me next time we meet, other than that my hair is even greyer. I'll have glowing skin and a bounce in my step, because, I'm now a bonefide 1:25er . Great success. That's right baybeee, I smashed my old PB and got into the much coveted (by me) 1 minute 25 second zone for times around Hampton Downs in a GT86. Avid readers of Rally Quest will know that I've been chasing this time for a wee while . Nearly two years to be exact. To refresh your memory, a pro driver once told me that in a stock Toyota GT86 any lap time in the 1:25s or faster could be considered 'good'.  So, I'm 'good' now.  It's just science, folks. But am I really good? You didn't think you could make it through an entire Rally Quest post without encountering some philosophy and self-doubt, did you? When I initially set the time in the first session of the day, I was over the moon. But then I got to thinking about one of my...

Yesterday was my third and final track day of the year. I didn't die, and, I got a new personal best. You must be stoked with that, right?   Don't let the thumbs up fool you. If you look carefully you can see that I was not feeling especially stoked: Why wasn't I stoked? To remind you, my target time for these track days has been to get round the Hampton Downs national track faster than 1:26.00. My best time of the day was 1:26. 01 I missed my target not by 1 second, not one tenth of a second, but ONE HUNDREDTH of a second.  10 milliseconds. That's literally ten times faster than the blink of an eye. I should have been delighted with my PB time, and with the track experience in general. But I was feeling a little disappointed, frustrated and annoyed with myself for not doing better, and with the other participants who frequently disrupted my hot laps. I've clearly become too fixated on achieving an arbitrary goal to the detriment of fun. In the grand scheme of thin...

Lately, I have been experiencing what scientists refer to as 'human emotions'... If you’re not a motorsport fan you may have never heard of Craig Breen, let alone his tragic death in a testing accident in April this year. Typically, I don't feel particularly devastated when famous people pass away, even if I particularly admired their work or personalities. I didn’t even cry when Bambi's mum died. I can't explain why; that's just the way it is. I didn't even know that much about Craig Breen before his death either. He wasn't one of the main stars of the WRC, and he only had one full season in it. Yet here I am, months later, still thinking about his death with tears welling up in my eyes. For some reason, his death knocked me for six. I aim to delve into the reasons why as I write this. It feels like death comes too soon for nearly everyone, whatever age they die, but Craig was truly too young (33) and had so much more to give. Sadly, this holds true for...

Unbelievably, for my second track day of 2023 (the wettest Auckland year since Noah's Arc set sail) the day was bright, warm, still and dry. I lent my 86 to an experienced driver called Danny for a session, and so I was able to get a few snaps of my car in action:  The Porsche club were out in force yet again:  Loved my new kicks: They had to put this 'dry track conditions' sign out or we wouldn't have believed it was actually dry for once in 2023:  Danny also brought his GoPro with him. So, for the first time I've been able to watch myself driving. And, through the magic of technology, so can you dear viewer: This recoding is of my PB time of 1.26.2 set in the final session. It doesn't look super fast, but for reference I'm getting up to 180kph on the start/finish straight. Let me tell you, that  feels fast! I'd bettered my previous PB time of 1.27.56 by 1.35 seconds - a fair amount in motor racing terms. I put this improvement down to a few factors: N...

It turns out, life does not always get in the way of your plans. Sometimes things go smoothly, and basically turn out how you expected. You just do a thing, it goes OK, then you write about it for some reason. Eh?! A Rally Quest post without any insurmountable barriers or global disruptions to overcome? No major revelations, nostalgic segues, history lessons or journeys of personal transformation? Not even any philosophical musings about the nature of existence?! This is something new.  It may be new, but unfortunately it doesn't make for a particularly scintillating blog post.  So, I'll keep it brief... ✅ My latest track day went OK. Yawn. ✅  It was very sunny.  I managed to avoid sunburn. ✅ I achieved PB time of 1:27.56 around Hampton Downs' National circuit – 1.68 seconds faster than before.  I'm continuing to find some incremental ( and unexciting ) improvements here and there. My target is to get into the 1:25.00s which is considered officially 'goo...

Little old Aotearoa New Zealand has its own Grand Prix, and has had for 67 years. No, really.  OK, so it's not on the F1 calendar, but it is a reasonably well regarded race on the international development circuit. Recent winners include Lando Norris, Lance Stroll, Liam Lawson, Richard Verschoor and Mitch Evans. In days gone by it was won by legends such as Stirling Moss, Graham Hill, John Surtees, Jack Brabham, Bruce McLaren and Keke Rosberg. The Grand Prix race, hosted at Hampton Downs, was backed up by  three fully packed days  of racing from various support categories. One of my objectives this year is to attend more live motorsports events, so off I popped. My objective is to get a better feel for how things play out behind the scenes, to get a better mental picture in place – ready for if and when I ever make it into a real race. I attended the final day, Sunday, which saw 19 races across multiple classes. The variety of cars on show was vast – ...

Oi! So called 'Rally Quest' – I thought this so called blog was supposed to be about rallying ? Who are you, the blog police? Cool your turbos. Well no, it's not actually, it's evolved. It's more about my pursuit and love of motorsport in general. But, I digress. This latest instalment of Rally Quest™ couldn't be more about rallying even if it was coated in mud.  Oh wait. It was: The reason? My buddy Dan and I attended the final stages of the WRC's triumphant return to Aotearoa New Zealand after a 10 year absence. For me, it was a case of completing a very large circle. Here I was, where it all started , amongst rainy New Zealand farmland watching the cream of the rallying crop fly around cambered gravel roads. Only now, at long last,  it was real. The antepenultimate and final 'Power Stage' took place at a very muddy – and I'm talking T in the Park 2007 level of very muddy – Jack's Ridge in South Auckland. A purpose built stage in an area of...

Back to Hampton Downs today for my very first solo big boy track day after completing my training  with Mike from Tracktime  earlier in the year. What's a track day, you ask? Why – do you work for the company that provides my car insurance? Because they had absolutely no idea what one was. Well, I'll tell you. In short, you get to take a car – anything from your daily driver to a specialised track weapon – and drive it around a motor racing track as fast as you like. There are other cars on the track at the same time as you, but you aren't racing against them. If someone faster comes up behind you, you just let them past on a straight with plenty of space. It's a time to hone your driving skills (and have fun, but don't tell the petrol-heads that). The day started at 9:30 when I, about 65 other men and one woman gathered in the Tracktime pit garage. We were treated to a typically brisk run through the safety regulations; what the flags mean, don't speed in the ...