Drags at the new racetrack at Taupo on Monday 2nd January.

[KinLoud]

They are holding drags at the new racetrack at Taupo on Monday 2nd January.
I am driving down to see the new track progress and watch the drags.
Anyone want a ride or convoy?

Ken
Ham
021 408 863

[vvega]

ill have to check my diary:D


v

[B1NZ]

sweet, we'll meet you in wellington

We are going as well, may see you there Ken

[gurutasker]

I'm going up on New Years day, unsure of what time at the moment...staying in Omori for the night then heading over

[KinLoud]

I will be leaving hamilton about 8am arrive Taupo about 10am. It will be a slow trip because I will be towing my car trailer with one of my Carinas on it (delivering it to Taupo).
Gates open at 10am aparently, racing starts at 12.30pm, $25
http://www.lid.co.nz/

Ken
Ham
021 408 863

[Pies]

ill be there. be good to catch up ken!

[adikt]

Ken: if you're coming back the same day I'll still be keen for a ride

[KinLoud]

Yeah - Adikt riding shotgun with me down to Taupo.
Others going to the drags text me so I have your number.

Ken
ham
021 408 863

[the fallen303]

thank you ken and adikt car ran fine rest of way home, mind on low boost setting...

[adikt]

lol. didnt sound like low boost as you took off sideways up the highway

[Lloyd]

Anyone got pics?

[the fallen303]

that was .8bar in second. if had been running the high boost (1.1bar) would have kept going through third, lol. ken, got those pics on your comp yet? if so, e-mail me them on john_rosser at supras.org.nz

[B1NZ]

Track looked like it will be great, Weather sucked, Organisation was average..................... and nothing has changed, V8heads running it and so they got priority as well as the stupid Briggs & stratton powered junior draaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagsters

Long story short, I payed $25 to check out the unfinished track, missed the jet cars, saw no or little import drags and got alot of dust in my eyes

[Pies]

$30 got me trapped in the car park, bugger all racing, lots of dust in my eyes, sunburn, extreme lack of food, and really really crappy toilets (scuse the pun) so i ended up takin a leak on one of the nicer looking toilets that had "zylex" written on it.

but it is just early days i will give em that! i did have a good day and the racing that was on was damn good to watch.

[KinLoud]

Good day overall!
Dropped off one of my Carinas to the new owner.
Visited my mate and his lexus V8 rwd celica race car project. He also showed us his Cressida that had a custom "flame out exhaustpipe" setup - he will send some pics of it at nightime!
Saw this car at BP in Taupo while getting a coffee fix - good humour!

We got to park in the Competitors carpark (still had to pay!) because we had my car trailer on the back of the falcon... "you're here to pick up a car are you?". So not too far to walk!
I would guess that there were about 5 to 7,000 people there! Great for a first day.
New drag strip looking down the strip. The track is flat for the first 500m then dips a bit where it joins with the main straight of the old track.

Pic looking from near the finish line towards the start

Pic looking towards the finish line

On the way home we saw a car parked with the bonnet up. I decided to see if we could help because I could have just put the car on my trailer...
It was a Toyspeed member Jono (the fallen303) who had blown off his blowoff valve. So we got him to drive it up onto the trailer so it was eisier to get underneath to fix it. The big whale almost lifted the back of the falcon off the ground so that the car and trailer rolled forward as the handbrake didn't work with no weight on the rear wheels... funny!

Jono working on the blow off valve

Jono still working on the blow off valve


Ken
Ham
021 408 863

[the fallen303]

ha ha!! yeah, so stoked you guys came along aye, i didn't even have a knife or anything to be able to do that damn hose clamp up with! the trailer definitely made it easier!

[zylex]

$30 got me trapped in the car park, bugger all racing, lots of dust in my eyes, sunburn, extreme lack of food, and really really crappy toilets (scuse the pun) so i ended up takin a leak on one of the nicer looking toilets that had "zylex" written on it.

but it is just early days i will give em that! i did have a good day and the racing that was on was damn good to watch.

Oi! Watch it you!

But seriously, we realise how unhappy everyone is. We're making all the changes necessary as quickly as possible, and unfortunately a lot of it was out of our control. It will be better, and we'll get it there soon. Re what B1 said about the V8 people running it - theres a team of us running the venue, and then the girls who run Champion Dragway ran the actual race day. They did well with what they had to work with, and were there to help us get things started due to their experience. They won't necessarily always run things.

I thought i'd keep you all as up to date as possible, this is about to be published in all major magazines, etc. The letter (hopefully) puts things in perspective, give you an idea from our position and explain that the organisers of the event, even right at the top understand totally how you must feel about it.

An Open Letter regarding the Lakeside Grand Opening on January 2

All attendees at the Grand Opening of Taupo’s Lakeside International Dragway have every right to be annoyed at us for being messed around. Without covering every detail of what went wrong on January 2 we offer the following explanation.

This was the first event held at Lakeside. It was supposed to be the second but due to the weather we were unable to hold a shakedown event in December.

Leading up to the December event we were unable to test the systems in place because it rained nearly every day and in fact we waited five days in the rain at one stage trying to set up the lights. When we did eventually get them set up, (leading up to Christmas eve between showers) we had a fault in the board in the Xmas Tree and had to fly another one out from the USA which did not get to Taupo until the 28th.

While we did some testing of the lights, further problems with the timing system did not manifest themselves until we tried to run brackets on the day of the Grand Opening.

On the facility side, the weather continually played havoc with construction and track preparation. In the last two weeks leading up to January 2 we had the track steam cleaned, sand blasted, completely washed down (three times) and swept by broom innumerable times.

Twice in that period the rain was so heavy up to eight inches of soil was washed onto the startline. Having to cope with that let alone rectify the problem while trying to undertake track prep was extremely difficult. Before the event we were aware the dust could be an issue and had been watering the ground daily to reduce the problem. Unfortunately the wind was drying everything out faster than we could water it.

In the week leading up to the event we did have a track capable of taking New Zealand’s top cars. In fact we had Chad Head, former chief of track prep for NHRA working to get a surface for us and on New Years Eve we were all ready to run. The dust and wind killed it between then and race day even though we washed the whole track down once again. When the strong wind again came up on the morning of January 2 it may as well have rained from the outset.

On the entry issues for both competitors and spectators - people turning up well before the scheduled start time created massive problems for us. Staff were not even in position when queues started forming. At Lakeside we have to work with a resource consent plan, traffic management and health and safety programme. So many turning up before the advertised opening time lead to all sorts of problems which we should have had contingencies for. We didn't and I apologise to everyone who was disappointed. Since the Grand Opening we have had debriefs with different groups of people involved and will overcome these issues.

This was the biggest motorsport event ever held at Taupo by a long way and stretched all resources previously used. In an attempt to remedy a bad situation we have made the NZ Hot Rod Magazine Club Champs on January 28 free entry for spectators and will work to ensure there are no repeats of previous problems.

We would like to thank all those who have offered their support before and since the Grand Opening and look forward to better things to come.

Gavin McLaughlin
Bruce Macilquham
Directors, Lakeside International Dragway

[adikt]

i think most people that went understand that the 2nd was basically a shakedown day due to various issues.
the first meet on any new track is bound to have a few problems.
personally, i think the day went fairly well considering
once the track is complete & the grass has grown a bit to keep the dust down, it will definitely be a great place to race, and to spectate.

and zylex, you looked like you were have a bit of a 'mare, racing up & down the track all day lol.
good work tho, hopefully everything will be running sweet soon

oh, also something a workmate mentioned, was that those in the stands couldnt see the closest lane due to the high wall & the crowds standing there. dunno if you've heard anything about that yet, but you might be able to pass it onto the right people

[zylex]

i think most people that went understand that the 2nd was basically a shakedown day due to various issues.
the first meet on any new track is bound to have a few problems.
personally, i think the day went fairly well considering
once the track is complete & the grass has grown a bit to keep the dust down, it will definitely be a great place to race, and to spectate.

and zylex, you looked like you were have a bit of a 'mare, racing up & down the track all day lol.
good work tho, hopefully everything will be running sweet soon

oh, also something a workmate mentioned, was that those in the stands couldnt see the closest lane due to the high wall & the crowds standing there. dunno if you've heard anything about that yet, but you might be able to pass it onto the right people

Hah yeah things were a bit hectic.. We did also know about the stands - the way it was explained to us was that people stood infront of the stands, so the front row stood on their seats, and the row behind them stood up, and so on.. so we're going to sort something out to try and prevent that in the future. Not sure what we can do about the wall positioning - but we'll see if we can sort something out.

[Inane]

so whens the next one?