TEAM MONSTER SPORT RACE TO THE SKY CHALLENGE

Apr.18 Practice & Qualify

Saturday April 18, New Zealand Cardrona Valley had great clear weather from the morning. Now is the time for the race machines to meet their track.

Today was set for 3 total runs. Two practices and one qualifying run. Since tomorrow is also a qualifying day, TEAM MONSTER SPORT strategically opted to use all three runs as practice for the day. The target is set for the final race and many adjustments and configurations are needed for the Super 86.

Road surface conditions change as race machines roar down the track. Grip conditions can improve where loose gravel is blown away by other cars however the road can get rough with deep wheel grooves. The team must plan ahead to assess how much the road surface would change. Strategy planning for the world's longest 14.5km, 135 corner, 1050m altitude difference, dirt track, hill climb is where the real thrill is.

On the other hand fans cannot miss the opportunity to get close to all the competitors. The paddok is open for spectators and free to take a look at the hot race machines up close and personal "King of the Mountain" MONSTER Tajima's popularity is rock solid. There is always a crowd around him.

MONSTER Tajima comments after running Practice 1:
"The course was very slippery so I took care in driving to see the car and tire's condition. I was very confident and able to slow the pace at the final section and very happy that we have logged good data of the car and tires. Since the road condition will now go through changes, we will setup the car to adapt to the factors"

Comment after Practice 2:
"We tested the narrower tires we brought in for practice 2. The grip was feeling good in the lower sections however in the hill sections the tire did not catch grip and felt as if tippy toeing through; it felt very unstable. We will try out other setups to get better results."

Comment after Qualify 1:
"It is the first qualifying run however we used the opportunity to tune our setup further. As we are not able to practice as other competitors could, so we ran the first qualifying run for setting up for tomorrow's finals. This time we changed to wide tires, softened the suspension, and added more positive camber to gain better traction. The setup was an improvement than before however there is more room to fine tune. We will use qualify 2 to refine the setup for the finals. We will put a great show for the finals, and wish for all your kind support further."

Tomorrow morning will be the second qualifying run, and then the finals for four-wheel division will start from 1:50PM.
Let us all look forward to the final showdown!

Repco Race to the Sky preliminary qualifying results, Saturday 18 April 2015

Position – Driver, hometown, vehicle, class, time
1 - Brett Hayward, Victoria/Australia, RTTS Special, Unlimited 8:23.079
2 - Alister McRae, Perth/Australia, Vantage Subaru, Unlimited 8:26.795
3 - Monster Tajima, Japan, Super 86, Unlimited 8:38.824
4 - Ian Ffitch, Amberley, Super Quad 8:41.374
5 - Michael Tall, Christchurch, Mitsubishi Evo 4, Rallycourse 9:01.314
6 - Kieran Hall, Geraldine, Subaru STI, Rallycourse 9:06.506
7 - Sloan Cox, Rotorua, Mitsubishi Evo, Unlimited 9:07.186
8 - Andrew Graves, Gore, Mitsubishi Evo, Rallycourse 9:09.602
9 - Glen Frew, Mosgiel, Mitsubishi Evo, Open 4WD 9:11.431
10 - Nathan McAlwee, Auckland, KTM, Motorcycles 9:11.636

 

【Race To The Sky Official Website】
http://www.racetothesky.co.nz/