MEL’S EXCEL-LENT ADVENTURE – PART TWO

The Hyundai Excel racing season in QLD is rapidly approaching, and Melinda Price is back with the second instalment in update on her return to racing diary after hitting the track for the first time in her nearly race ready machine.

Part 2 of the journey begins with my long (seems like forever) awaited opportunity to drive MY OWN race car for the very first time. I feel a huge sense of pride and independence as I tow my very own race car for the first time… finally my driver coach Josh Hunt and I are off to Queensland Raceway.
I’m glad the car park is nearly empty as we arrive – reversing a trailer is one of the many skills I still need to master. ‘The buggy’ is in the shed and ready for its’ first shakedown.

By the time I get out on track, filled with excitement to begin the bonding experience between my car and I, the heavens have opened and it’s raining… Josh and I get one session in each before torrential rain pours down on QR and the track is closed. The buggy is packed back up onto the trailer in the pouring rain, and in a huge anticlimax we drive home drenched. On the bright side, 10 laps were completed, and nothing fell off…so far so good.

The following week there is a test day at Morgan Park, a track I’ve never driven on, and one I need to learn well as its where many of the rounds in the 2022 championship will be held. It’s a 3-hour drive from the Gold Coast and I’m super keen not to miss a second on track after last week, so full of excitement we load up early and decide to head there the night before.

Up bright and early the next morning I’m the first one there…one by one the other race cars begin to arrive, and the vast majority of them my fellow Excel competitors!

The Queensland series is arguably one of the most competitive in the country, and many of the big players from the recent years are here. Well at least by the end of the day we should have some idea where we stand in terms of pace!!!

Josh is the first to hit the track in ‘the buggy’, as always setting an outstanding lap time to which I spend the rest of the day aspiring to match, and also providing valuable technical feedback on the car to set me off in the right direction.

Let’s note that at this stage the buggy is pretty much as I picked it up… it doesn’t have the new control Supashock suspension it needs for 2022, just an old and tired set of XYZ’s, it doesn’t have the brake pads I’ll be racing on in 2022, the engine is an unknown, and the tyres are unbuffed and over three years old… so let’s find out what the starting point is compared to the guns!

I spent my first session learning track and car and just soaking it all in and was clearly far too conservative given the difference in lap times between me and the rest…. it’s been a long time since I raced (a car) in a super competitive environment, and I’m sure I have a motherly sense of protection about driving my own car as well (financially driven by the most part I’m sure by the cost to fix it if something goes wrong). However, this is a super competitive category with the young guns of today aspiring to make it to Supercars or overseas… and I need to pull my finger out quick smart!

As the day goes by, I start to get my head around this fantastic and challenging track and settle into the drivers’ seat. It’s obvious from the data that you really need to push these cars hard to get the most out of them, and my lap times are improving every session. As the chequered flag drops on my first proper test day, it’s deemed a huge success and we are all super excited about the performance of the car and the engine considering the whole package is as I bought it.

Now that we have a benchmark and know some of the strengths and weaknesses of the car, on the drive home we begin to compile the (long) list of things we now need to do to the car to turn it into a weapon.
There is control suspension for 2022, so it’s out with the XYZ’s and in with the new Supashocks to start with. The brakes also need a refresh and the correct race pads need to be ordered.

The car tips the scales a bit on the heavy side, so weight reduction is the next project. I’ve already taken the sound deadener out from inside the car, which has left the interior looking no good and we can’t have that, so off I go to colour match the paint and respray the inside of the car again to bring it up to scratch.

To reduce the weight of the car further a new fibreglass lightweight dash is available, which means that the old heavier dash can be removed, along with the heating and cooling systems which account for a lot of weight – so I order one of those which should arrive in a couple of weeks.

As exciting as all of this is, every call I make seems to cost me hundreds (or thousands) of dollars, and I’m freaking out as I watch my (to date) tiny race budget dwindle away.

I’m always on the hunt in the background for new sponsors, and since Castrol signed up, some more partners have come onboard including King Springs. I’ve known Mark (King) since the 90’s when we were both racing in GTP, and as an advocate for females in motorsport, he was happy offer some support. A big thankyou is also deserved by another long-term friend in Bruce Williams, for the opportunity to share my adventure with you through this fabulous magazine in Auto Action.

Meanwhile…the new engine is ready and waiting to go in at Fataz Competition Engines, so the buggy heads up there for the next piece of the puzzle. This is where the buggy will live for the next few weeks while the new engines goes in, and we prepare the car for the arrival of the new lightweight dash.

The old dash is out after much hard work, along with all the associated extra weight in heating and cooling etc. The windscreen has also been removed and we eagerly await the arrival of the new dash which is enroute from far north Qld.

Good intentions and planning can’t stop the problems of the real world sometimes (outside of motorsport) impacting on my racing plans. There had been a delay in being able to pick the car up initially due to lockdown in Melbourne, and then I couldn’t get it across the border to Queensland due to Covid border restrictions for a while, and now the next bump in the road was about to present itself.
What seems to be a universal problem for most businesses these days – freight. The new dash left over 10 days ago and hasn’t made an appearance yet.

I finally manage to track it down with the (massively short-staffed due to COVID) freight company and end up driving to Brisbane to pick it up myself…but this has delayed the whole project by weeks. Anyway, we pressed on, and the dash was finally installed.

One job is finished and now it’s on to fit the Fataz engine. A multitude of associated new components including a radiator, starter motor, hoses and thanks to Brian, I have a whole new Exhaust innovations exhaust system which has also found its way into the buggy.

After some finishing touches, we can head to the track for some much-needed testing with all the new bits – that’s if we can find a racetrack in Queensland that isn’t underwater at the moment following the devastating Queensland floods of the last week.

It’s now March, the first race is in just over 3 weeks, and I haven’t driven the car yet with all the new bits…. The pressure is starting to build!!!

Watch out for the next edition of Mel’s Racing Diary in an upcoming issue of AUTO ACTION.