Thank you thank you. We certainly had a great time, but compared to the
honor of being declared thicko of the month, all else fades into
insignificance!
Actually, in all honesty the thicko award comes 2nd to a compliment from
the great man himself John Sprinzel. He came up to me at the end of the
second day of comp and said "You must be a hooligan driver to be going that
quickly without pace notes and with dodgy brakes".
He has a great sense of humour and is really easy to talk to. He is a wicked
teaser, pointing out to anyone who would listen that I was driving with a
50-60lb handicap whilst pointing to my belly!
He also signed my copy of "Spritely years" with the line "To my very fast
and
GIGANTIC pal - Mike. John Sprinzel '98".
I am busy writing up something on the event and will get the photos done
today.
I'll send WST something for the TT web site!
I'm glad you'll be at Bathurst, I also plan to be there in either the bugeye
(as a Marque Sports car) or else a MKIV Sprite (as a Historic Sb car). It
will
be fantastic. Are you bringing your car or borrowing a car?
As for rotor wear, it was apparently because I did the event recce at road
legal speeds
that caused the huge rotor wear with those carbon/kevlar pads (I'm not sure
of the
brand - I bought them from Tom Colby at Speedwell). The pad and rotor wear
during
the event itself (at race speeds) was minimul compared to the recce. Despite
stages
that were exceptionally hard on brakes (16 km of downhill, with lots of 2nd
gear and 3rd
gear corners, all interspersed with 3rd/4th gear sweepers), I didn't have
any fade with
the carbon/kevlar pads. The standard pads I did the first day and a half on,
faded so
badly I practically had no brakes at the end of each stage. They also wore
out very
quickly!
Would anyone like to see a short special stage as an mpeg? 1:55 which was
the
fastest spridget time for a 2.48km stage which started in the streets and
went up
a pretty steep tight, windy uphill road? I had an in-camera mounted for most
of the
event. I had the IO port video camera mount I bought from minia mania a
couple
of years ago and a Canon Hi8 camera. Unfortunately on the bumpy stages the
picture broke up far too much to be useful. Add that to forgetting to press
the button,
flat battery, end of tape and madly rushing to cure electrical problems, we
probably
only have 2 or three useful bits of video out of 19 special stages!
Mike
-----Original Message-----
From: Wm. Severin Thompson <wsthompson@thicko.com>
To: Mike Gigante <mikeg@vicnet.net.au>
Cc: team-thicko@Autox.Team.Net <team-thicko@Autox.Team.Net>;
spridgets@Autox.Team.Net <spridgets@Autox.Team.Net>
Date: Tuesday, February 24, 1998 12:09 AM
Subject: Re: Back from Rally with John Sprinzel
>Hear Ye, Hear Ye...
>
>Following this outstanding performance in international competition, I, the
>Flounder, do hearby declare Mike Gigante to be "Thicko of the Month" for
the
>month of March. This prestigous award will include public notice, a page on
the
>infamous Thicko web site, and some sort of trinket (yet to be determined).
>Please forward a jpeg or two for the TTweb site... or the URL for the
section on
>your site...OK?
>
>Nominations for subsequent months should be directed to me at
><wsthomspson@thicko.com>.
>
>Congratulations Mike on your competition success... sounds like a great
time.
>I'm looking forward to racing the all Healey Race in Australia in
October'98...
>will you be there?
>
>Concerning your brake troubles... have you tried Hawk Blue pads? I get a
pretty
>long life out of them, without too much rotor wear. Haven't been able to
fade
>them yet... other comp pads I fade in 2 laps.
>
>WST
>
>Mike Gigante wrote:
>
>> Hi Guys. I just got back from Tasmania where I competed in the
>> Rally of Tasmania/Heritage Rally. I was in the bugeye ("redcar").
>> This was a bitumen "special stage" rally with Tulip diagrams,
>> overnight impound and the lot. It was a first for a circuit racer like
me.
>> I had done the 3 Peaks Rally in '96 but that was a navigation rally
>> not a drivers rally. This was 3 days of full on driving on closed road
>> stages.
>>
>> John Sprinzel of "Spritely Years", Speedwell and Donald Healey
>> Motors fame also competed in a bugeye. There were 11 sprites,
>> 2 midgets (and 1 lone MGB Ha!). Of the 11 sprites, 8 were bugeyes.
>> There also was a lone 100-4.
>>
>> John Sprinzel is a wonderful fellow and it was a joy and privilege to
>> be in the same event. He was not really driving hard (he certainly has
>> nothing to prove). I enjoyed talking to him and I picked up a few hints
>> (like it is a must to use pace notes next time!)
>>
>> A new team was created just for me - Just in Time Racing - team motto
>> is "It will be OK in the end". Let me just say we did (finally) get the
car
>> finished just in time for scrutineering and miraculously we did finish
the
>> event. I did cop a lot of flack for it though. We had brake problems
>> throughout the event (my wonderful carbon/Kevlar pads ate the brembo
>> rotors so badly during the course recon that we had to start the event
>> on virgin standard road pads. We wore them out after less than half
>> the event and had to re-install the C/K pads on the side of the
>> road. We were checking the rotors after every special stage! I was using
>> handbrake only on transport stages! At one stage the brakes jammed on
>> (a stone in the pedal box) and I couldn't do more than 2nd gear under
full
>> noise - we though that would be the end of us.
>>
>> I was chasing a deficit of 2 or minutes at the start of the last day and
>> realistically didn't think I could do it. That wasn't stopping me trying
>> though!
>>
>> Suprise surprise at the presentation dinner I was announced class winner
by
>> 40 secs. The 2nd place guy was a very experienced and successful bugeye
>> rally driver and he was not happy!! He lodged a protest over what turned
out
>> to be
>> a timing error on one special stage and it turns out we failed to nail
him
>> by
>> just 8 secs. I was catching him hand over fist - one one special stage
>> (Hellyer
>> Gorge reverse I took 30 secs out of his lead! (9:25 vs 9:55). Oh well. I
had
>> fun
>> trying.
>>
>> I also cooked redcar's motor so by the 2nd day we were burning 4
litres/day
>> of
>> Mobil 1. We definately lost top end and redcar's motor will need a good
>> check
>> and freshen up before she competes again.
>>
>> This friday night we have a 40th anniversary of the sprite dinner with
John
>> Sprinzel
>> talking a bout the cars we love most. It will be fun too!
>>
>> cheers, Mike
>
>
>
>
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