A long awaited return

It has been a long time between drinks since I've had the opportunity to drive my Formula Ford in anger. In between my last round at Lakeside and the round coming up I've had to go back to the basics. I knew my talent could be worked on, its a work in progress and I hope it stays that way, but I also knew in area's my car was letting me down.

So I retrieved my car from the guys who were looking after the car, and dropped my car off in the hands of a family friend and their family based team. TGR (or Tony Graham Road-freight) are more accustomed to Speedway and Karting in the Northern Rivers region though were more than eager to learn how to setup the car. With their son Ash looking at making a transition from speedway to circuit racing, they thought the information we could learn off each other would be invaluable.

So the car was completely stripped, suspension out, body work off and engine accessories out to see just what makes these cars tick and what can be improved on. I immediately discovered some places in the rear bodywork that would be letting the car down aerodynamically so off the bodywork went to East Coast Finishing's, to be altered and repainted. Suspension had play front and rear in most of the wishbone joins, with some proper spacers we fixed this issue. Engine power was down, so we had the car dyno'd, it appeared that the ignition was completely breaking down. Some parts sent over from America would fix these issues.

I read that a good seat is worth 0.5 of a second a lap, either for or against your times, so it wasn't a surprise that the seat came straight out and went straight to the bin. Never being comfortable wasn't helping me at all, so I had a fiberglass one built which sits me lower and on a great angle for me. Not only does the cabin feel more spacious but the new seat also does give me more leg room for some fancy footwork.

The proof may be in the pudding whether this whole exercise of preparing the car myself was worth it, though just going into the race this weekend with complete confidence in my car will help me more than ever in achieving my goal.

Fitness wise I reached my goal weight 2 weeks ago, down from 89kg to 75kg. It was a hard path and keeping it off is a challenge, but its been worth it.

I have to make mention to all of my current sponsors also:
Jetts Fitness
Life Science
Tony Graham RoadFreight
Nutrition Warehouse
ULX 110 Custom Blend Oils

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QLD Championship Round 3 - LP50

I hadn't been back to Lakeside since my weekend ending crash earlier in the year, but still it was like being a kid in a toy shop being back. Lakeside was hosting the 50 year anniversary 50 years of Formula Cars Festival - I'm glad I could be a part of the Festival. Numerous Formula Juniors, Vee's, Fords, 2's were all there, quite a nostalgic moment for any car enthusiast.

The weekend started quite well, it was the first race with a fully functioning dash which actually makes quite a difference. Although you can drive the car to a point just on feel, there is so much noise and vibration from everything that its hard to tell sometimes exactly what revs the car is pulling and when to change gear. After quite a woeful qualifying session (I was 2seconds off the pace), I pulled into the pits with a lot of questions. My dad mentioned that my car wasn't sounding as "throaty" as the other cars out there - had my never-ending carby problem returned? - sure did, again I was only getting 3/4 throttle.

With a new spring in the carby, and some older tyres from the previous round, I attacked as best I can. Some of the guys had become faster, and although I had the back portion of the track down into hungry mastered I was being let down into Karussel (Turn 1). Given I was sitting in the same second bracket as 3rd place down to 7th (57seconds). I did manage to finish the weekend in an overall 4th, which for me was a personal best.

The consolidation was keeping my wits about me and not letting the red mist take over. 6 Formula Fords crashed out over the weekend, I had a slight tap but kept the car on the black stuff, which was a bonus knowing there was no extra's to spend on the car. I came out and learnt a lot, about me and my cars limits and it feels like the engine is letting it down in parts. Once I get a chance to strip it down, rebuild the engine, and make some adjustments the way I want it I'm sure there will be some fast times to ensue.

After the deductions in points for some (given for reckless driving), I am now sitting in 3rd place in the Queensland Championship. I was gobsmacked when I heard this, but I feel confident in progressing even further once I have the small issues with my car sorted out.

On a side note, its been a personal goal to keep my weight down (lighter is faster), and its been made a lot easier by Nutrition Warehouse & Jetts Fitness. Having lost over 10kg's now since the start of the year, its become apparent that athleticism is important in this sport, every kg counts and the fitter I am the quicker I seem to be able to react mentally, and the less sore I am after every race.

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Sport Motivation

Humble champions are few and far between. In this fact most sports are equal, they all have their champions who then become personalities whether in a good or bad way of the sport. But what is with this connect between believing in yourself and actually producing results?

I stumbled across, possibly what I think is the best short motivational video of all time, a video entitled "Still Pumping" - by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Arnold discusses what is needed to be the best. He talks about their being no maybe for winning, and that winning is a mind set, which helps you to push your mind and body harder and harder ultimately resulting in the win. Although this video makes reference to Body Building (of which Arnold was Mr. Olympia several times) it can easily be related to Motorsport. The biggest part to take away in relation to Motorsport I believe, is that people who grow the farthest are the people who don't care whether they fail or they make it, they are going to take the risks anyway.

We have to come back to the mind set that Yes we are going fast, Yes it might hurt if we don't pull off that ballzy move, but the reward for pulling the move off far outweighs the reward for being stuck behind someone you may have been able to beat.

Watch the video - you wont regret it!

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QLD Championship Round 2

Back in Warwick, the weather is slowly getting cooler but I was more than happy to be back. Since the break from my last race I had the arduous task of pulling my car apart to throw a coat of paint on it - 4 different colours just wasn't a good look. Thanks to help from my good friends (Chris Hogg & Ashley Johnson) I was able to not only remove the front suspension and strip the car down, but I was able to throw some paint on the plastics and put it all back together before its journey down to Bathurst.

Now armed with some knowledge of Morgan Park, I arrived on Friday ready to put some good practice laps in. On the first session the car felt good, we made some adjustments to the suspension ready for the second session. I questioned the slight bit of play in my steering but I went out anyway. Turns out along the sweeper (a 180+ kph corner), the steering linkage snapped and my 2mm of play went to about 10cm. Somehow I managed to keep the car on the track though I was a bit un-nerved by the whole thing.

The steering arm was replaced, and an issue I was having with 4th gear (which I later found out was broken) ready for qualifying.

The first race was quite interesting a few crashes and offs left me up in 5th place, it really pays to be consistent in motor racing! I dropped back the next race to 6th and by the last race I had made a pretty dumb suspension adjustment to my car which dropped me back to 8th. The quest for the sweet spot continues for me and my suspension.

Again the team owner/manager gave me a piece of valuable advice, from every single time you go out on the track you need to learn something, you need to come in, take in what happened and learn. Not only how to be faster, but what to change, what to do different and what to do the same.

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How Sponsorship Works

This is such a non-definitive topic. In grass roots racing a lot of time I have found its parents or friends who help foot the bill to keep your car on the track. As your racing tends to progress forward from this corporate sponsors are brought on and racing almost becomes free or earns you money.

- In Formula Ford at a state level a weekend can cost anywhere up to $10,000 and at a national level you could be looking at $30,000 and there are 8 races or more a year!

- V8 Supercar development series yearly budgets can be anywhere from $300,000 to $500,000 a year with the main game being closer to $3m - $5m per car per year.

So where does this leave you, the start up racer who doesn't have a lot of money to throw around and nor does your parents? I met with an ex V8 supercar driver in a location that I have to keep under wraps due to his extensive car collection (which apparently is worth over $10m) who explained to me how sponsorship worked for him. Companies are looking to be sold on the idea that they are going to benefit from giving you money, that they are going to see returns and that the whole exercise wasn't a charitable function of the company.

I met with another race car driver (ex Porsche Carrera Cup champ), who gave me 2 very important pieces of information; racing is 5% racing and 95% business even the best are constantly looking for more money to pay for their sport and their wage. The other very important piece of information is to be ready to sell your soul, everything is for sale when sponsorship pays your way and take every opportunity you can get.

Being in sales has helped me a fair bit with this aspect of racing, I know how to sell ice to eskimo's I do it every day, but even still getting actual dollars from people and business is quite hard.

From this I have managed to procure some sponsors and I have to make special mention to a few:
Jetts Fitness (Hamilton & DFO) - www.jetts.com.au
Life Science - www.life-science.com.au
Nutrition Warehouse - www.nutritionwarehouse.com.au
My Nutrition Warehouse Page - http://www.nutritionwarehouse.com.au/daniel-hall-gi-120.html

I guess these sponsors will be happy to see the plans for the new colour scheme, which will be painted after my next round of racing. The idea for the paint scheme came from the colour of my old Monaro (Holden Devil Yellow), mixed with black in a similar design to my current helmet. I'd like to think Wiz Khalifa's song Black and Yellow comes to mind when you look at this car!

Along with this new paint scheme is a couple of tricks I have done some research into, making the car turn harder and engine produce a couple more horsepower. I will throw these on to see if I can pull some podiums out of the bag for the end of the year.

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QLD Championship Round 1

Warwick is a great town, if you haven't been its definately a place to visit. Small with a nice community made nicer by the fact a great deal of them are car enthusiasts. A couple of minutes out of the city is probably the best circuit in QLD - Morgan Park.

Now host to the Shannons Nationals Motor Racing Championships Morgan Park provides everything a driver looks for in a racetrack, plenty of overtaking opportunity, slow and fast sections and plenty of run off when you do make an error.

Having just had my car fixed in time from my crash at Lakeside a couple of weeks earlier it was looking a bit all over the shop. 4 different colours, a borrowed steering rack and broken RPM readout on my dash I had managed to turn my once good looking Formula Ford into a bit of a pig.

Given I did manage to hop out onto the track for my first time and spin my car in the only practice session I had - on my first lap, probably wasn't the smartest idea, as by the time qualifying came around I had no idea what I was doing. I managed to qualify 19th (2nd last), by the end of the weekend I'd end up 13th (or 10th) of the eligable cars in my championship.

It was a massive learning experience, I had to throw out everything I knew about driving a road car, but I knew where and why I was slow and made sure I concentrated on these area's. The biggest thing letting me down was speed, crashing again scared me, not for getting hurt but simply because I couldn't afford to fix my car again. As time went on I worked slowly on throwing this out of my mind and only now is it starting to pay dividens.

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What is a Formula Ford?

So this Formula Ford thing, whats it all about you ask?

Racing now-a-days has developed a monumental difference between the cars running around at the front of the race and the cars bringing up the rear. Why you ask? - Money + Setup + Skill = speed. Notice I put money first? Racing has become this prestigious sport jam packed with some of the worlds largest companies as sponsors, where what I believe is money that makes a fast car. The aim of Formula Ford is to bring racing back to its grass roots. Relatively low power, no wings for aerodynamics, relative parity between the cars.

For the spectator this means, lots of overtaking, lots of crashing and slipstreaming. For the driver this typically means a relatively equal race with anyone having a reasonable chance of winning. And your not a racing car driver unless you want to win!

Car engined, out of a Ford Cortina GT, its a 1.6L 4 Cylinder with about 100hp, a Formula Ford will out accelerate most cars on the road, an SS Commodore would be mince meat. Racing car suspension, this is similar to even a Formula 1 car, with a double wishbone and pushrod setup. Adjustable racing brakes, Semi Slick Tyres and custom built chassis' make these cars extremely quick around a racetrack. And some people have asked - no there is no way these are road legal.

So to summarize, its relatively cheap (in racing terms), not what your average Joe would think is cheap, its fast, and its relatively equal car wise. Not to mention the who's who of racing all started here, every one from Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes, to Mark Webber and Michael Schumacher.

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Nobody is perfect

So I should add some substance to this blog, hopefully people will read it then!

Top Gear Round 1, the track is Lakeside International Raceway, home to the Australian Formula 1 championship in the 60's. Its amazing to say that I have raced around on a track that the likes of Sir Jack Brabham or Jackie Stewart have driven around in anger. Its the equivalent of saying I've raced the Melbourne GP after Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel have been around it. Off the bucket list - yup.

Even more amazing is, not only have I raced a track that a Formula 1 has been around, I have set consistently faster lap times around this very track than a 60's Formula 1 car. Back in the day this 2.41km track would take the best drivers in the world about 1m4sec to race around, as of my first round of the track this year I was completing a lap in about 57seconds, a world of difference in a race.

So racing around this track in my newly acquired Formula Ford (more on what this is later), I am completely over driving the car. In my helmet its rapidly getting tight as my head is expanding thinking I'm Michael Schumacher. Lakeside being the unforgiving yet extremely rewarding track that it is, will spit you up but not throw you out the other side, your car will be a crumpled wreck in some armco. So I'm going around eastern loop (2nd last corner) drop a rear wheel and I'm slingshotted straight into a wall. It all happens so quick the first time you crash; your on the track, then next thing you know your hand is broken, your legs and body are aching, and your being dragged out of the car by the paramedics. I had plenty of time to re-think what happened later.

The car wasn't in a nice way though. Though I kept a momento from this crash, my steering rack, its in my room - I'll frame it one day, it reminds me to keep my cool and a level head in everything I do, racing or otherwise.

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My first blog

Yes, its a bit late I know, but better now than never. I guess the easiest way to keep track on how everything is going with my motor-sport is to put it in blog form. I have a couple of races and outings to catch up on which I will in newer posts!

First off I'll start by saying racing has come from an early age for me. I've always loved things with engines they intrigue me so much. You throw some fuel in, it explodes, you go fast. Simple huh?

I've always had a huge awe for Michael Schumacher, mostly because he was famous and while I was growing up the whole world was following him. A very talented driver, and if you watch any in-car footage of his driving style its very cool calm and collective, he is like ice, waits for the driver in front of him to make a mistake then exploits the mistake to his advantage.

I would personally never aim so far as to say I'd like to be a Formula 1 driver, its not my scene, and everyone thinks they can be a Formula 1 driver, though this style of driving can definitely be pulled into most forms of motor-sport.

Here is a picture of Schuey putting the pressure on Gilles Villeneuve back in the early 90's - food for thought.

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