Nurburgring 2010

The penultimate round of the Summer Racing Season at Manfeild Park Raceway resulted in a good points haul for the ICT Protégé Porsche 944 Turbo S driven by Brian McGovern.

Friday's practice was bedevilled by the same electrical gremlins that showed up at the Pukekohe last round but expanded into a serious misfire that was eventually diagnosed as a short across one of the injector leads onto the fuel rail.

With the electrical problems behind him McGovern had a good qualifying session on Saturday with second fastest in class and followed up with a second place in Class A in the first race behind hometown driver Brent Greer who was determined to pull points back. The second place coming with achieving the fastest lap time in Class and McGovern's first time in the 1min 16s at Manfeild.

Sunday’s first race was the Reverse Grid handicap with McGovern starting 20 seconds behind the bulk of the field with only the two Class A+ cars 5 seconds further back. A great drive through the entire field keeping ahead of the A+ cars brought a Race and Class win with Greer dropping a valve and limping home last.

The last race of the weekend had McGovern third on the grid and that is how it stayed throughout the race apart from an early duel with Jeff Lowrey. A chase was made on Connal Dempsey’s 408hp twin turbo for a few laps even getting alongside at one stage but a huge lockup when the ABS switched off leaving most of the left front tyre on the track killed any aspirations of a higher race position and horsepower ruled in the end. Greer never made it to the starting grid and his points suffered accordingly.

With only one round to go at Taupo Raceway during Easter, McGovern now has the ICT Protégé Porsche leading Class A and lying second in both the Bridgestone and the Motorsport Championships.

Kiwi Team Nurburgring's 2 Honda Civic Type R's have both completed their final overhauls and race preparation courtesy of Lodge Auto Centre in Hastings, lead by Richard Field. 2010 was the year of the engine rebuild for the "green" car as the rebuilds are staggered by one year and have a lifetime of three 24 hour endurance events. "To help with our judgement levels of engine life, Castrol performed oil sample reports for Lodge Auto Centre giving us accurate information on how well Castrol Edge Sport has been protecting these engines so well" said Richard.

After removing the engine, Lodge Auto Centre drew up blueprints of the block. We then inspected all of the blueprint measurements to confirm the block had no noticeable issues. The engines received new bearing rings, drive chains, oil pump, water pump. "The cylinder heads is where we find most of the evidence of stress when we pull the engines apart. As these engines spend the better part of 24 hours running on VTEC the valves and guides work very hard, so we replace all of the valves, valve seats and valve guides to our own specifications" Once inspected, measured, parts rebuilt we assemble the head and fit to the block then thoroughly inspected.

Gearboxes are removed and rebuilt after every 24 hour race. They're stripped of every nut, bolt, cir-clip and gear, checked and cleaned. Gears are all crack tested and we replace the bearings on the assembly as well as the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th gear selector hubs. Clutches have been replaced, flywheels replaced, sub frames, stub axles checked. Brake callipers are rebuilt with new seals and boots and new brake rotors fitted. Suspension is completely removed and along with the Proflex shockabsorpers are completely overhauled. Wheels bearings front and rear replaced, front drive shaft CV joints stripped cleaned and repacked with Castrol LMX grease.

Once the car has been completely torn apart, the rebuild begins with attention paid to every nut, bolt, wire and clip. Oil coolers and radiators are pressure tested, and Castrol products added to engine, gearbox, brake and cooling systems. Then the car gets put on Lodge Auto Centre's inhouse dyno and run in and tuned to ensure we are back up to expected power, if not better. Our Honda Civic Type R's are in fact totally road legal in New Zealand so we adjust shock absorper settings and take the cars for a few drives to ensure drivability and race readiness.

All final tests and inspections are now passed, and both race vehicles are waiting to be loaded to our container, doors closed and this is the last time we'll touch them before we take them out of the container at The Green Hell where they'll be ready for another 24 hours of work.

That's right supporters and race fans! We've got a fancy new website kindly developed by the team at Nami Software to ensure that everyone is kept in touch with the team from now until the end of the race and beyond!

The new website comes with many new distinct features including bigger and better photo galleries, a great incorporation of social media networks Twitter and Facebook for ease of contacting you very easily. For some of you who experienced the UStream Live video streams from the race, this will be integrated also in a large way closer to the race, and throughout the race at designated times.

February 26-27 see the first endurance event being held at the new Hampton Down Motorsport Park. Kiwi Team Nurburgring driver Matt Noonan has entered to race his own Honda Civic Type R to gain valuable experience in endurance racing.