We finally made it back and the 2011 "Back to haunt you tour" starts here, although it was a thrash to make it in
the first place.
Our challenge to make the Main Event started on the Tuesday before the meeting, when our new carbon front bodywork arrived at Hauser Racing at about 10:30am. The first concern was the condition of this very expensive piece of bodywork as it had travelled all the way from Canada in the previous weeks. On a lorry through Canada, then North America, into a container, to the Dock in New York, across the Atlantic then on a lorry to Finedon. Fortunately when unpacked the front was in perfect condition.
The News from Hauser Race Cars was that it should take two days to fit so the plan was to collect on Thursday and spend Friday prepping the car for qualifying in the afternoon. As the days unfolded it became clear that the amount of work necessary to do the job correctly was a few hours more, meaning that we could not collect the car until 4:30pm on Friday. We arrived on time and Geoff, Steve and the team had done a great job and we could load up Nosferatu and head off to the Pod.
We arrived just as the sportsman qualifying finished. As we had arrived late it was a challenge to find a pit space but the marshals at Santa Pod found a good spot at the end of the Pro ET pits. We unloaded the tow truck, erected the tent, extracted Nosferatu from the trailer and got to work. Igor (now Crew Chief) got to work with Sparks on the long list of checks, Mina got stuck into organising the trailer with the help of Wednesday and I got on with any other job that needed doing. By 11pm there was still a long list of work to do so we made the decision to call it a night and come back in the morning to carry on knowing we would miss the 9:00am qualifying session. I was adamant that Nosferatu would not run until everything was checked under calm and relaxed conditions, I didn't want anyone rushing or under pressure just to be out by a certain deadline and it worked. We took the car for scrutineering by about 2pm and it sailed through (as it always does).
Our challenge to make the Main Event started on the Tuesday before the meeting, when our new carbon front bodywork arrived at Hauser Racing at about 10:30am. The first concern was the condition of this very expensive piece of bodywork as it had travelled all the way from Canada in the previous weeks. On a lorry through Canada, then North America, into a container, to the Dock in New York, across the Atlantic then on a lorry to Finedon. Fortunately when unpacked the front was in perfect condition.
The News from Hauser Race Cars was that it should take two days to fit so the plan was to collect on Thursday and spend Friday prepping the car for qualifying in the afternoon. As the days unfolded it became clear that the amount of work necessary to do the job correctly was a few hours more, meaning that we could not collect the car until 4:30pm on Friday. We arrived on time and Geoff, Steve and the team had done a great job and we could load up Nosferatu and head off to the Pod.
We arrived just as the sportsman qualifying finished. As we had arrived late it was a challenge to find a pit space but the marshals at Santa Pod found a good spot at the end of the Pro ET pits. We unloaded the tow truck, erected the tent, extracted Nosferatu from the trailer and got to work. Igor (now Crew Chief) got to work with Sparks on the long list of checks, Mina got stuck into organising the trailer with the help of Wednesday and I got on with any other job that needed doing. By 11pm there was still a long list of work to do so we made the decision to call it a night and come back in the morning to carry on knowing we would miss the 9:00am qualifying session. I was adamant that Nosferatu would not run until everything was checked under calm and relaxed conditions, I didn't want anyone rushing or under pressure just to be out by a certain deadline and it worked. We took the car for scrutineering by about 2pm and it sailed through (as it always does).
Nosferatu ventures out onto the track for the first time in
over a year!
... from the Main Event