Round wrap-up by Matthew Day
NZIGP Icebreaker – Round 1 of the NEXEN Tyre BMW E46 Class
One month… two weeks… 5 days… this is getting real!
Time seems to have stood still since August, but then it’s all come at me in a gigantic rush! From heading over to P&S for the initial hand over, trying to wrap my head around winning this amazing scholarship and taking onboard the reality of Mum and Dad signing contracts on my behalf (and the background, bin it and you’re grounded for the next 75 years) to the excitement of heading to Hampton Downs for my first day with Tom (cool as a cucumber) Alexander, which was all about me getting comfortable in the car, and Tom giving me tips and tricks, to the stark reality that race car driver life still means mock exams… but get through them and it’s RACE WEEK BOOOOOIIII!
The season launch this year was at the NZIGP Icebreaker at Hampton Downs. Previously, this has been the annual event that has seen my sisters, and anyone stupid enough staying with Mum and Dad volunteering at the track, to jump into the winter temp swimming pool…this year saw me jumping into my own shark tank of Nexen Tyres E46!
The Scholarship had arranged for me to test on the Friday with the support and guidance of the legend himself, Race Jase (seriously, have any of you googled Jason Liefting?). I was so nervous, I didn’t eat breakfast – but I was doing my best to be an absolute sponge for the information he had for me, and give him the best possible answers to his questions – turns out, that makes you quite hungry!
The weather gods were not our friends, so Jase didn’t get to cut me any reference laps, but out he sent me, through what even Murray Walker would have considered wet, and I did my best to give him good feedback. We had a couple of issues throughout the day, which is what testing is for – huge thanks to P&S Autos for spare parts and advice – and I should also thank Shiane and Carter, little did they know we’d be raiding their car for parts… even temporarily.
To add to the fun of Friday, school had sent down my very own film crew – my school is online, and they’re doing some promotional videos that we agreed to be part of, so not only was I trying to learn, drive, and give and take feedback from a legend, I was doing it with cameras hanging around, and the lovely realisation that they wanted to interview me sometime soon! The crew were pretty chill, and loved hanging at the race track – watch out for some of their b-reel on my stories soon. John was a champ and managed to get me my BMW race series shirt early, so I went into the interview in my full armour – branded!
Saturday morning, I was pumped. We woke up to rain, there was bacon and egg pie in the garage, and we were good to go. Except, it was dry, and I had no idea at all how #80 handled a dry track… game on! We rolled out for qualifying, sitting just outside the top 10 as the session evolved, when I broke the throttle pedal. Fortunately, it broke “off” the throttle and I crawled back to pit lane, ending up 16th by the end of the session. I was pretty happy to have a car in one piece and no grid penalty having made it back to the pits…. Now Let’s! Go! Racing!
Having done what every good race driver does – watch footage, plan with my engineer, get into my car, start the formation lap, get to the grid – realise I’m nervous and have forgotten to do everything Sam and I agreed I would on the warm up lap…. I’m about to start my first race!!! Holy COW Batman! Nerves of steel… not me! What the….lights out!!! RACING, RACING, RACING! By turn 1, I realised I’d lost some spots, I engaged my gears, foot and brain and off we went! Lap 1 should be renamed MAYHEM!!!! I was passing cars and being passed back left, right and centre! What an experience! Utter battle pack for the whole race, and I finished in P15. Race 2 felt like it took forever to roll around but suddenly I was back on the grid, starting positions based on the finishing position of the previous race – let’s go!!! I was determined not to go backwards at Turn 1, so as soon as the lights went out, we were hard into it, wheel spinning off the line – my plan didn’t quite work and finding myself P18 at turn two, I settled down to making my way back up the field, one pass at a time! Sam got me in a headlock overnight with data and some onboard and I went into Sunday with a very clear goal – I was starting 17th, based on lap times (gotta love a good battle to slow you down). This time however, I had figured out how to get off the line at the start, and with Mum applying some Chaz Mostert psychology (in this case, a muffin for every pass), I found myself in P13 at the exit of turn 1. Getting my head down, I managed to get 3 more places in lap 2, before I got a bit excited and lost two spots in T1, after a bit of a moment. It took a bit to get back in the game as I was kicking myself a bit, but I got my head back down, and on the last lap it was a 3 car drag race for 11th from the exit of T10 – we popped across the line in 13th, older, wiser, with our elbows out, but with minimal battle scars, and busting to get back to the pits for muffins – and start counting the days till Manfeild.
A huge thanks to all the volunteers, the team from BMW, Race Jase, Sam, Dad and all my supporters and sponsors…. Oh, and Mum… banana choc chip for the win!
