Hi all, On Sunday Coop competed in a Hill Climb club event at Ringwood Raceway, just a tad North of Raymond Terrace. The circuit has recently been lengthened and resurfaced, transforming it into one of the States premier Hill Climb facilities. It’s the local Hill Climb for Coop, he holds class records on the old configuration of track as well as the State class record on the new track, but today Coop had his eye on the club record set a couple of months ago by a car identical to his. Coopers State record time was a 40.8, he’d set that back in July, the current club record to chase was a 42.51. Looking at the times you’d assume that Coop would break it easily, but James, the guy that held the record was there too and he was on new tyres! It had been raining earlier in the morning so the track was still a little damp for the first run, Coop chose to sit this one out, it was obviously going to dry so he decided to save the gear. Unfortunately for James he had a small engine issue on his first run yet was able to get it sorted prior to his second. There’s kind of a friendly rivalry between Coop and James, obviously stemming from the fact they drive identical cars. James is a top guy, I guess he would be in his mid to late thirties, he’s a very experienced driver, having held numerous track records around the traps. James was a little in front of Coop in the running order, on his second run James posted a 42.65, Cooper posted a 42.86 on his first run just a smidge behind James. Coop was disappointed with the time, it was 2 seconds off his best. He said the car felt terrible. I had left the suspension settings on the car the same as we had used the week before in Dapto to see how it’d go, those settings obviously didn’t suit here ….oop’s my bad! We keep notes of car settings at each event we compete in, so we changed the car to reflect the settings it had when Coop posted the 40.8 back in July. James third run looked fast, it was, he posted a 41.90, breaking his record, the pressure was on for Coop! Coop dug deep and posted a 41.62 just creeping ahead of James and from that point on Coop kept improving on each of his runs. Coops third run was a 41.3 and his fourth was a 40.97, he’d gone .17 of a second quicker earlier in the year however he was on the same tyres as back then and he’d also done a couple of other events on them, so they were looking a little second hand. James best time for the day was a 41.49. It was a great day for Coop, winning his class, breaking the class record and finishing 6th outright from 45 competitors. The Australian Hill Climb Championships will be held at this venue on the 1st and 2nd of November so it was the perfect preparation for that event. Just quickly on another note, I thought I’d share with you an e-mail Coop received last Friday afternoon from Jamie Whincup, for those of you that don’t know who Jamie is, he is a five-time V8 Supercar champion and four-time Bathurst 1000 winner, arguably the best V8 Supercar driver, period. Jamie had heard of Cooper’s motorsport progression for next year and had sent the following message. I’ve got to tell you, Coop was pretty chuffed with the e-mail, ‘a kid on Christmas morning’ would best describe his reaction! As always, thanks for your continued support!
Posted on: Mon, 22 Sep 2014 23:41:26 +0000
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