Victorian Club Regularity 6 Hour Relay - 2006
Phillip Island - Saturday 30th September 2006 and Sunday, 1st October 2006

SPRINTERS ARE STAYERS  

All the drivers and crew outside our garage

The inaugural 2006 Victorian Club Regularity 6 Hour Relay was run at Phillip Island on 30th September and 1st October 2006. This type of event has been around for nearly 40 years but on this occasion it was run under the original concept of a team handicap relay at club level.

A few months ago details of the event were released to CAMS affiliated clubs and the Jaguar XJ6 Driver's Association decided to enter a team of Sprinters. A team of four cars was formed with Brian Wheeler, Rob Sinclair, Phil Pearmain and the return of Paul Zazryn (the only driver of our team to hold a racing licence). This was a bold move as none of the Sprinters or drivers, except for Paul had competed at any event at the island for more than 5 laps. Would the Jaguars last the distance? This question was still being asked by the Stewards of the meeting just prior to the 10 am start on Sunday. The rumour in pit lane was that each of our team Sprinters had a spare Jaguar out the back of the pits just for spares.

The next problem was forming a crew to support our entry and as team manager, I had no problem in forming a crew of association members and friends to work over the weekend. With the team and crew organised we then went looking for a sponsor. Graeme and John, the owners of CAULFIELD JAG SERVICE, were approached and TEAM CAULFIELD JAG SPRINTERS was formed.

Despite careful planning three of the cars were to need repairs following our last run at Sandown in August. Sinclair needed to replace his boot after it left the car on the main straight. His red sprinter also required brake and gearbox overhauls. Wheeler's yellow sprinter overheated at Sandown and required major repairs. Pearmain was faced with a complete engine rebuild which would not be completed until the last minute. Pearmain's engine was finished on the day prior to practice/qualifying and after being installed in the car late on Friday night it finally ran on the dyno just hours before it was due to hit the track. Phil would use the practice session on Saturday morning to run the engine in.

Saturday's practice and qualifying went without any problems except for the Dorian timer on the red sprinter failing to record any lap times. After replacing the Dorian unit four times the car finally qualified and the engine in Pearmain's car was run in. The team decided to change the original entry with Zazryn now driving the red sprinter and Sinclair moving to the white sprinter. After a team meeting the driver's posted their respective nominated lap times for Sunday's 6 hour relay. These times would prove later to hamper our chances of winning the event.

Team Caulfield Jag Sprinters qualified 6th on the starting grid for Sunday and Paul Zazryn was elected to start the event because of his race experience. Paul got away to a flyer and by the third lap he had moved up to third place but settled back to fourth at the end of his session of a maximum of 15 laps. Paul's' nominated lap time of 1 minute 57 seconds was the wrong decision as the closest he got to it was 1:59. The team did not record any bonus laps for lapping within .99 of a second of the nominated time. The first relay change was so slick with Pearmain out of the garage taking to the track still holding fourth place. However, Race Control relayed a message to our team that they believed that Pearmain's exit was close to another competitor, but no infringement was recorded.

Zazryn's car was refueled and Graeme Rodgers, as team head mechanic, organised the crew to check over the car and rotate the offside tyres. Graeme had devised a schedule for each car returning to the garage with an inspection of brake pads and tyre wear and general maintenance.

Pearmain still very conscious of the new engine signaled to the pit lane crew that he was coming in early and pitted on lap eleven after noticing that the temperature gauge was not working and strange noises were coming from the car. Another slick pit change saw Sinclair take to the track. Back in the garage, Graeme Rodgers located the temperature problem with the sender wire being dislodged. The strange noises were attributed to another car and were not Phil's. At the end of the first hour our team was running 19th out of the 28 entries.

Sinclair with a nominated time of 2:06 was lapping just above it but slipped under the time on lap eleven by 1 second and the team was penalized 1 lap. By the end of his session and 90 minutes into the 6 hour we had moved up to 18th place. Wheeler, the fourth member of the team, was next out with a nominated lap time of 2:00 and despite going under once, managed to record two bonus laps. Brian commented back in the garage that after 10 laps the tyres had gained sufficient heat and were providing enormous grip which is something that he had never experienced before.

At midday, two hours into the relay, TEAM CAUFLIELD JAG SPRINTERS were still lapping without problems and moving up through the field into 12th place. By now not only our competitors, but also the race organizers, were starting to take notice of the Jaguar Sprinters and any preconception of the unreliability of Jaguars was soon forgotten.

The rotation of sprinters continued on the track and back in the garage without problems and by 1 pm our team had jumped up to 5th place outright. Other teams were suffering problems with cars and many teams had by now been reduced to half their cars still running. By contrast the Jaguars were still lapping consistently with the only problem being that we were not recording bonus laps for matching our nominated lap times. This was reflected in the 1.30 pm report with our team dropping back to 7th place.

With the crew in the garage servicing each car as it came off the track reliability was not a problem and their tireless efforts were rewarded with all cars consistency lapping the circuit. In fact all the cars except Zazryn could have lapped quicker but were restrained only by their respective nominated lap times. They were also restrained with the excellent direction from our timers and pit board crew who kept them informed of each lap and preventing them from recording excessive penalties.

Small puffs of smoke were visible from the rear of the Pearmain's sprinter in the early laps of its second session. As the car progressed, so did the amount of smoke but the car was still recording valuable laps. By lap 13 Race Control approached our pits to seek a reason and indicating that they were considering black flagging the car. As Phil was due to pit within the next lap the black flag was not shown. Back in the garage the scrutineers and our crew located the problem; the oil catch tank was overflowing. Once again Phil was relieved that the engine was still bullet-proof. At the end of four hours the efforts of the entire team were rewarded as we were now up to 6 th place and had recorded the third highest number of completed laps for the 28 teams.

The 2.30 pm listings showed that our team had moved into 5 th place and was only hampered by our misjudgment of nominated times. In hindsight we could only contemplate where we might have been had we been able to record more than a few bonus laps. However, there was a problem when as Team Manager I was summoned to Race Control. Both Wheeler and Zazryn were under investigation for passing under a yellow flag during their second session. Brian and Paul both attended Stewards hearings between sessions with Brian receiving a fine of $150 and Paul was found to be not guilty. Despite Brian's conviction, the team did not receive any penalties of lost laps.

Just after 3 pm Rob Sinclair was to hit the track for his last stint and it was decided that we would bring him in earlier so that we could put Wheeler out to finish the event as he had the best chance to post bonus laps. Within two laps the safety car was employed and after the restart Sinclair came into pit lane and Wheeler was out for the final run to the checkered flag.

Wheeler was lapping consistently with over 50% of his 15 laps gaining bonuses and only one lap penalty. The tactics were calculated to perfection with Wheeler completing his 15th lap only seconds before the checkered flag was shown and was cheered on by the rest of the team drivers standing on the pit wall congratulating each other on finishing 5th place outright out of 28 entries.

At the end of not only months of preparation and six hours lapping the Phillip Island circuit without a single problem TEAM CAULFIELD JAG SPRINTERS proved to everyone present that an early 1970's Jaguar is still to be feared and respected on a race track. First place went to a team of Porsche 911's, who have had many years of experience at the Winton six hour events. In second place was a team of Ford EA Falcons who race as saloon cars and have competed in many six and twenty four hour events. Third place went to a team of Mini's who have also had previous experience in six hour events.

Zazryn 6th on the grid to start

As Team Manager I would like to thank our sponsors, CAULFIELD JAG SERVICE for their financial support and their assistance in the garage over the weekend and to all our crew; Graeme Rodgers, Bob, Paul Duncalf, John Martin, Dirk Redel, Ross Sinclair, Joey, Brian and Carol Digby, Terry and Judy Birch, Rob Davies, John Gardner and Graeme Haymes for their tireless efforts in assisting the team finishing 5th outright. The organisers, and in particular all the entrants, should be congratulated in the manner that this inaugural event was run. This was reflected in the winners speeches made at the awards presentations at the end of the meeting.

Plans for our entry for 2007 are well underway and our sponsor has also confirmed that they are on board for next year. With the experience that we have gained from this event we will be looking for a podium finish in 2007.

Ross Coles
Secretary
Jaguar XJ Sprinters Drivers Association
Contact: Phone 0417351304 or email:

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