Porsche Racing Series

PUKEKOHE 16-17 April 2005
Mike Eady has dominated the Bridgestone Porsche series, and on Saturday afternoon he showed us why. Mike's qualifying time was over half a second quicker than Scott O'Donnell in second place in one of the other GT3s. Scott jumped the start, but Mike capitalised on his pole position with a fantastic start, led into turn 1 and was never challenged. He was able to drive at a comfortable pace and maintain a decent gap back to second place throughout the race with a very clean drive. Mike knew he didn't have to set the world on fire - he only had to win, and win he did.

But that's when Mike found out Scott O'Donnell wasn't the only one to cop a 5-second penalty for jumping the start. Urghh! Mike's comfortable win vanished and he was relegated to 3rd place. How did it happen?

Porsche GT3s have a notchy gearbox and sometimes when you think you have selected first gear, it's in a false neutral. To overcome this difficulty, Mike always stops short of his grid position and just before the start, engages 1st gear and creeps forward 2 cm to the line just to make sure the car is really in 1st gear. He then stops at the line and waits for the start lights before taking off.

The newly resurfaced track has put the pole position car closer to the marshal's box than before, and Mike in his left-hand drive Porsche couldn't see the start marshal or the "time-to-go" boards. By the time he realised the race was about to start, he was still in neutral. That got the adrenalin pumping! Mike quickly executed his routine, stopped at the line, then took off with the rest of the field when the start lights came on.

But because he moved within 5 seconds of the start, even though he came to a full halt before starting and didn't cross his line, it was classified as a jump-start.

What disappointed Mike the most was that if he'd known, he would have pushed harder instead of cruising, and finished with more than a 5-second margin to ensure he still got the win. Ah well, that's motor racing!

Mike made up for it with a very exciting handicap race on Sunday. He started from pit lane, 1.5 laps behind the first car away and 6 seconds behind Scott O'Donnell's GT3! Mike ended up finishing 3rd outright, over 8 seconds ahead of 4th and alongside but not quite ahead of Scott O'Donnell. Another few metres and Mike would have closed the miniscule 0.131-second gap and nabbed second place! Mike set the fastest lap time, nearly half a second quicker than Scott O'Donnell who had the second fastest lap. A great race that Mike thoroughly enjoyed - and the crowd loved it too!

It seemed so unlikely that Mike could make up 1.5 laps in a short 12-lap race, but he did. When Mike overtook his first car in the race, the commentator said, "Don't be fooled, Eady hasn't actually passed that car, he's just now on the same lap! He has to overtake it twice to actually pass it!"

CONFIRMED CHAMPION
Mike Eady is now the confirmed Bridgestone Porsche series championship winner. Congratulations on an impeccable season Mike. You had a few problems but your maturity shone through, your team gave you a great car, and your championship title is well deserved.

TAUPO 12-13 March 2005  [1st overall]
Taupo is a challenging circuit, only 1.4 km long, with limited overtaking opportunities. Porsche GT3s are unable to stretch their legs on such a tight track, and their power and handling advantage is almost neutralised. This gives some of the nimble cars a fighting chance, with Steven Neville looking sweet for a possible victory.

• Mike knew that qualifying was crucial, so he made sure he had some clear track and put in a scorcher - over 1/3 of a second faster than anyone else.
• This gave Mike the important pole position for race 1. It only takes Mike 42 seconds to get around the Taupo circuit, so by lap 6 he was already lapping slower cars.
• As he waited for the only two spots on the tight track with good overtaking opportunities, Mike's pursuers caught up. As Mike muscled his way through, the slower cars realised they were being lapped and moved over to allow the pursuers through cleanly - right on Mike's backside - eliminating the lead Mike had built up over them.
• Mike would then graft away and build his lead up again... until he once again caught up to a slower car and the process repeated itself again, and again, and again. But Mike kept his cool and held on to win.
• Race 2 was better for Mike, with his fastest lap time coming in lap 5 - just before he started catching slower cars. It wasn't so good for some of the others though, with quite a bit of argy-bargy going on. Jeff Hogg crashed out, Steven Neville was black flagged, and panels galore were dented. Mike stayed out of trouble and held on for the win.
• Race 3 was another desperate affair with Jon Waring and Andy Tyler both failing to finish and Mike once again hampered by slower traffic. Despite backmarkers restricting Mike's lap times, his professionalism showed as he kept his head while others lost theirs, and won the race by nearly a second over Scott O'Donnell.
• Overall, it was a weekend when the pressure told on some drivers, the red mist descended, and mayhem boiled over. But Mike stayed calm and professional, with a perfect 1-1-1 result to show for it.
• This gave Mike the maximum possible tally of 225 points for the day - the most points anyone has scored all season, and a record which Mike has previously held and broken - twice! All in a day's work for our man Mike  ;-)

MANFEILD 19-20 February 2005 [1st overall]
Mike's team overcame all mechanical gremlins to deliver him a perfect car for the weekend's racing. But Mike didn't just race... he left them wallowing in his wake.

• Mike set the fastest qualifying time, over three quarters of a second ahead of David Mackrell.
• He went on to win both grid races, the second one by a huge margin of over 10 seconds. That's the length of the whole front straight!
• And not only was he seeded last for the handicap race, he started 8 seconds behind the other GT3s. Despite this, he overtook all the GT3s on only the second lap, and by the last lap had 23 of the 26 other cars under his belt to finish 4th.
• It was a spectacular sight as Mike bore down on the finishing line with half a car length between 2nd, 3rd and 4th place. Another 50 metres and Mike would have bagged 2nd, but that just shows the handicappers did a good job.
• By the end of the weekend Mike had added another 204 points to his total. Mike held the previous record for the most points anyone has won in any round of the current series - 199 points - so has now broken his own record.
• Mike now leads the series with 1,159 points - a full 215 points ahead of Steven Neville. That means Mike could miss an entire round and still be winning!

Teretaunga 15-16 January 2005 [2nd overall]
Qualifying: Mike Eady set the fastest qualifying time to earn pole position for the first race, but he was hampered by a gearbox problem that saw him qualify only 0.04 seconds ahead of David Mackrell.

Second gear had broken the week before at Timaru and no replacement parts were available in New Zealand. The team welded up the broken cog (not a repair recommended by Porsche!) which kept the car going, but the syncro ring slowly disintegrated. This left Mike with no 2nd gear - a problem he mostly managed to drive around except when he caught up to slower traffic in 2nd gear corners. This saw the GT3 bog down in 3rd gear and lose five car lengths.

Grid Race 1: Teretaunga is Scott O'Donnell's home track and he won the race, with David Mackrell 0.4 seconds behind in 2nd place and Mike Eady 0.7 seconds back in 3rd place despite his gearbox problems.

Handicap Race 2: Mike Eady set the fastest speed and fastest lap time during a part of the race when he had a clear track ahead of him, but it wasn't enough to pull off a win. In fact, slower cars combined with Mike's gearbox problem resulted in him finishing in 7th position. He did, however, manage to keep Scott O'Donnell and David Mackrell behind him. Scott and David finished 8th and 12th respectively.

Grid Race 3: Our man Mike had a clear track in race 3 and cleaned up. Mike set the fastest lap and fastest speed and grabbed the chequered flag from Scott O'Donnell who was 1.7 seconds back in second place.

Overall: Mike's commanding drive in race 3 wasn't quite enough to make up for his gearbox problems and he finished the day 2nd overall with 177 points. This was enough to increase his lead in the Bridgestone Porsche series though, giving him a massive points tally of 955, which is a 179 point buffer over 2nd place.

TIMARU 8-9 January 2005  [1st overall]
Qualifying: Despite the rain and a lack of good wet weather tyres, Mike managed to qualify 2nd, 0.7 seconds behind Scott O'Donnell.

RUAPUNA 28 November 2004  [1st overall]
Mike Eady made up for his broken shock absorber and disappointing second place two weeks ago with a stunning performance at Ruapuna. He won pole position with the fastest qualifying lap, a full 2.257 seconds faster than the next best car.

In Grid Race 1, Mike set the fastest lap and won convincingly - over 10 seconds ahead of 2nd place!

The huge handicap given Mike in Handicap Race 2 proved an insurmountable obstacle. Despite the fastest lap, a full 2.32 seconds faster than anyone else, 5th place was the best he could manage.

But Grid Race 3 saw Mike in winning form again - winning both the race and fastest lap time. That's why we call him Speedy Eady! [Does that mean we can call him Seedy Eady after a night of celebrations? -Ed]

Overall, Mike finished the weekend in 1st position and picked up another 199 points to bring his Bridgestone series total to 579 points - 112 points ahead of 2nd place.

MANFEILD 6-7 November 2004  [2nd overall]
From the start, Mike Eady knew he had a big task on his hands with the late arrival of Mike Weeks from the Trans-Tasman Championship entering the race in a newer and faster Porsche GT3.

After qualifying second on Saturday morning Mike was off to a good start. However, he was convinced there were problems with the suspension set up on the car. With limited resources at the track the team was not able to identify what was happening, but Mike reported the car was almost impossible to drive out of corners and was feeling very 'nervous' and hard to hold onto.

Nevertheless he was there to race and race he did. But after a fierce battle of the two Mikes in Grid Race 1, our Mike was pipped at the post and finished second.

The reverse grid Handicap Race 2 was very exciting. Watching Mike Eady start in next to last position and fight his way through 31 other competitors to finish 4th was a great experience. Mike also picked up the second fastest lap time, which put him in a great starting position for the final race of the day.

Both Mikes are extremely good drivers, but in the end it was Mike Weeks that came through to win Grid Race 3 with our Mike taking 2nd place. Full credit to Mike Weeks and Mike Eady for a great weekend's motor racing.

So, Mike finished 2nd overall on the weekend and extended his 9-point lead in the Bridgestone series to a 60-point lead!

Mike's Big Shock! ... When the car was later stripped down, the mechanics discovered the right rear shock had completely broken during a practice session on the Thursday prior to the race! So Mike was right, there were problems. The rear wheel kept changing between toe-in and toe-out causing the car to handle badly. We have nothing but admiration for the way Mike managed to keep the car on the track and still be competitive. Finishing second was a simply amazing feat.

PUKEKOHE 16-17 October 2004  [1st overall]
At the opening round of the Mike Pero Summer Motor Racing Series at Pukekohe on 16-17 October, Mike Eady won pole position for each of the two scratch races after setting the fastest qualifiying lap time (a full 1.022 seconds faster than #2), and went on to win both races.

For the handicap race, Mike was forced to start from pit lane... 1 1/4 laps behind the first car! Despite this incredible handicap, he fought his way past 29 cars to finish 7th, and set the fastest lap time along the way. Mike's best lap of 62.846 seconds would have put him 3rd on the grid for the NZ V8 touring car race - even though Mike's Porsche runs on road tyres (a stipulation for the Bridgestone Porsche series) and the V8s drive on full racing slicks!