The Team faced 2003 with renewed vigour after the disappointment of the previous year. The RB2003 was built as an all-new, full-length monocoque. The main goal was to improve reliability. As a result of the careful design approach and leadership from James Neale, the RB2003 was finished a full week before the competition. Fittingly, the car ran for the first time on the afternoon of the campaign’s official launch. The subsequent week of shaking-down at Oran Park showed that the car was faster than the RB2002.
Teething problems were gradually ironed-out as the competition neared. Friday at the event saw the RB2003 pass through all aspects of scrutineering without a single problem – the first time the Team has managed this. A reasonable performance in the static events saw the team placed well to move up the order on Saturday and Sunday.
The RB2003 was one of the first onto the track for the Acceleration event. A jawdropping
performance was delivered, later revealed to be the first sub-4-second run in
the history of the local competition. There were cheers all-round until it was revealed
that the timing beacon wasn’t fitted properly to the car: the run didn’t count! An
under-developed shifter mechanism meant that results from the remainder of the runs
were modest.
The Skidpan Event followed but the car’s performance was a disappointment. Not
ones to give up, the sullen team made a frantic but coordinated effort to fit the back-up
gear-shifter for the afternoon’s Autocross runs. With the car back on the ground just in
time to compete, disappointment followed. The crew returned to the pit to discover
that the front sway-bar link had come adrift. This was without doubt the cause of the
RB2003’s abysmal performance in the Skidpan and Autocross events.
Despite remedying the handling problem on Saturday afternoon, a change to softer springs was made for Sunday in an attempt to take some of the burden off the hardworking front tyres. The first Endurance/Economy run on Sunday morning saw very good times to place the team first in the event. This result was achieved despite the chain-idler failing on lap two of thirty, costing the driving pair an average of two seconds a lap over 29 laps. Who knows what could have been if this failure hadn’t occurred? A lap record to go with the first place was certainly on the cards with the sweet handling, softer-sprung 2003. Sunday afternoon’s Enduro was completed as a formality.
Sunday's efforts hauled the team from the mid-field on Saturday up to finish a close
second in the local competition. Only 31 points (out of a possible 1,000) separated
UNSW from the first-placed team. 2003 marked UNSW’s best result since the
inaugural competition in 2000.
Written by Tim White
Tuesday, 07 March 2006
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 08 March 2006 )