Honda Racing (USA) joins the Skelta Team

Quick announcement:
At Pikes Peak this year we'll proudly be running "Honda Racing" (USA) decals on the Skelta. Honda's  official US Motorsport outfit (HPD - Honda Performance Development) have offered us invaluable assistance with our effort and for this we'll be proudly running their banner on the car.

The Warrior goes down!

After battle after battle, fighting for anything down to 1100's of a second, taking records, wins, and showing the way, the warrior that has served us so well went down, and he's injured.

Cath and I were at the Huntley Hillclimb, both driving, enjoying ourselves, Cath had set a new record for females, which she previously held as the fastest female at this hillclimb, when, while standing around at the bottom of the hill after watching her start I hear the painful words "Catherine has gone into the tyre wall hard, spinning around in the air so high we could see the whole underside of the car".

I spun around and looked at the loud speaker as if it will give me more info, it doesnt, I approach the timing booth and ask for more info, when suddenly the loudspeaker crackles to life again with the words, "it was a hard hit, but wait, Catherine is now trying to restart that car!"  That's my girl.

Upon getting to the crash site and seeing the car, it really was a hard hit, and she landed about 8 - 10 metres up the road from where the car went into the tyre barrier.

And like a true warrior (ie: well built car), coming under attack it immediately cosseted her with all it's might, wrapping her in the fully welded in cage ready to take the hit for her, ready to be injured itself so the driver can walk away. It was a true warrior. When it was all over and it did its poirette in the air slamming back on the ground, it no doubt let out a painful sigh, and gave the signal the driver was all clear to exit itself from the smouldering wreck.

We've yet to examine what happened, but havent ruled our mechanical error, or driver error. But we'll get to that analysis later. Cath is fine, she was a bit concussed the next day and stayed home. She's now been fully accpeted as a racer and rally driver with her first 'biggee'. There are two types of racer and rallyers, those that have crashed hard and those that are about to.

A great car,  now sitting in the corner of the garage in simple respite, waiting for it's turn to be brought back to fighting fit. There are records to be had, fights to be won on the rally stages, and some asses to kick, and it's itching to get back out there and do all that, and it will. It will also be better, faster, fitter, meaner, cleaner, leaner and more focused than ever when he comes back into the fighting realm.

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We are very proud to announce the livery showing the colours the skelta will wear at Pikes Peak this year. Full press release below.

Skelta Launches 2012 Pikes Peak Livery

[25.03.2012]

Skelta Sports Cars has shown the Aussie-themed livery its car will wear proudly at this year's legendary Pikes Peak Race to the Clouds event in Colorado July 8th!

"The new livery looks simply fantastic", said Skelta's driver for the event, Jeff Denmeade, "makes it look faster, colour is fast, right?"

Working with vinyl experts at Apex Decals in Helensburgh, south of Sydney, the striking design was painstakingly applied, a time-consuming process made more difficult due to the amount of multiple curves that go both ways around the car.

"The livery looks fantastic and brings out the lines superbly," said Denmeade. "The Aussie flag twirling up the side will be hard to miss."

The Skelta will run in Open Class, one of the oldest classes at Pikes Peak, with its share of experienced regulars, and dominators.

"It'll be tough - it's a big class full of talent and speed."

Denmeade, who won his class at Pikes Peak in 2010, and the first Aussie ever to do so, is competing in his second Pikes Peak event says that the competition and presentation is higher than ever now that the climb is 100 per cent tarmac.

The entry list this year maxxed out in January due to increased interest. Usually organisers are still taking entries in June.

Skelta driver Denmeade says he is really happy to be representing Australia in this legendary event in an Aussie made and developed car. The Skelta will be the first Australian manufactured car to have entered the iconic century-long event.

Pikes Peak has a live video feed from the start line on race days on their website. www.ppihc.com

Please credit BronzPhotography for all images used.

Pikes Peak 2012! We're off again.

Well, one evening, while getting ready to make dinner, I got a phone call from Ray Vandersee from Australia's amazing Skelta Motor cars.

It started off as an enquiring call about Pikes Peak, and then the words echoed down the phone line "would you like to drive our car at Pikes Peak?"

Now people might think this is a huge opportunity (it is), but there were many things that needed to be considered, firstly, Im 198cm (6'5") and I needed to know if I'll fit in the car.

So after a few more conversations I got a flight and flew to the Gold Coast to be met by Ray and be taken to the Skelta for a viewing, seat fitment to see if I fit, and then if I did, go for a drive.

Upon arrival, we changed the seat to the alternate seat and then a slipped though the opening where the window normally is and..... slipped right into a perfect driving position. Job Done.

Next was to take it for a drive through the winding roads around Skelta's office.

I came back impressed, as far as I could be for driving a car at the speed limit (no, I really did, I didnt drive fast at all).

Next came all the timing and logistics, when tog et the car, when to test, what does it need for Pikes PEak test and scrutineering, etc.

The car's delivery was organised and it came delivered on the back of the truck to the house. We unloaded it, took it for a drive with Cath in the car, and then loaded it back up for a test day down at our local track.

We then arranged the first Press Release:
http://www.carsguide.com.au/site/news-and-reviews/car-news/skelta_to_attack_2012_pikes_peak?utm_source=carsguide&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=lateststories

This was picked up around the world and ran in quite a few countries. The wheels were starting to turn.

Full Press Release below.

Jeff Denmeade and the Skelta will enterPikes Peak in 2012.Having competed and won at Pikes Peak in 2010, Aussie born Denmeade is heading back to the Worlds greatest, and most famous, Hill climb.

Jeff set a new qualifying record at Pikes Peak at his first attempt, and won his class beating the US and Canadian rally champs in 2010, and has been planning a return since then.

“Now Pikes Peak is 100% paved from top to bottom by environmental court order, it’s a whole new event now, and the speeds have gone up and times are starting to tumble, and to be back there in Australia’s own phenomenal Skelta G-Force will make us the first Australians to compete there in an Australian produced, designed and manufactured vehicle” He continued, “4WD is always an advantage, unless you can get weight down in a 2WD car, and given the lack of dirt now Pikes is all paved, a light weight 2WD car with great turn-in and high-speed balance and control is the way to go for this event is my thinking!”

Denmeade will be competing in the very Skelta that came 2nd outright at Targa Tasmania in 2010, prior to the rules being re-written to disallow it further future entries.

Skelta builder and owner, Ray Vandersee says “Pike’s Peak is an event I’ve always been keen on. Of course, the Skelta was designed as a tarmac racer for road and track work so now that the whole course is paved, I expect the G-Force will be well suited.

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I was incredibly impressed with Jeff & Catherine’s record breaking run in last year’s climb so I’m very happy to be associated with their attempt next year. Its going to be great to see an Australian product competing on the world stage of the longest running motorsport event in the world.”

Further adding, Denmeade says “we know we can do better this time around than before as the Skelta is very fast, and faster than the established GT3 Porsches, so it’s going to be good, and I’m incredibly excited to be representing Australia through and through again on the 2012 event, but up a notch”.

Interesting to note, Denmeade’s time from his 2010 Pikes Peak run wasn’t beaten by anyone in the 2011 event from either Time Attack 4WD class or the Open class. Denmeade expects to be 30 – 45 secs faster in the Skelta than he was in his Australian prepped production Lancer Evolution he ran in 2010.

Denmeade will again be navigated by his partner Catherine Hammond, and will be proudly supported in part by numerous Aussie businesses supporting the all-Aussie effort.

“Just the effort of getting to the startline is something all fellow enthusiasts should be proud of. Now we just have to get to the top!” Denmeade says.

Skelta Facts.
- Weight – 780 kilos
- Power – 300 hp at the rear wheels
- Engine: Honda F20C Supercharged. 9000 RPM redline.
- Body: Total Composite carbon-fibre
- Suspension: Inboard Push/pull rod suspension (Ie; F1 and Indy Car)
- Aero – The whole car is an aerodynamic device from the angle of the slit grills and their curves to the flat floor and undertray diffuser.
- This particular car was the car that came second at Targa Tasmania 2010, despite engine problems on the last day, it came second by just 63 seconds. A truly, well engineered Australian designed and built vehicle.
Website: www.skelta.com.au

Pikes Peak Facts:
- Pikes Peak Hill Climb is sanctioned by USAC.
- Pikes Peak is the second oldest autorace in the US, second only to the Indy 500.
- Spencer Penrose was the inventor of the Pikes Peak Hill Climb, running the first event in 1916 as a way to get tourism to Colorado Springs. Although he created the Pikes Peak Automobile Company in 1912, having a fascination with the automobile, it took four years to create a road up Pikes Peak which he charged $2.50 per passenger to be driven up in a chauffeur driven Peirce Arrow. The race itself was created as a way to open the road and gave Penrose what he was looking for in publicity with front page articles in newspapers around the country.
- The starting line is Mile Post 7 at an altitude of 9,400 feet.
- The finish line is at 14,110 feet, for a vertical rise of almost 5000 feet.
- Such is it so common for people to faint at the top, even the racers, EMTs are on stand by with all the cars with oxygen tanks. They also mingle with the spectators who have also known to faint at that elevation, even just standing there. Personal health safety is item 1 on the organisers list.
- There is 156 separate curves on the course.
-There is a Maximum ascent of 10%.
- Best viewing point is Devils Playground at the 16 mile mark.

Pikes Peak Website:

http://www.usacracing.com/ppihc

Photo Credit: Andrew Page.

We enter the World Time Attack

In August we entered the fabulous World Time Attack at the stunning Eastern Creek race track in western Sydney.

As our car was in standard trim, powertrain wise, we knew we were only going to make up numbers. But there is something humbling going to an event you know you can't win. So we did.

It was a great weekend, and Ive never really ever had the chance to drive this track, despite living just 45 minutes from it.

With stock street tyres, the Kumho XS's, treadwear rating 180, the winning appropriate tyre was definitely the Hankook RS3's, soft, grippy and everyone that had them had the power to really use the grip, and a basically our motor was fully stock so we ran around the track doing the best we can, we were of course way outclassed as there were other cars, about 40 of them, with bigger turbos, bigger wheels, stroker motors, carbon panels etc, but being we didnt want to change the specs of our car from tarmac rally spec for just one event, we went there to fully enjoy ourselves.

Enjoy the Video done by my friend Chris Nichols. It's really well done! 

A big thanks to Mark at Gt Pumps for the Trackmate data logging system and fantastic elig brake pads, Meek for entering us (and paying the entry fee) and Merlin who was on hand to read the ECU data to make sure the engine was running sweet all the time.

Update!

Ok, my sincere apologies for the lack of updates. However, as Pikes Peak gets closer again we'll be bringing the regular updates from our adventures leading up to and including all the happening from Pikes Peak 2012.

In the meanwhile, now for some updates of late.

First we need to wind the clock back a bit. December 2011 to be precise.

We got talked into entering the last round of the Australian Tarmac Rally Championship at Lake Mountain in Victoria.

We packed the car up, loaded the Isuzu truck and towed ole' faithful evo down to Victoria for the event.

Car was minimally prepped, but with the same old tyres that have been on the car for, oh, about 1.5 years!

Anyways, got there and got into a sweet little house rental we inherited from a fellow racer than cancelled their entry due to confliction of events. When we got there we got a new house with a nice kitchen, bedrooms, and fireplace and stereo. We were met by a sweet little parrot that showed up and greeted us, no doubt expecting some goodies in return.

A few recce runs to check our old notes and we're good to go.

It started pretty average with the intense rain that never seemed to end, but within a short burst of time we found ourselves running 3rd overall. However a spin costs us heaps and dropped us to 5th. Despite the rain, we made some minor suspension changes and set fastest times on the stages.

Back to the really nice place we rented for the weekend, Cath redid her notes, our sponsor, Marc Hammond from iautosport.com was outside washing the cars, and I was on kitchen duty making some spicey bolognaise with Placido Domingo on the stereo. Wine was corked, the evening was being settled into just fine.

Sunday rolled in and Cath did her calculations and found that if we can work our way ahead by the end of the day by 21 seconds we stood a chance of a good podium.

Well, it all came together quickly and following the doctrine of 80% speed and 100% accuracy we got our 21 seconds on the FIRST stage, pulling us ahead and immediatley to the front.

Nicely, we held that position for the rest of the day, fighting to keep the car on the road in the wet slippy conditions which saw many people have offs and spins.

At one point we went across the finish line in the pouring rain and tapped the brakes which sent the car sideways, this was about 200+kph. Not something you want to happen much.  Below is a video of the fight back run.

The last three runs were done in drying conditions but with a damp road however. But we still ran fastest stage times all day, and on the last run with the last half of the stage dry, we crossed the last stage foot down maxed out in 5th gear at 7000+ rpm, almost top speed, through the trees on a narrow road. Sweet, if not a bit scary at times when you see the road run out of room.