Fiat 126 vs The 2023 Fiat Nationals BOI Performance Sprint

Fastest laps from sessions 3 & 4. Friday is an early start for the BOI Performance Supersprint, as Broadford State Motorcycle Complex is about 70 minutes out of town. Once out there, I was extremely impressed with the facility. A great track, with lots of technical corners featuring a mixture of cambers. I promised myself I was not going to go hard, as I have extremely little experience at driving the red 126 at speed. Although extremely twitchy, the car did not struggle with blasting around the track. Over the first three sessions I got my time down from a 1:26.7727 to a 1:22.2185, all in fourth gear using the torque of the 2 litre. Over the lunch break I agreed the following session would be my last, only I would try one major change on the car to see what happens. You know, for the science of it. I ripped off the trusty formula ford tyres, and slapped on a set of soft 8 inch slicks I had borrowed from Glenn. Equipped with a mountain of grip and an increased rpm range, the car was a completely different beast to drive. I did not expect to be out there overtaking cars in a motorkhana special. It was all going spectacularly for a few laps till all hell broke loose, with the car filling full of white smoke as I came down the main straight. A dipstick for the gearbox had blown out under pressure, and absolutely showered the engine bay in gear oil. Not just the engine bay, the windscreen, my helmet, my camera, everything. If you can understand how much I hate the smell of gear oil, then you can understand there is no worse scenario for me. With the dipstick back in I was able to cruise back to the pits using the grass off track, where I did the best I could with one can of degreaser to clean up the back of the car. Car partially cleaned, it was over for the day and I made my way back to the hotel via Supercheap Auto for a mountain of degreaser and cleaning up products. Car washed and gearbox topped up, it was time to refocus for the motorkhana. But hey, I did punch out 1:18.3124 for the effort, and a 1st in class!