Thunderdome
An attempt to drive at 220 kph for 24 hours alone in a thirty-year-old Nissan/Datsun 260Z sports coupe to establish 47 new national speed and distance records.
An extreme motor sport, and human endurance event to be used as a community fund raiser for sick kids.
The Challenge:
The challenge for me, as a senior citizen, is to drive 2,500 laps of the Calder Nascar Track, lapping every 36 seconds, for 24 hours, single-handed. In the process I will be attempting to establish 47 new Australian national time and distance records in a 32-year-old car.
I will attempt to drive the equivalent of Darwin to Melbourne in one day, stopping only for fuel and tires. To do this I will have to travel at speeds up to 220 kph in the straights. I guess it will be like attempting to do a Le Mans 24 hour, or a Bathurst 24 hour race single handed. It has never been attempted before, and probably never will be again, not with the way regulations are going these days, but I do have a "can do attitude", and the tenacity of a weed to succeed.
Risks:
In doing this I know I will probably suffer from G-Force sickness and fatigue. I could possibly suffer from deep vein thrombosis, disorientation sickness, and be physically ill, its not impossible to hit the wall, but mechanical failure would really spoil my day. There will be an FIV (first intervention vehicle) on standby, ambulance, fire truck, and medical staff. I will be monitor via medical telemetry for my physical condition throughout to check blood sugar levels, dehydration, etc. It must be considered that I have driven and raced well over 5,000,000 km without a single accident, I have no intention of spoiling that record now. I am going to enjoy the challenge of doing this, especially at a time when government authorities are saying that people my age should reconsider their ability to drive a motor car at all, so this will be one for the senior movement.
Reasons:
My heart goes out to families who have to endure the heartache and trauma of having their child stricken with cancer, or some other life threatening illness. I have experienced something akin to this myself. At the Frankston Hospital, when I sat with my wife watching our one-year old IVF son struggling for life, then he stopped breathing and died. It was over five minutes before he could be resuscitated. Watching your child being revived, while you are powerless to do anything to help save them, was very difficult to bear as a parent.
Personal Reasons:
Driving has been my passion since I was 12. But somewhere among the first 6 kids, a divorce, a 2nd marriage and another 2 kids, my motor racing career was considerably curtailed. Driving is something I still love to do, and I am extremely good at. I believe that if I can use this gift to do something special for some of those sick kids, then all the effort and risks will be more than worthwhile. I would also like to motivate other seniors to live their dreams, seniors can do anything if they set their minds to it, or are allowed too!!. Or anyone else for that matter, life is short and you only get one of them, so live your dreams.
Commitment:
Nothing will stop me from finishing the whole 24 hours. If non-repairable mechanical failure takes me down, and all the intended records are not achieved, and the full 24 hours has not been achieved, I will continue driving my beaut ute support vehicle to complete the full 24-hour driving challenge. This will keep the needed funds coming in, while honouring my sponsorship and media commitments, and just maybe set a world record for a person of my age in the process.
If I am going to risk my life, my pride, and my collectable car, its only right that it should be used as a method of raising funds for sick kids. I would like more sponsorship, there has to be a company out there, or even an individual that can see the marketing potential with such a media event, at the same time contributing to the kids chances of survival.
We have been to the track doing tire and fuel tests, plus media promotion, to establish stop schedules during the event. The average speed to be beaten is 159.8 kph for the 24 hours. Things were looking pretty good with my average speed being 176 kph, in the two hours of testing we set several new unofficial speed records, that was till the steering started to feel a bit strange, and unpredictable.
When I pitted we found the steering rack had just one U bolt left with only one, almost off nut left holding the whole rack in place. Hitting the dip in the track, which almost wrenched the wheel from my hands each turn was taken its toll on our poor little Datsun 260Z.
It has been necessary to postpone this attempt temporally, due to a bad dip in the track surface through the north turn, with the risk of breaking the suspension, making it unsafe to make the attempt. It was to be resurfaced in 2005, now it is to be 2006. maybe it will be 2007, who knows!!!. When, and if it is sealed, the event will be put back on the agenda.
Postscript:
There is also a bit of follow up detail that I omitted to include at the time, Bob Jane eventually heard what I was intending to do, he contacted me, and in his best truckies language told me to f*@# off and kill myself on someone else's track.
I have spent the last six months in court, he said, defending myself against the last guy that killed himself on my track. He told me I couldn't drive it by myself anyway, and that I would need four drivers to do it . So that was that. Yet CAMS were happy for me to do it, the track management were totally supportive, the track operators were providing a lots of the supporting gear, they wanted it to happen, and it was going to cost me $3000 per day.
Its funny I drove to the other side of Sydney last year to pick up my sons new Yamaha R1 bike, and did 26 hours in the saddle non-stop stopping only for fuel and burgers, getting back home to Hastings at 7 am in the morning, I could have had breakfast, a shower, and headed straight back to Sydney, and that was at 71 years of age, and that was in my old 75 Toyota HiAce ute, that was flat out doing 100 kph, and that's two hours more than this event was to be. So up his.
Regards
Len Brennan
An extreme motor sport, and human endurance event to be used as a community fund raiser for sick kids.
The Challenge:
The challenge for me, as a senior citizen, is to drive 2,500 laps of the Calder Nascar Track, lapping every 36 seconds, for 24 hours, single-handed. In the process I will be attempting to establish 47 new Australian national time and distance records in a 32-year-old car.
I will attempt to drive the equivalent of Darwin to Melbourne in one day, stopping only for fuel and tires. To do this I will have to travel at speeds up to 220 kph in the straights. I guess it will be like attempting to do a Le Mans 24 hour, or a Bathurst 24 hour race single handed. It has never been attempted before, and probably never will be again, not with the way regulations are going these days, but I do have a "can do attitude", and the tenacity of a weed to succeed.
Risks:
In doing this I know I will probably suffer from G-Force sickness and fatigue. I could possibly suffer from deep vein thrombosis, disorientation sickness, and be physically ill, its not impossible to hit the wall, but mechanical failure would really spoil my day. There will be an FIV (first intervention vehicle) on standby, ambulance, fire truck, and medical staff. I will be monitor via medical telemetry for my physical condition throughout to check blood sugar levels, dehydration, etc. It must be considered that I have driven and raced well over 5,000,000 km without a single accident, I have no intention of spoiling that record now. I am going to enjoy the challenge of doing this, especially at a time when government authorities are saying that people my age should reconsider their ability to drive a motor car at all, so this will be one for the senior movement.
Reasons:
My heart goes out to families who have to endure the heartache and trauma of having their child stricken with cancer, or some other life threatening illness. I have experienced something akin to this myself. At the Frankston Hospital, when I sat with my wife watching our one-year old IVF son struggling for life, then he stopped breathing and died. It was over five minutes before he could be resuscitated. Watching your child being revived, while you are powerless to do anything to help save them, was very difficult to bear as a parent.
Personal Reasons:
Driving has been my passion since I was 12. But somewhere among the first 6 kids, a divorce, a 2nd marriage and another 2 kids, my motor racing career was considerably curtailed. Driving is something I still love to do, and I am extremely good at. I believe that if I can use this gift to do something special for some of those sick kids, then all the effort and risks will be more than worthwhile. I would also like to motivate other seniors to live their dreams, seniors can do anything if they set their minds to it, or are allowed too!!. Or anyone else for that matter, life is short and you only get one of them, so live your dreams.
Commitment:
Nothing will stop me from finishing the whole 24 hours. If non-repairable mechanical failure takes me down, and all the intended records are not achieved, and the full 24 hours has not been achieved, I will continue driving my beaut ute support vehicle to complete the full 24-hour driving challenge. This will keep the needed funds coming in, while honouring my sponsorship and media commitments, and just maybe set a world record for a person of my age in the process.
If I am going to risk my life, my pride, and my collectable car, its only right that it should be used as a method of raising funds for sick kids. I would like more sponsorship, there has to be a company out there, or even an individual that can see the marketing potential with such a media event, at the same time contributing to the kids chances of survival.
We have been to the track doing tire and fuel tests, plus media promotion, to establish stop schedules during the event. The average speed to be beaten is 159.8 kph for the 24 hours. Things were looking pretty good with my average speed being 176 kph, in the two hours of testing we set several new unofficial speed records, that was till the steering started to feel a bit strange, and unpredictable.
When I pitted we found the steering rack had just one U bolt left with only one, almost off nut left holding the whole rack in place. Hitting the dip in the track, which almost wrenched the wheel from my hands each turn was taken its toll on our poor little Datsun 260Z.
It has been necessary to postpone this attempt temporally, due to a bad dip in the track surface through the north turn, with the risk of breaking the suspension, making it unsafe to make the attempt. It was to be resurfaced in 2005, now it is to be 2006. maybe it will be 2007, who knows!!!. When, and if it is sealed, the event will be put back on the agenda.
Postscript:
There is also a bit of follow up detail that I omitted to include at the time, Bob Jane eventually heard what I was intending to do, he contacted me, and in his best truckies language told me to f*@# off and kill myself on someone else's track.
I have spent the last six months in court, he said, defending myself against the last guy that killed himself on my track. He told me I couldn't drive it by myself anyway, and that I would need four drivers to do it . So that was that. Yet CAMS were happy for me to do it, the track management were totally supportive, the track operators were providing a lots of the supporting gear, they wanted it to happen, and it was going to cost me $3000 per day.
Its funny I drove to the other side of Sydney last year to pick up my sons new Yamaha R1 bike, and did 26 hours in the saddle non-stop stopping only for fuel and burgers, getting back home to Hastings at 7 am in the morning, I could have had breakfast, a shower, and headed straight back to Sydney, and that was at 71 years of age, and that was in my old 75 Toyota HiAce ute, that was flat out doing 100 kph, and that's two hours more than this event was to be. So up his.
Regards
Len Brennan
Last modified:
12 August 2009
12 August 2009