DRIVER
John Gibbs   Qualifications: 37yrs - Planning Engineer 17yrs - Sports Medic 12yrs - Racing Car Driver   My most memorable moment racing was rolling my own car onto its roof all on my own. Which in turn created my most disappointing moment in my motorsport carer, not being able to run at the 'King o' the Coast' because my car was wrecked.   Achievements: 1st Royal Hotel Trophy, 3rd Remembrance Champs, 3rd Remembrance Champs, 2nd Moller & Young Trophy     Tracks raced:  Woodford Glen Eastern States Oxford Speedway Central Speedway Cromwell Greenstone Park Ellesemere
THE CAR
MITSUBISHI - 'GTO' - 3000GT GTO DESKTOP WALLPAPER
	THE FIRST SEASON IN THE GTO
GTO RACE CAR STATS     Make   Mitsubishi     Model   GTO     Year   1996     Number   29c     Class   Saloon     Body   Fibreglass     CC Rating   3000cc     Computer   Link 3.4     Chassis   Tubular Space-Frame     Engine   Mitsubishi V6 Z15     Driveline   Mitsubishi Gearbox running Front-wheel drive.     Suspension   Coil-over front and rear and front torsion-bars     Tyres   Hoosier & Goodyear Eagles 28 x 15 x 11	The GTO was purchased from Invercargill. The first thing we had to do was to find out how it was put together, and how to make it work best for us. (Generally, no two drivers will set up a car exactly the same way.) Before our first season (2000 – 2001) with the GTO, we removed the body and repaired and repainted it. We also had front and rear GTO bumpers and side-skirts made to replace the plain panels it had been racing with. This, along with the addition of a GTO rear spoiler made it look much more like a Mitsubishi GTO than it had previously. We also studied the suspension to get an understanding of how it was set-up and what improvements we could make to it.. Our first season was one of experimentation with the set-up, to get the car handling how we liked it. We had reasonable results during the season. We did not achieve any wins, but we did manage to achieve a respectable place amongst the field. By the end of the season we had a set-up which worked for us. One thing we did determine was that the gear ratio was not correct for the way it was being driven and that we would have to find a better ratio to be more competitive.  In the off-season we gave the car a general tidy up, and made a few modifications which we believed would be beneficial. We also calculated the gear ratio we believed we needed and went in search of a suitable gearbox.   TAZ Racing Latest News Updates
HOW IT ALL GOT STARTED
In the 1995/96 Season I was crewing for Nees Racing when the opportunity to purchase a Mitsubishi Mirage Production Saloon was offered, and so I became the proud owner of a Racecar. I drove at a couple of race meetings at Ellesemere, and then rebuilt the car in a new body-shell to ensure the standard of presentation required. We also adopted "TAZ" the cartoon Tasmanian Devil as our mascot and bought a large stuffed toy to sit on the racecar. We felt that this would engender a special interest in the children, which in turn attracts the interest of their parents, which gives our Sponsors better exposure. This has been most successful with many of the children waving to "TAZ" as he sits with me on the front of the car during the Grand Parade at the start of each meeting. My first season of racing at Woodford Glen (1996/97) was spent experimenting with car set-up, and with transmission ratios to obtain optimum performance. Considering it was my first season it was quite successful. In the off-season I built a new engine to give the performance required to be fully competitive with the Holden Commodores which predominated in the class at the time. With this new engine my second season was a good one performance-wise, but was not so good with regard to structural damage incurred. This necessitated the complete rebuild into a new body-shell during the off-season. The camshaft was also reground with the intention of increased performance. In my third season (1998/99) I was again very competitive even though all the cars had increased their performance in the off-season. Fortunately, this season was not as bad for structural damage, and we finished the season in relatively tidy condition, not requiring significant panel repairs to bring the car back to a good standard of presentation for the new season. For my 4th season a new set of rings, rework of the flywheel, and a further modification to the camshaft resulted in an increase from 7000 rpm to 8000 rpm at the end of the straight. This was enough to keep me up with the Commodores, most of which had spent big money on reworking cylinder heads to get the break over everyone else. That was the end of my eligibility to race Production Class at Woodford Glen, and so I purchased the Mitsubishi GTO to race in the "A" Grade Saloon Class. I also race at Greenstone Park in the "King 'o the 'Coast" Championship each year, and any other race meeting I can get to. I have raced at the Central Speedway in Cromwell and Eastern States in Blenheim and look forward to doing so again.