Team JDS Returns to Form
After a disappointing first round in Tasmania seeing Khudar Elhaouli finishing 26th due to major engine problems, round 2 of the Toyo Drift Australia series saw Khudar finish in 5th position.
Team JDS were very excited about the start of the Drift Australia season in Tasmania coming off the back of a well finished season in 2007. This was not to be, with the LS1 V8 that had carried through whole 2007 season letting go during a session of testing 2 weeks prior to heading to Tasmania. It had been in the works to upgrade to an LS2 motor for extra power and torque and this was the push we required to do it. A brand new LS2 Motor was sourced directly from Holden, pulled to pieces and built ready for round 1. Team JDS and Khudar were excited about driving the new setup. With no testing and the car only being tuned two nights before hand, the team loaded up and set sail to Tasmania. Three laps in to testing on the Saturday, the motor let go losing the top off one of its pistons. This forced Khudar to borrow a car to get points for qualifying and Team JDS packing up ready to return to Melbourne.
With 5 weeks to round 2 the motor was again removed from the car. This time with the help of two new sponsors, Rajab Racing and Corsa Special Vehicles (CSV) a whole new engine was again rebuilt, this time we were aiming at a building a very strong safe combination around the LS2.
On the Wednesday prior to leaving for Queensland the team and car were all loaded ready to go. The plan was to leave Melbourne early with a stop on route at the Dyno to double check the car. Simple enough? Not when a gearbox decides to let go during tuning. 12 hours later and once again with help above and beyond from CSV the car had a replaced gearbox and Team JDS was finally on its way to Queensland. Leaving at midnight made for a very long 20 hour+ straight drive and very little sleep before Round 2.
With practice on Saturday a number of issues were found in suspension setup and these were quickly rectified. Khudar could not believe how much difference there was in driving the new LS2 versus his old LS1. Qualifying on Saturday proved a little disappointing with Khudar finishing in 18th position. With a few more tweaks and Khudar’s confidence improving a fantastic qualifying run on the Sunday had Team JDS as 2nd best qualifier for the weekend.
Being in the 2nd qualifying position allowed us a bye and much needed rest during the top 32 battles. Top 16 had Khudar versus Mingay. Australian V8 power and car versus the V8 Powered JDS S13. Would it prove that the Aussie V8 package was the better combination, or could the Japanese V8 powered mongrel win? The two cars proved to be so close a rerun was called. Unfortunately due to a broken tailshaft Mingay dropped out seeing Khudar slide through in to the top 8.
The top 8 had Khudar up against May. Again we had a very close battle. But Khudar found that sometimes there is such a thing as too much power and torque. With the smaller sized 235’s on the back the ability to continue forward on acceleration had the car staying in one spot creating huge amounts of crowd pleasing tyre smoke. But tyre smoke does not always appeal to the judges, especially when it slows a car down. Again a re-run was called, with the huge torque created by Khudar’s LS2 already finishing off the tyres in the first battle Khudar had issues trying to keep the car going forward. Here finished our weekend and the hunt for bigger tyres beginning.
Team JDS and Khudar were very happy to finish in 5th position and are looking forward to improving even more during the last 3 rounds of the 2008 season.
We can’t thank CSV, Rajab Racing Developments and Khudar’s brother Bill enough for the hours put in to get the car and engine ready for Queensland.
Khudar and Team JDS will be heading to round 3 on May 24 – 25 at Mallala Motorsport Park in Adelaide.
Khudar and Team JDS would like to thank its sponsors;
Corsa Special Vehicles (CSV)
Rajab Racing Developments
JDS Auto Imports
Toyo Tyres
Textralia Clutches
Hoppers Smash Repairs