As mentioned in the Last race report, regarding driving standards and Toughness,..well,...Last Night Only added to that,..it IS Getting Really Good.
22 starters turned up last night !! and we had a couple of regulars not show up and had 4 New comers, who have cars awaiting them also Not turn up, but who obviously Will,..so it looks like we could regularly be seeing fields in the High Twenties or Over 30 !!,...COOOL !!!,..
As also Noted previously, the Interest AND Intensity IS Growing and the Racing, one would Honestly have to say Last Night, in ALL Heats, Semi's and Main, was Exceptional !! The Racing by some of the Newer Racers, was Clean and consistent, with in fact some of the Scrappier (a term I use Lightly,..lol) occurring towards the Pointier end !!
So,..to the 'Event',...
Qualifying;
As can be seen from the following times, things Are getting a Lot Quicker !!
To the Point where even Wayne was wondering of Cody, "So How Many Motors did you Go through to get That One?",..ROFL
I think we are going to Have to 'Limit' Cody's Track Time !!,..
Once again, we Have a Very Narrow spread of times over the Field with Only the Very New drivers, slightly off what is becoming a Fairly 'Brisk' Pace to say the Least !!
Cody Bramble, to The annoyance of Mark Fox, Topped His fastest TQ time, with a 4.772, by 1/1000th of a second!!
Backing it up with times also good enough for TQ !!
Congrats to Cody on a Fine TQ !!
James Colfax Must also Be Extremely Happy with His 2nd Qual time of 4.942 apart from the Fact that he also managed to Just Out Qualify his Old Racing Nemesis, Mark Fox, who was 3rd Fastest qualifier with 4.943, with Wayne Bramble, last of the Sub 5.00 second Crowd 4th with a 4.951. Well Done Guys.
Lindsay Byron was Next, 5.069, with 'Form' that would Show later in the Event, Myself following with a 5.076, with young Daniel Harron ever so Close behind with a 5.077 and Dale Anderson taking the Last Semi Sit-Out, with a 5.123
It was also Great to see some of the Recent New Comers, to Both the Class and to Slot Racing, returning to Race again, especially the Youngsters Like Declan Russel and His Dad Guy and Joshua, Rob, Robin and Dennis etc...All of Whom I think once again had a Good time.
Don't be Discouraged in Any way, by your performances, in comparison to those around you!,..as at the moment, the Field of Regular Drivers racing in this Class Really are a Very Experienced and Technically 'Savvy' bunch of People Many of Whom have been doing this for Longer than we really Should Mention !!,..so you are competing against a Very High Quality Field!
It's Tough !!,..in fact reminds me of when I was Just a Youngster!,..lol
Oh and if I thought I had Raced Damn hard Last round, just to finish 7th,..well,..this one was even Harder and I Only Finished 8th !!!,..Ouch !!,...Just gotta work out how to Turn Winning My Semi, into Winning the Main,..again !!!,..
HEAT 1;.
You Know, from an Observers Point of View, both this Heat and the Other one, were Both Very good Races and in fact were Pretty Damn Clean, requiring Minimal Marshalling,...well done guys.
This was actually a Very Close fought Race, with Positions changing all over the first 5 places until quite Late in the race, with Young Declan, doing a Very good Job, driving consistently and Creeping up the placings to claim 1st, with 148 laps, closely followed by Rob, who was tussling Race long between the top three and was leading for 4 brackets 2nd on 146, again Closely followed by Dean Fraser on 144 laps 3rd and Dennis taking the Last Move Up with 141, with Matt Byron, being amongst the group that swapped places close by with 138, young Joshua has probably had better races than he had last nite, but still drove well, along with Robin, who was having a good run until a Late Race 'Freak' accident, managed to Rip one of the Side Pans completely off the car and as it was the last bracket decided it wasn't worth the effort, finishing with 120 and 102 laps respectively.
HEAT 2;
This was a Tough race, a bit more variance in lap totals, but Damn Close!!
A Race Long Duel was fought out, between Steve King (the eventual winner), (Great to see ya Back Steve!), Charles Rickards and Peter Hopkins, driving one of Mark Fox's Cars and driving Damn well !!
These guys swapped the first three places between them the whole race, with Steve ending on 172 laps, Charles 172 laps !! and Peter 168.
Hutcho had a relatively good run, to take the Last Move Up with 166 laps and seemed quite Happy with the way his New car was going.
Ivan Levanich, Bevan Halloran and Guy Russell (who was running one of my cars), brought up the rear. Bevan seemed to have some problem with his car as he did Not actually finish the last bracket and pulled out.
SEMI B;
Sheesh!,..what a Race !
I just cannot believe I came off exiting the First damn corner !!!,..Sorry Guys and personally, what a first bracket !!
I normally really enjoy Red lane and can do good laps on it, but tonight!?,..Was one of those Brackets, when you just seemed to get 'Nailed' By Flying cars and marshalled when all you did was Stop to Avoid the accident etc,...sigh.
Got My Adrenalin 'Pumping' though !!,..lol, once again Sorry guys,..now if I can Only Drie Like that in the Main,..I will be doing OK
So first Bracket, Dale's in the Lead, Hutcho is 2nd !! and and Daniel is in 3rd, with Lindsay 4th,..these positions Would change as the Semi continued, with pretty Much Everyone in this Semi Holding or having a chance at the available Move Ups, This was one Tough Semi and was very Much a 'Portent' of things to come as far as the rest of the evenings raceing was concerned, More on That Later.
So I'm 8th,..Damn annoyed I had just had such a Lousy first bracket, but feeling 'In the Zone',..so Off we Go !!,..lol
May I say I was quite 'chuffed' managing to go from 8th, to 5th after Pruple and Black ! and even Happier Managing to 'Snatch' First in the Last Bracket, to Win this Semi.,...
Close?,..Oh Yeah !!
I don't know about you guys, but I had some Damn Fine Side by side Racing with two or three of us at a number of different times for almost Whole brackets!,..Fantastic Close, Fast and annoyingly,..But Great consistent running by everyone,..There WAS 'Sweat" !!,..ROFL
The Outcome of Just This Semi?
Stoo 168
Daniel harron 167
Dale Anderson 166
Peter Hopkins 166
Taking the four Move Ups, with
Lindsay Byron 164
Steve Hutchesson 160
Dean Fraser 151
Dennis Barbato 141
Being the Initial Outcome of the Race,..I say this, as we had some interesting Happenings that changed the Final order of entrants in the main as we shall see.
Once again this Was a Great Race to watch and the first three changed places Race long.
On to,..
SEMI A;
Hmm,..Now this Was always gonna be Fast and Tough, as Due to the way the Semi Sit-Outs were allocated, this already Had the Fastest Guys in it and some Very Fast and Extremely Close Racing was seen, fighting for the 4 spots in the Main.
The Final Lap Total Outcome does in Some ways Not Really 'Reflect' The Possible or eventual Outcome, but That is another Matter and the decisions Taken by Wayne & James in this matter 'On the Nite', were quite OK, as it is How they saw the best outcome for All Involved, (or actually There at the Time), to Proceed.
As a Note, I should Not think the process of Fox 'Regaining' his 'Lost Laps' would be the 'Normal' outcome,..Normally!
So anyway,..Cody was looking like 'Blitzing' it, but got slightly Side Tracked Mid race, with Wayne Taking Command, all the While Fox was 'Snapping' at their Heels,..Until,..Bingo,..DOH !!,..Mark has a 'Homer' moment and runs Blue, (which was Free as young Declan had withdrawn) Instead of Green,..! Ouch,..No Laps,..But Ran Blue Again for the Last Bracket and one would have to suggest on his Form he would have Easily Done a 22 or 23, so Would Definitely have finished 3rd,..BUT, as we Know, Normally, it's "Good Night Irene" when you do that,..Doh !!
Mark, you were Very Lucky !!,..
Great driving though from Charles Rickards as well, as He Also was On Form an Cruising comfortably in the Upper 4 places.There was then a Slight Gap to the others, who all seemed to be having their own little race.
Young Declan drove Steadily and ran very consistent Laps, but was perhaps a bit Tired and a bit in Awe of running in such a Fast and Much Older group of Old racers.
Well done!, great to see a few of the older guys offering helpful support during the racing as well, to many of the Younger Racers.
Cody B 178 Great Laps !!
Wayne B 177 also great laps
Charles R 171
Steve King 166
James Colefax 166 Close!
Fox 153 6th, but perhaps Really scoring 176 and therefore 3rd
Declan Russel with only 92, but pulling out after the 4th bracket.
We will Have to Start Earlier if we are to Continue with So many Entrants, if Only to allow the Younger Racers to Get Home.
So,..what happens Now,..is that Here we are, about to Have a Great Final, after a Really Great evenings Racing and 'Where Is everybody?',...Drivers,..but Not Many Marshalls !!! And some of those were relatively New and Weren't racing in the Semi's !!,..Oh well
So Wayne confers with James Re a Reassignment of Placings, as Wayne decides Not to Run in the Final, which allowing for Fox's 'Form' allows Him to Enter and James also decides Not to Run in the Final and Daniel has to Leave, thereby allowing Lindsay to Enter the Final,..Phew,..Got it?,..Clear???,...so we have a Final with a Good but Oddly arrived at set of Starters lol
The Final;
So after a bit of 'Jiggery-Pokey',..we Have
Cody Bramble
Mark Fox
Charles Rickards
Steve King
Lindsay Byron
Dale Anderson
Peter Hopkins
Stewart Amos
lining up for the Start of what was a Very Tough Race.
Once again,..Cody Grabbed this Race by the Throat and didn't let go from the first bracket onwards and had established the 'Margin', by about the 3rd bracket
This race had Mark, Charles, Steve and especially Lindsay all tussling for the places below Cody,..Lindsay doing an especially Great job in only his 2nd Retro race here, (but experience tells!!,..lol), and running 2nd for some brackets !!
There was some Pretty good and Serious driving going on for the Whole Race and one would have to say it Was definitely another Great Race, with the Standard Now Definitely set apparently, consistently Higher than Not that Long ago.
One Has to Stay On AND be Fast !!,...Damn Hard That,...
After being so 'Charged' after my Semi Win, I was feeling OK and driving relatively well, having made it up tp 4th at one stage but Just could Not 'Match' the Totals set by Others on Purple and Black, even though I did OK in the semi,..so I ended up Driving Even Harder than Last time and Ended up One place Lower !!!,..Ouch,..the Final Outcome?
Cody Bramble 266
Mark Fox 260
Steve King 259
Lindsay Byron 259
Charles Rickards 258
Dale Anderson 255
Peter Hopkins 252
and Woe is Me,..Boo Hoo,..Last with 251,..
Close?,..Sure was at times and when one looks at the individual lap/Lane totals, seems one Now needs to consistently Need to be doing 33's and 34's Every Bracket,..and as we All Know,..that Means NOT Coming Off at ALL in Each Bracket. !!!
Once again there were Many Brackets of Great Neck and Neck racing or Brackets where you didn't get passed or Pas Anyone, 'cos everyone Else was lapping as fast !!,..lol
Do these Guys Race well ???,..Oh Yeah !! And a couple of Hot Shots weren't even Here Tonight !!
So as I keep 'Harping on about',..the racing Is already Great and appears to be getting even Better !!,...This is getting Tough for an Old Bugger !!! ROFL
See ya at the Next Round !!
Pics to Come,..(although I was Not 'On the Case' last Night), I think SteveK and Others have taken some, so we should be able to Throw a few up here and at the Retro Site
