The weather today was much nicer than the previous night's Retro event and made for a rather pleasant racing environment, especially for our Northern brethren that attended!!,..lol
Apart from all the Usual Local regulars, we were fortunate to have both Jimmy and JJ from down Dapto way, as well as 'The Garry and Barry Show' joining us from Queensland,..thanks for coming along guys!,..your prescence is Always welcome and only adds to the excellent racing and general level of friendly Cameraderie
All up, we had 13 starters for the event and as Many had travelled quite some way to race with us, after a Drivers meeting to Finalise the 'Format', it was decided (as an Aid to give our Travellers a bit More Track/Racing time), to run the event with Slightly Longer Brackets in Both the Semi's and Main, so we had 5 Minute brackets in the Semi's, with the Main having 10 minute brackets.
Whilst this sounded like a Great Idea and arguably somewhat appropriate considering the fact that it is Group C afterall, where even in real life their Sprint events were relatively Long,..one could suggest that at the end of the event we had some thoroughly exhausted drivers !!
Personally, I Love Longer Enduro style events, but it proved to be a rather hard event, as there were quite a few of the Older drivers almost Crawling away from the Drivers stations at the conclusion of Racing !!!
One would have to suggest it Was a rather Satisfying event for all though and was relatively clean, although there were some rather serious incidents for some of the entrants, resulting in some rather bent and Twisted chassis/cars,..talk of 'Licorice' like bits and bobs certainly made the choice/need for the accessory carbon Fibre parts realistically Necessary !!! 
Although I 'Personally' find this Class Inappropriately Expensive, even compared to Other Plafit classes, I had almost decided to assemble a car for the race, but due to lack of available parts prior to the event and also personal finance problems closer to the event, I decided to just attend to help out marshaling and to take pics etc, which did tend to make the day rather long and tiring, when one is Not So involved in the racing per se, but was certainly an enjoyable event, as there really was some very good racing and as usual for events with This crowd and at HSC, was a thoroughly enjoyable Social event as well.
Concours
Once again, Concours was decided upon by all the entered drivers taking a vote and was Won by this time by Rob G, being one of the Many cars prepared and detailed by Wayne Bramble, so I guess Congrats really Should go to Wayne !!,..lol,..er Rob,,.....Sorry !!,..
Well done to the two of you !!,..roflQualifying
From the times set by almost everyone, it could be seen that the evenings racing Was going to be close.
Troy Boldy managed to set quite a Quick time!, in fact was the Only person to go Under the 5,6 second bracket, managing to turn a 5.579 to TQ. Well done,..Again Troy ,..lol
Garry Johnson was relatively close behind Troy turning a 5.647, with Cody also close with a 5.573.
Almost the Whole field was between 5.6 and 5.8 seconds, so it really was very close.
Semi B
Here we had James, Garry, Brad, Gregg, Barry and JJ lining up to take the start.
It became quickly apparent that a bracket total of 50 laps was what one needed to aim for, or atleast as close as possible and from Gregg Teagle's eventual 1st place it could also be noted that consistency was also required to gain a good finishing place, as although Garry J, managed to turn a number of 50 lap brackets, it was Gregg's consistency, that Won out in the end.
The racing was pretty good really, although the final placings were almost 'Set in Stone' from virtually the 'get Go'. with Only one or two minor place changes during the race.
From the Outset, Gregg took command of 1st and managed to hold it all the way to the finish, with GarryJ holding a Very close 2nd place race long, never giving Gregg a chance to relax, with James advancing from 4th into 3rd at the end of the 3rd bracket, exchanging that place with Barry, who then held onto 4th to the end, to take the final move up spot.
Brad drove very neatly and consistently, turning good laps, but his car appeared to be simply 'Outpaced' by the other competition and he held 5th race long.
Poor JJ, was having a slightly less than memorable race, his car causing him some grief during the event, and ending with a serious problem after a crash, causing him to withdraw in the final bracket, only managing to turn 8 laps and ending in 6th place which he was in race long,..bad luck JJ
Outcome of Semi B;
1st Gregg 391 laps
2nd Garry 390 laps
3rd James 383 laps
4th Barry 380 laps
5th Brad 370 laps
6th JJ 291 laps
Semi A
Here we had Jake, John, Cody, Rob, Jimmy, Troy and Dale taking the start and from This Line up of drivers, one could imagine it was going to be Fast and hard and so it Proved!
Similarly to the previous Semi, the first Two placings were virtually set in stone from the start, with Cody, seriously motoring away, managing to turn some extremely impressive lap totals race long, with only two brackets below 50 laps, four brackets of 50 laps and making up for the Low brackets, by turning a 52 on White !! Only Jimmy and Troy managed to turn a 50 lap bracket and Only Cody exceeded it, so a Very exceptional performance really,..Well done mate !!
Jimmy managed to secure 2nd from the start and also hold onto it race long, with Troy holding down 4th then 3rd to the end. John initially held 4th then dropped down the order until he managed to haul back up to 4th in the 5th bracket and managed to hang on to the end to take the final move up spot.
Jake, who has been running quite well in this class of late in our local racing, was I guess simply 'Outgunned' by the level of competition on the night and perhaps tonight was also a bit let down by his driving, as he did seem to be deslotting a fair bit, perhaps trying a bit too hard.
Dale who started on Black managed to motor along quite well and was holding down 3rd for most of the race until his piece of Licorice became Bent beyond a quick repair and withdrew at the end of the 6th bracket, but managed to hold onto 6th, as Rob had an absolute shocker of an evening, I guess partly due to lack of Race Miles at HSC of late and some car difficulties, deciding to withdraw at the end of the 4th bracket.
The outcome of Semi A;
1st Cody 397 laps
2nd Jimmy 389 laps
3rd Troy 383 laps
4th John 370 laps
5th Jake 364 laps
6th Dale 244 laps
7th Rob 174 laps
Group C Final
I guess it has to be said, that here we were Treated to a somewhat excellent example of driving by Troy Boldy, who was Obviously, "In the Zone", as He regularly managed to turn bracket totals of 100 laps and along with Cody, were the Only two drivers to either consistently turn totals of 100 laps or Greater, Troy managing to turn 102 laps on Blue.
Troy took hold of 1st place at the start and never looked back.
Cody took a leaf out of Troy's normal book, by starting on Purple and therefore was behind the apparent order in the early brackets, slowly moving up the order as the race progressed, eventually moving into 2nd by the 6th bracket and remaining there to the end.
Jimmy seemed to spend the race battling with Gregg for virtually the whole race, the two of them swapping places and holding 2nd, 3rd and 4th at various stages, with Jimmy finally managing to snare 3rd in the 6th bracket and hold it to the end, leaving Gregg to similarly hold 4th to the end.
After being slightly behind the Eight Ball at the start, John Drove consistently but was just slightly Off the Pace of the rest of the field and basically held 5th from the 4th bracket onwards.
Barry, like John and also Brad, was similarly just Off the Outright pace of the leading guys and like Brad (who managed to take up a spot in the main as James decided Not to run, perhaps the endless Kids parties during the day taking their tole,..lol) and motored along consistently and Both drove well, just lacked the Horsepower of the others on the Night.
Whilst Garry's race started out OK, he had an absolute Shocker, with both Car troubles and also Controller problems, as his Brand spanking new Slot.it controller, developed a problem with it's trigger bearing,..as did Barry's similarly brand new unit,..virtually at the Exact same time!!!
Barry changed back to his normal older controller as did garry, but along with his car problems, (Garry having a seriously Bent Rear wheel), he took the time to dis-assemble and rebuild it during the race, missing most of the 5th bracket and all of the 6th, eventually returning, to run to the end with his Now Working Slot.it.
One could suggest that if one is to invest in one of the Slot.it controllers, then some serious attention should be given to the Trigger bearing as Both Garry and Barry's controllers became bearing bound!! Perhaps a good argument for a ball bearing modification !!!
It was a Very Good and Very fast race, with I would have to say, the pace actually Increasing as the race progressed,..or so it seemed from a spectators viewpoint. The racing was Very Clean and required little marshaling as would be expected from such a fine group of drivers,..but it would have to be said that perhaps a few were regretting the decision to race for 10 minutes per bracket by the end as many were apparently completely 'Knackered' at the conclusion of the racing !!,..
All in all, another Very Worthy State Title race event, that was I am sure, thoroughly enjoyed by all.
The Final outcome being;
1st Troy 792 laps
2nd Cody 784 laps
3rd Jimmy 775 laps
4th Gregg 771 laps
5th John 755 laps
6th Barry 738 laps
7th Brad 704 laps
8th Garry 587 laps
Thanks once again must go to both James and Wayne for putting on such a fantastic event and also a Special thanks to Werner from ACE Hobbies for supplying a range of Plafit Goodies as race prizes for the various Winners
Although I did enjoy being there, I was extremely glad to finally head home after a rather long day and actually probably Should have stayed home and finished off my new 1/32 car for the following day's event, as it was also a Very early start for the Sunday races,..but more of that later !!