Whilst the number of entrants wasn't Huge, it was relatively well attended (we had 12 entrants in Both classes) it has to be said that as has become somewhat typical of this class, the driving standard was excellent.
Personally, I have to say the evening turned out to be surprisingly enjoyable for myself, as initially, due both to a lack of available funds on the day and due to a rather Nasty problem with my lower back, I was until Mark Fox rang and hassled me to come, not intending to attend, Which was in fact a good thing for myself, as it proved to be very enjoyable and I had a great evening's racing and actually managed to do rather well just quietly,..
CanAm
Qualifying.
Due to my late decision to attend, I missed qualifying and in that regard I say thanks to all, for allowing me to enter in the 2nd Semi without having set a time in Qualifying.
I have to say though that I Wasn't overly surprised to find that my old friend Mark Fox had once again managed to Top Qualify.
Mark has over the years had an almost uncanny ability to TQ in many a major event and so it once again proved this evening.
Mark ran off a series of close and consistent times to eventually top the times over the rest of the field, he backed his 5.145 with a 5.146 and 5.159. Well Done Mark.
Semi B
James, Brad, Darryl, Cody, Shane and Myles lined up to compete for the 4 x Move up spots for the Main.
Cody perhaps showed his potential on the evening, by taking out this Semi quite convincingly ending with a total of 175 laps, finishing ahead of a very hard fought battle between James and Darryl for 2nd and 3rd. James eventually Just finishing ahead of Darryl with them both turning 171 laps.
With a very good drive by Brad into 4th to take the final move up with 162 laps.
Shane was 5th with 156 laps with Myles finishing 6th with 141 laps.
Semi A
Here we had Troy, Jake, Josh, Mark, Charles and myself ready to battle it out for the 4 available spots in the Main.
Mark took the early lead and although dropping to to 2nd then 4th in the middle of the race, managed to end the race in 1st with a total of 172 laps.
having started on black, I had a less than perfect first bracket that left me in 6th, but managed to make my way up to 1st at one stage, until the final bracket when mark grabbed it back from me, leaving me to come home 2nd with 171 laps, Just 'pipping' Charles who finished in 3rd on the same lap as myself, also with 171 laps.
The last move up spot was taken by Troy with a total of 168 laps.
Josh came home a very credible 5th against such a fine field of drivers with a total of 166 laps, managing to just stay ahead of Jake who finished in 6th with 165 laps.
As can be seen from how close all the lap totals of the 8 drivers that progressed to the Main it looked like it was going to be a very tough final.
Final
I guess fresh from his fantastic performance at the Brock Trophy race in Melbourne recently, Cody was obviously in Fine form and apart from a slight 'blip' when he dropped to 2nd in the 2nd bracket, Cody basically 'owned' this race from the start.
Mind you it Was getting very close and very competitive towards the end, Especially between Troy and myself. Whilst we both were lower down from the typical lap drop experienced when running on purple and black, we were both chasing Cody very hard.
In fact it wasn't really until about half way through the race that the final positions appeared to become visible.
After making his way to a high of 2nd place, James' race progress was upset by an unfortunate accident in the main straight in the 4th bracket which amazingly broke his rear axle, causing him to miss a considerable part of the 5th bracket. His eventual 6th place finish was testament to his cars overall potential on the evening, having crawled back up from 8th.
I'd have to say I was pretty focused on my racing and was not completely aware of what was happening behind me, but it Was obvious that Mark, Charles and Brad weren't having their personal Best races this evening, which was definitely a good thing for Cody, Troy and myself!!,..
Darryl on the other hand, was obviously quietly going about his business and ended up coming home a fine 4th.
Considering that the motor in my car Had seen better days and if I had of 'prepared my cars as I normally would have for an event like this would have been changed, I was somewhat surprised that I ended up finishing so well. The car has always handled extremely well which I guess allowed me to drive it as hard as I did through the corners to make up for it's slight lack of pace, (well compared to Cody's car that is).
Overall, personally, a Very satisfying and somewhat unexpected outcome considering how lousy I felt on the evening and was just another typically fantastic and tough race in the ongoing Joy and Fun that is Retro racing at HSC and was arguably another Worthy event for a State Title race.
The final outcome;
1st Cody 263 laps
2nd Troy 261 laps
3rd Stoo 260 laps
4th Darryl 257 laps
5th Charles 255 laps
6th James 254 laps
7th Mark 249 laps
8th Brad 248 laps
F1
Qualifying.
This was pretty close really, with Cody eventually Top Qualifying and being the only person to get under the 5.2 bracket, with a fine 5.188
Semi B
Here we had Troy, Stephanie, Myles, Mark, James and Charles to do battle and it has to be said that for the most part this was a pretty close semi, with many on the same laps for much of the race.
Mark eventually came out on top with a fine total of 170 laps, snatching the top spot in the last two brackets.
Troy came home 2nd with 168 laps, ahead of James who had been holding 1st place for every bracket but dropped to 3rd in his last two brackets when running on purple and black, ending on 166 laps, finishing just ahead of Charles who also finished with 166 laps.
Stephanie finished in 5th with 164 laps ahead of Myles who was having some car problems race long ending with 131 laps.
Semi A
This semi had Darryl, Josh, Cody, Brad, Jake and myself ready to do battle and it was actually a very tough and hard fought race, with Cody, myself, Darryl and Josh all swapping positions and at some point leading various brackets between the four of us race long.
Cody finally pulled ahead towards the end to finish in 1st with a total of 171 laps, with myself in 2nd on 169 laps Josh, who has only recently been competing with us in Retro's driving typically very well to come home 3rd with 166 laps, with Darryl once again driving well to take the last move up spot in 4th with 165 laps.
Brad and Jake swapped 5th and 6th with each other race long, with Jake eventually ending with 159 laps ahead of Brad with 157 laps.
Final
So a fine field of drivers comprising; Cody, Josh, Stewart, Charles, Mark, Darryl, Troy and James lined up for the start of what certainly appeared to be a very good F1 final.
It's hard to describe just how close this race was really, right across the board for the Whole race. many brackets ended with many people on the same laps, even though in effect some of the positions were held from start to finish.
Cody and I had a really fantastic duel race long, with Cody grabbing the lead in the first bracket, with myself in 2nd and holding a tantalizingly close gap over myself for the whole race.
Behind us, Troy and Mark were similarly having a great battle for 3rd and 4th, with Charles, James and Josh having their own battle for the lower places until the last two brackets, when Mark took command of 3rd from Troy in the sixth bracket and James managing to snare 4th from Troy in the very last bracket with a fine run on purple, leaving Troy a somewhat disappointed 5th.
Darryl finished closely behind in 6th, with Josh and Charles being similarly close in the last two positions. Not sure why, but Charles just didn't seem to have as good a race as would be expected considering how effective his car has proven to be in the past,..bad luck Charles.
The final Outcome;
1st Cody 261 laps
2nd Stoo 258 laps
3rd Mark 254 laps
4th James 251 laps
5th Troy 249 laps
6th Darryl 248 laps
7th Josh 243 laps
6th Charles 242 laps
Compaerd to the two Semi's, the F1 final was a really super clean race, with virtually No de-slotting race long, providing for a really fitting and tough Final in what really has proved to be a fantastic class of racing and was I believe thoroughly enjoyed by all.
Whilst in the finals, the overall lap totals were down slightly from the CanAm totals, it was somewhat surprising to see the totals of the F1's in the Semi's compared to the CanAm's and in fact some of the individual Best times set in F1's were rather surprising.
All in all, a really great and for myself, a thoroughly satisfying race.
Overall, it was once again just another fantastic evening of Retro racing at HSC with what is a really great bunch of local racers making it all the more enjoyable, as could be observed by the race long humour and enjoyment that seemed to be evident all evening and in fact is usually the 'norm' at all of our local Retro races.
Obviously as well, a great thanks must go out to both James and Wayne for running and hosting another great event with a bunch of great trophies for all.
Congratulations must also go to Darryl for managing to take out Concours', in Both CanAm and F1, with two very nicely painted and presented cars.
On a final note congrats as well should also go to Cody, who managed to take the Wins in Both classes making him I guess a very worthy State Title winner,..Well Done Cody!
