Well, it would seem that Retro Racing in 2015 got off to what has so often been the case, a Great Start at the 'Australia Day Classic' at Horsnby Slot Cars.
The Racing, on Both Tracks was,... HOT !! and,.. So Was the Air temperature !!,..and we are probably all Glad that we didn't really Know what the Humidity was !!,... is it possible to be Over 100% ??
,..Phew !!,... certainly made for some tricky racing conditions, on what Was, I would have to suggest a rather Nicely 'Prepared' track,.. although as a few of us discussed after the event, might have been Better for a few of our cars to have perhaps changed to a slightly 'Grippier' tyre,..(well I know for Sure, MY car could have 'benefitted' from slightly better traction in the last part of and corner Exit !!),...Anyway,..10 of us 'presented' ourselves to Race and was as usual a fairly 'representative' field of Most of the usual Suspects, including, once again our great Victorian friend Geoff, running a Very Smooth and "Special",.. Autocoast,..Errrmmm,..Ferrari !!??,..
As can be seen in the Pics below,..Everyone was running Some Kind of Ti-22, which, is Not a problem as far as I am concerned, as All Good racers will eventually navigate their way to 'What Works' and hey then Everyone IS ,..'On the Same Page' as it were,..
Apart from Just us Retro racers, there was also GTP-12 and Wing 12's running on the Big Track and with limited 'Spare' Hands, the racing/qualifying, was structured so as everyone could help out on Both tracks for marshalling and so thanks Must go out to many of our Victorian visitors and others, for helping out and providing Great marshalling for Our Retro events.
It was decided to run 2 x Finals, with Overall Lap totals deciding the Outcome,..Never My favourite methodology, due to the variability of the 2 x races, but I have to say that BOTH Races were, (I guess 'typically' due to the assembled drivers) Extremely FAST and Clean !!
We Did Qualify, but I don't happen to have the Qual' results at Hand,..but Leave it to be said that Also somewhat 'Typically',..Mark Fox managed to TQ, with a Time Noticeably Faster than Anyone else could turn, being a 4.9 something..with,..Also again perhaps 'typically',... his NEW Car !!
Well Done Mark.
He Had apparently managed to go Faster a few days earlier when Testing,..On a Dirty Track !!,..We Should have changed Tyres Mark !!,..
Final 1
Here we had Geoff, Darryl, Mark, Neil and Brad.
Foxy got off to a Great Start, along with Darryl with Mark holding the upper hand for a few brackets, when it became quite close, with Darryl actually managing to Steal 1st place from Mark in the middle of the race, with the two of them barely a lap or two apart from the 'get-Go'.
Geoff and Brad were just slightly Off the ultimate 'Pace' of the two leaders, but were seriously engaged in their Own 'battle', with Brad managing to keep his Nose ahead of Geoffrey for the race, with Neil,..possibly still 'suffering' a bit from 'Wing Car Speed' hangover, was sadly, bringing up the rear, with a somewhat 'Errant' car at times,..Must have a good look at it Next time,..as it was de-slotting strangely at times ??
Anyway,..Back at the Front, Mark was Now seriously putting on Steam,..(I Told you the Humidity was High!!,..lol) and managed to put a number of laps between himself and an ever charging Darryl, to eventually take a well deserved 1st place.
The New car seemingly to work extremely well,.. let alone the New Controller !!
Results of Final 1;
1st Mark 265 laps
2nd Darryl 260 laps
3rd Brad 247 laps
4th Geoff 241 laps
5th Neil 217 laps
Final 2
Well,..with Foxy turning a number of High bracket totals, 34's and 35's, with Nothing Below 31,.. WE Knew we were really going to Have to 'Motor' to end up Anywhere Near him.
So, in this Final, James, Justin, Paul, Jake and Myself,..set off to see IF WE Could,..Match the First Race.
Well,..if the First race was seemingly Fast,..then,..So was This one,..
I was,..Very Briefly, Pleased with the fact that I was Leading at the Start, but there was Absolutely Nothing I could do about Paul, who quite quickly caught me and Simply, drove Away at a Very Fast and may I say Very consistent rate !!,.. there was also the Problem of Justin,..who similarly, also managed to catch and pass me and stay Ahead for the duration,..although with perhaps 1 more bracket,..??,..somehow I doubt it,..lol
My car Was really Pretty good, apart from suffering a bit as mentioned, wagging it's tail a bit and Not really having Ultimate traction on corner exit, which was a shame, as apart from that it Was running well.
I made a couple of annoying de-slots in the earlier brackets, which didn't help matters,..but was happy with the progess in the last half of the race.
I Must say,..Apart once again enjoying running again with Paul, it was really Great to actually Have James managing to have a run in what Must be His favourite Class and also having Jake back running with us !!
Justin Did actually manage to get in front of Paul, in the 3rd bracket, but Paul was once again,..driving Extremely well and With what would appear to be an extremely fine handling car, so managed to re-assert his Dominance over the rest of us.
James and I swapped places for a few brackets but I managed to turn some good lap totals for the last few brackets, which allowed me to get back ahead, in My Vain attempts to catch Justin.
Jake ran a very metered race, with his borrowed car, getting Back Into running retro's around this Always 'Tricky' little track.
At the end,..there were many Hot and Very sweaty drivers, all quickly trying to do Mental Arithmetic with lap totals to work out who finished where,..
Results of Final 2;
1st Paul 267 laps
2nd Justin 263 laps
3rd Stoo 261 laps
4th James 256 laps
5th Jake 240 laps
and So,.. the FINAL Outcome,..
Overall Finishing Positions;
1st Paul 267 laps
2nd Mark 265 laps
3rd Justin 263 laps
4th Stoo
5th Darryl
6th James
7th Brad
8th Geoff
9th Jake
10th Neil
All in all, a really enjoyable event,.. Overall, with as Always a Great 'atmosphere', enjoyable company, plenty of laughs and as is invariably the case,..a Whole Lot Of FUN !!,..
Thanks once again, to James for putting on Another Fine Australia Day Classic event.
Great Racing!!
NOTE: More pics to come
