HSC Retro CanAm 'Big Track' Series R1. 13 Feb 2015

[stoo23]

Perhaps it was the 'Date', (being Friday the 13th !!) but upon arriving slightly Later than I would have preferred, the Other 'Retro Addicts' seemed pleased that we Now had a Total of 6 entrants,...

Fox had already informed James of his inability to attend, which was somewhat of a shame, as I would imagine his New car would go rather well on the Larger Track at HSC.

I don't know, I guess I just figured / expected there would have been More people interested in 'Having a Run', Especially as it was the Very First time we have Ever run Retro's on the Big Track !!

NOTE: As a 'Historical' reference to Any Overseas readers, as Retro started in Australia at HSC, running on the Smaller 110 Ft Johnson Road Course, We chose to run Plafit CHEETAH II motors, as they suited the Track Far better than say, a Falcon 7.
Since the opening of Raceworld Australia, with it's New Gerding King, we have Now also 'adopted' the use of the JK 'Retro Hawk' motors for that track as well as the Larger Johnson 'Hill Climb / Paper Clip' thingemy at HSC seen below,..

HSC Big Track.jpg (39.87 KiB) Viewed 6786 times

Unfortunately, I did NOT have my camera with me and am unaware of Anyone actually taking Any pictures,..but realistically, there was Nothing 'NEW' as such,.. ,... Apart from the fact that James got to race,.. again !!,.. and even Better, was that Joe was racing a Retro !!
Great to Finally be 'On Track' with you, after All these Years !!

So, to the racing.
As it was a Very Quiet night, (spare Human wise,..lol), we ran 2 x 3 car races, so as to atleast have 'adequate' Marshalls,..the racing proved to be very clean anyway though, what with so Few cars on the track and as could also be expected from the Drivers attending

Qualifying
Darryl TQ'd, with a Great time of 5.609, ahead of Justin and Joe, both turning laps Sub 5.7 sec', but the Slowest time was a 'casual' 5.796,..
I didn't bother with Qual', as I knew it would be 'pointless',.. , since this track was built, apart from a couple of G27 and G12 races relatively recently, that has been the Sum Total of my Racing 'experience' on this track in 20 Plus Years !!!
So with Brand New tyres and Very little practice, I figured I was in for perhaps, an 'Interesting' time ??,.. I did have 2 x cars with me, but chose to use "Old Faithful", as It atleast seemed to Just Work, with any de-Slots in practice, definitely being from myself, Not the car.

Heat 1
James, Darryl and Joe lined up for this Heat.

This was a Really Good Race !! So Close, almost the Whole way.
Joe took and Held the Early Lead !! by Just 1 Lap for 4 x brackets, from the James and Darryl who were Similarly on the Same lap totals for the 4 x brackets as well !!
It then changed ever so slightly, with James managing to move ahead into the lead from the 5th bracket.
Joe AND Darryl seemed to Both have some slight 'issues' in the closing stages, allowing James to continue advancing His lead, but also remaining within a lap of each other.
They finally Swapped positions in the last bracket,.. ending, a Lap apart.

1st James 162 laps
2nd Joe 157 laps
3rd Darryl 156 laps
FT: Darryl, 5.636 on Purple

Heat 2
This race had Leigh, Justin and Myself.
I chose a Lane strategy, that would allow me to arrive 'Finally' at the 'Dreaded' Red Lane with, hopefully by that stage, nicely Round tyres and a little more 'experience' of the track.

Getting the Entry and transition through the 'Kink' and 'Donut', let alone the 'lead On' to the Main straight, is quite 'The Art' to being Fast on this track and can also be the Complete 'Undoing' !!

I drove a,..shall we say, 'Conservative' race !!,.. , well atleast I tried to,.. I was Pleased with My Car and at times my driving, but without More Practice it was inevitable that I Would lose Time around the 'tricky' part of this track. Definitely Need more track time !!

Justin, basically 'Owned' this race,.. , leaving both Leigh and myself behind in his wake,..
Leigh and I had some good close racing for a few brackets, until he pulled ahead in the closing stages.
It was good (and encouraging), to 'compare' My cars performance against both of them and was Very Pleased that My Lane strategy seemed to Work,.. as my Lap total in the last bracket on Red, was the Same as Everyone Else ran,..Now if I can Only get the Middle lanes sorted out,..
"Old Faithful" seems to work quite well on this track as well,.. I just need to Extract More performance from,... 'The Driver',..

1st Justin 160 laps
2nd Leigh 150 laps
3rd Stoo 147 laps
FT: Justin, 5.659 on Blue

All in all, an enjoyable night's racing and a Perfect "Present" for the 'Birthday Boy' and Track Owner James , finishing as the Overall Winner on the night by 2 laps, from Justin, with Joe managing a Fine 3rd place.

Overall Placings;
James
Justin
Joe
Darryl
Leigh
Stoo

I look forward to the Next 'event' on this track Also to be Held on "Friday the 13th", in March.
Hopefully, See all / More of you there !!

[neiljb]

Thanks for the report Stoo
I stayed up late doing some work on my CanAm on Thursday in preparation for the race, but had some issues at work on the day that did not allow me to attend.
May I ask -
Gear ratio the same as the flat track?
Same tyres?

[stoo23]

Hi Neil, Pity you 'missed it',..hope the 'Work' on the CanAm car went well.

Gear ratio the same as the flat track?

Yeah pretty Much, I think everyone was running 9:28, although I know Justin was running 9:27 but then He like Joe I believe, were Also running 'Wonder Rubber'.

I just ran the Standard JK 'Big Boy' tyres, unsure about the individual 'Specific' choices, but I'd say YES.
I guess it would depend on the car AND available Traction,..of which there certainly Was Plenty of !!, so perhaps Harder tyres Could work,.. as I must admit,..'Post Race' I Was thinking I could have perhaps run Slightly 'Narrowed' tyres, due to the Available traction.

I think Everyone ran 'Flat Track' capable cars.
James ran the Warmack car he has with the Wide 'U-Bend' Flex Rails and Joe ran one of those JK 'Cheetah' like Flexi car style things,..

Pleasingly, (especially as both a Fan and User of "TrueScale" Body shells), it was great to see Joe running a "TrueScale" McLaren M8A.

I'd venture that Other body's could be 'effective' on this track,.. Other than a Ti-22, although a few of us Were running the almost 'ubiquitous' 'Long Nose' MAC style Ti. My current body is mounted slightly further Forward than usual, which Can work OK on 'Old Faithful' but would Definitely like to try Other Body Styles and Setups,..Tyres etc,..

The Idea of a 'HSC Big Track Special' car does seem interesting,..Especially IF it allowed you to Literally 'Hammer' through the Donut etc !!,..
I DON'T think it Needs to be a relative 'Featherweight' like at Raceworld,..

[Mark Fox]

Thanks for the round-up Stoo and congrats to James on the win.

Looks like you needed to have name starting with 'J' to do any good this time around.

Will make it to the next one I am sure.

Cheers

[neiljb]

Thanks for the insight. I was wondering about the Raceworld v flat track being the best for this track.