2017 Australia Day Classic (ADC)

[Mark Fox]

Hi All

The Australia Day Classic held on Saturday 28th January saw the 2017 race calendar kick off for Retro Racing – CanAms on the Short Track at HSC.

We had seven starters ready to shake off the annual break cobwebs including Stoo who we had not seen for a while.

Darryl was awarded ‘Concours d’Elegance’ with a nice sample of his usual top presentation.

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Qualifying

I really had to work hard here to retain my TQ Crown as Darryl cut a fast 5.050 to set the pace early on but I managed to pip him with about 7 laps in the 5.04’s the fastest being 5.041 to take Pole by 9/1000’s of a sec! Stoo, Brad and James – all in the 5.2’s were a tight bunch followed by Neil and Matthew who were also close together.

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The format was to be the 3 evens in qualifying (Darryl, Brad and Neil) in A Main to be followed by the odd’s (Mark, Stoo, James and Matthew).

James did not ultimately race as he relinquished his starting spot to Stevo.

A Main

This race was a very close battle between Darryl and Brad with Neil trying to hold on as they slogged it out. There was never more than 2 laps between the lead pair; but as the lap chart shows; Darryl came storming home with a faultless final four brackets while Brad came a little unstuck on Red to finish behind – a great battle.

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B Main

This was a procession finishing Mark, Stoo, Matthew and Stevo.

It was a hard race for me as I was really racing against Darryl and Brad for the podium and it’s really hard to judge where you are in these circumstances.

It might be worth discussing that when there is going to be a couple of Mains; with the overall laps from two different races deciding the final positions; that the old ‘odds and evens’ approach (which was after all designed to produce the fastest 8 racers from 2 Semis to progress to a Final Main shoot-out) be changed to two Mains whereby the bottom 3 or 4 having a Main followed by the top 3 or 4 having a Main. Alternatively maybe having the top 1 or 2 qualifiers sit out to a Final Main and running a Semi to decide the Final Main composition could be considered. I think either would be beneficial to all as racers would then be competing on a relatively even field in their respective Mains. In any event the outcome would be that the fastest racers would get to mix it with each other which is really what a race is all about.

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The Final Wash-up

I have put the following sheet together pasting portions of the A and B Mains with the relative positions after each bracket underneath to show the relative position.

A word of explanation here: –

(1) the sheet shows for example that after the first bracket that Darryl, Mark and Brad were all on 32 laps
(2) I know that Darryl was ahead of Brad as they were in the same Main but I don’t know for certain where I was compared to them (i.e. 1st, 2nd or 3rd)
(3) in order to construct the sheet - in a situation where more than one racer is on the same lap I have assigned the higher position based on the eventual finishing ranking – thus in the example above I have ranked Darryl 1st, myself 2nd and Brad 3rd in the combined sheet.

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On this basis it can be said that; on looking at the results; at the half-way mark Brad and I were both ahead of Darryl by 2 laps and 3 laps respectively. The next bracket saw us both only 1 lap ahead. Brad then stumbles on Red to be a lap down and Darryl is equal to me where it stays for the next 3 brackets for Darryl to take it out over me by 1.8 secs.

Stoo stuck his head up into 3rd for a bracket and then Black lane took care of him and he and Neil battled it out for 4th and 5th with Stoo taking the honours – good run from Stoo as we had not seen him much in the previous year.

Mathew was a few laps further adrift of these two whilst Stevo did a great job of circulating with little drama on his first outing on this difficult track .

The cars in Order of Finish

I realised after I got home and downloaded the camera that I had no picture of Stevo's car but I think it may have been a loaner from Neil – nice of James to have him take his place and so encourage a future Retro racer.

Darryl - Winner and Concours d’Elegance

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Mark – TQ and 2nd

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Brad – 3rd

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Stoo – 4th

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Neil – 5th

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Matthew – 6th

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James ran this in qualifying 5th

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Thanks to James for the Race and track prep and a special thanks to our trainee marshal and new friend Cooper (edited from my original post where I had Conner - close but no cigar) whose enthusiasm and curiosity knows no bounds – great to witness.

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Neil's driver has a message: -

"See you all tomorrow at HSC - Round 1 for 2017 - CanAms and F1s on the Short Track".

[SlotBaker]

Well done Darryl, Mark and Brad.
Not just a pretty car Darryl, but fast too.

Thanks for the report Mark.

[dtslot]

Thanks for the race review Mark,
sure was close, Love the extra chart you do
Looking forward to tonights racing,and good company
Darryl

[neiljb]

Looking Forward to tonight as well.
Yes, newby Steve drove cautiously using my old Warmack (originally built by Wayne Bramble and rebuilt by old time Adelaide wing racer Peter Daniels), the good news is that he is retuning tonight with his own sled. A JK built by Wayne, I believe. Even though I told him to talk to Fox about one of his Warmack Jets.
I like the idea of racing for the right to drive in a final and don't mind the top qualifiers sitting out. But with the current numbers, I can't see a practical way of making it work. Unless we all race together with no corner Marshall.
I thought James was using a 'seeding' system to give the slower guys, (I use this term politely as I count myself in this group) a chance of winning a race and the faster guys a chance to break records. As the ADC was the first race of the year, maybe the seeding was not applied.
See you all tonight
Neil

[Mark Fox]

sure was close, Love the extra chart you do

Thanks Darryl - they take quite a bit of work to get them into a format I can post but I also do like the result and will persevere with this exercise in the future.

using a 'seeding' system to give the slower guys, (I use this term politely as I count myself in this group) a chance of winning a race and the faster guys a chance to break records

Pretty much my whole point - it is a better result for all and allows closer racing overall if like skills are pitted together.

What I was getting at is if the format of the racing is to be two 'Mains' with the separate race lap totals to be used to determine the placings then I firmly believe that a 'seeding' system be put into place. If there is a qualifying process then this could be used to determine who goes into which race. If no qualifying then the racers need to be seeded on the basis of past performance - this would not be too difficult.

We would then have two races where the participants would be more evenly matched and more fun had by all.

Alternatively if the format is to be two 'Semis' followed by a 'Main' drawn from the top placings of the 'Semis' then the qualifying 'odds and evens' system needs to be used to determine the composition of the Semis and thus sort out the fast guys of the day for the composition of the 'Main'.

I cant see any issues with this approach but if anybody can see an issue please get it out there so we can discuss.

Now as I don't run the races we need to discuss this with James if we can form a consensus of some sort.