Perhaps sadly, we Only had the Same number of 'runners' as the Last Round, being 8, with a couple 'Missing in Action', as Jake didn't make it this time, (seems he had Not checked the calendar !!??) and with 'Brooksy' now sadly No longer part of the NSW Racing scene, is a loss to the possible local competition.
Having had 13 starters for the First round, it's a bit of a shame that a number of those entrants haven't returned and a few others that we were hoping would attend, have not yet appeared.
BUT,.. Darryl Toole was back from OS AND so was another long time HSC Stalwart, Dale Andersen who, having become aware of these Porsche cup cars, was Very Keen to have a run and will be a regular runner for the future rounds (as soon as his car is built), which is great, as Dale is a very fine and capable racer, who will most definitely be a welcome addition to the Field.
Heat 1:
Having only recently returned from OS, Dale was rather keen to have a run with these cars and after borrowing a car from Rodney,.. it rather quickly looked like he might even manage to take out a Win,.. first time out.
Perhaps all the More amazing when one considers it has been about 3 years since he has actually driven this track IN this Direction!!! (as he has Only been running Scalextric cars, which run in the reverse direction !!).
Dale managed to get a good lead on the field, from the first bracket, with a very quick car from Rodney, but it has to be said, that with Darryl starting on Black with what soon became apparent, another very quick car, it started to get Very close between all the competitors.
Dale managed to hold onto 1st till the end of the 4th bracket, with Darryl Now on the same lap and motoring very quickly and efficiently, with the 2 of them having now established a bit of a lead over both Ian & Rodney, with Ian doing his darndest to try and hang onto the Coat tails of the leading pair with Rodney a similar number of laps behind Ian as he was from the leaders after the 4th bracket.
Going into the 5th bracket, Darryl managed to catch and pass Dale, (but it was Still very close and fast), with Ian maintaining his position and actually regaining a couple of laps, whilst Rodney struck some difficulties,.. initially thinking He had Controller problems and only managed to turn 31 laps on Orange and after heading to the pits to try and sort out the problem only did a single lap on White, which obviously 'Put Paid' to his race for the evening, although he did return to the track after Fixing what was obviously an Intermittent 'issue' with his lead wires.
Up the front, Darryl was now seriously In 'Race Mode' and was slowly increasing his advantage over Dale,.. who (it Must be said), was doing a Great Job driving these cars for the first time, managing to run quickly and turn very good lap totals race long with Dale heading to Purple & Black, Darryl managed to increase his lead slightly, but with that said, Dale was Not done with this race Yet and with a couple of very good brackets on Yellow & Orange managed to end the race a mere single lap behind Darryl !!!
Ian spent the race motoring along well, but was slightly down on the Hot Pace of the 2 leaders, who it has to be said, have Far greater experience running on this track and will I am sure Only get better as he continues to amass laps and experience of Both the track and these cars.
Sadly for Rodney, he once again, had a race he would probably Sooner forget than remember, but was running quite strongly upon his return after repairs,.. so ... perhaps Next time will be Better / More fun.
All in all a good race, with great performances by Darryl and Dale and will be interesting to see how Dale progresses in the ensuing rounds with his own car.
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Heat 2:
Well, what can I say about this heat, other than WOW !!,.. What a fantastic race !!
In all my years of Slotting, this was one of the Closest, Fast and Easily the Cleanest Race I have ever been part of !!!
There certainly wasn't much for the marshalls to do !!!,.. lol
That's Not to say there Weren't ANY De-Slots, (as there were), but Damn, they were Minimal and Minor and there were May Brackets where Cody, Wayne & myself, were literally 'Stonkering' around at 'Full Tilt'.
I am not exactly sure just how many times Wayne or Cody de-slotted, but I Only fell off 4 times in the whole race, which around this track, is easily my Best performance, in Any class, which (as you could imagine), was extremely pleasing and enjoyable !! Seems there Is definitely Life in this Old Bugger after all these years,.. LOL
There being Only a maximum of 8 laps between 1st and 3rd and for the Most part, merely 5 or 6, it being even closer between 1st & 2nd !!
Initially, Cody started to Slowly move ahead of Wayne & myself to be 4 laps up going into the 3rd bracket, with Wayne & myself on the same lap and I was extremely pleased to Only lose 4 laps after running on Black, with Cody the aforementioned 8 laps ahead, but He had started on Orange and had yet to run on Purple & Black, as had Wayne, who started on White.
John had decided to get the hard lanes done and over with early and chose to start on Purple. he did not have as Clean a race as us, but was (in reality), still learning the 'In's and Outs' of this rather tricky little track and with a car that whilst arguably pretty fast, was (as we discovered in Scrutineering), Quite 'overweight' and could also still do with some further 'Fine Tuning' of some aspects of the Chassis setup, so could quite easily become quite a force to be reckoned with in the future, once he has the car Setup Well and gets faster / better around the track,.. And ,.. stays On more !!,.. lol
As this was the first real run 'in anger' of my New car, I must say, I am Extremely pleased with how it went.
it was pretty good from the start, but was perhaps slightly slower than Wayne's car, initially, but as the race progressed, it felt like the motor was becoming a bit quicker,.. but could perhaps just been a case of the Brand New Tyres beginning to Settle In and became naturally Truer, through running but as can be seen from the race sheets, my lap times certainly became quicker as the race progressed.
Cody managed to maintain his advantage over both Wayne and myself but I had managed to reduce the deficit to Wayne to Only 2 laps and at the end of the 6th bracket, I had managed to both catch Wayne and finish 2 laps up, with now, only 5 laps to Cody.
After a really good run on White, I had a similarly great run on Red (when Cody was on Black) to be within only 2 laps of him and extending my lead over Wayne by another lap.
The Last bracket, was Awesome, with the 3 of us going Gung-Ho and with Cody making a number of Un-forced errors in the last few brackets, it allowed me to get closer and finish a mere single lap behind him and 4 laps up on Wayne,.. there Only being 5 laps across all 3 of us !!!
I may perhaps be making it sound like there was Only 3 of us IN the race, But,.. that said,.. John was simply Not running at the same pace as the 3 of us,.. but was running very consistently, turning in brackets of almost identical lap totals for the whole race !!!
As suggested initially, quite simply a fantastic and extremely enjoyable race.
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There is Nothing better and more enjoyable than really great competitive racing, that would Only be Better (for All concerned), with even More Fast and skilled competitors.
The 'New Comers' to this Class are already starting to become more competitive and would Only be the better for even More experience and interaction / racing with More Skilled racers.
Thanks once again must go to Wayne, for organizing this great Series and doing all the 'Tech' inspections and to James for running the event (along with another full field of happy 'Wing 12' racers running simultaneously on the Big track) and for the great Track Prep, as it was in Great Condition and allowed for some fantastic racing, in Both heats !!
Along with Dale ordering His car for the next round, there were a number of very interested 'Spectators' this evening, with some that suggested their 'Keen-ness' to also purchase a car and to become involved, so it does perhaps Bode Well for the future.
Some pics of some of the cars:
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