The Geoghegan Trophy race has been a fixture event of the Australian slot car scene since it's inauguration in 1970 at the now defunct Hornsby Slot Car Centre. The race has followed several formats over the past but is now being hosted by Kim Axton at Seagull Slot Car Club in Tweed Heads over 3 days racing five classes of car. Entrants have their best three results aggregated to give the final score for the overall winner.
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Plafit Historic.
Great turnout with 26 entries for both Pro and Am. The qualifying sheet shows the grading system works well with virtually all the Pro's out qualifying the Ams. For all events except brushless it was 3 minute heats so we ended up with 7 drivers in the A and B main and 6 drivers in the C and D.
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Bermagui driver and my long time mate Jack Couch managed to break thru to the lead in the 4th bracket just ahead of local Seagulls racer Davit T and Chris from S.U.Y.S (Show Us Ya Slotz) Final positions in order: Jack, Chris, David, Dieter, Steve, Shayla.
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Local racer Ozzy had a great dice with Ben of B&S Raceway Hervey Bay and Qld Mick to eventually hit the lead in the 6th bracket and go on to win. New local Racer Mick did well to come 4th just ahead of the two Dave S and Dave J in that order.
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B Main:
Caine from Show Us Ya Slots just missed the cut to go in the A main but his laps not only won him the B main but placed him overall 5th overall in the comp. 2nd was Jack on the same laps as local Glynn who secured 1st Am home on 189 laps just ahead of a classy field of pro drivers, Roundy, Charles (Chuckie) and then another Am local Shack and Anthony from Show Us Ya Slotz.
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Top Qualifier Mark Fox got 1st choice of lanes - Yellow, the favorite at Seagulls because you start on a fast lane, get rid of the slow lanes by halfway and then finish on the fastest lanes. Fascinating to watch.. top laps score with Nick and Phil in the early stages while Fox went to the slower lanes only to recover and win in the last bracket.. Phew! got to keep your cool on that lane choice! Nick from the Benogin Club finished 2nd on the same lap as Fox with local racer Phil only 1 lap down having lead the race up to the sixth bracket when it was his turn to go to the slow lanes. Very strategic is the Seagulls track! Local racer Peter Hall who was recently up graded to"Pro" in this class grabbed 4th out of a very tight bunch with Charles and Caine all on the same lap as Pete with local racer Rusty only a lap further back. Bad luck went to last years Geoghegan Trophy winner Ken when a Plafit Spur gear sheared itself off the gear hub so his race over by the 3rd bracket and answered why the car was off pace. Nick took out concours so it's nice to know a car can look good and go fast. On the podium in Am: Glynn 1st, 2nd Ozzy, 3rd Ben from B&S Raceway.. Well done guys.
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28 racers from Southern NSW to Northern Queensland attended this Saturday morning event. During the early morning practice session it was noted the track conditions seemed a bit slower than usual... It was thought possibly because the different rubber used on the Plafit Historics raced the previous evening may have attributed to the different track condition.
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Mark Fox had his car sorted beautifully to run a TQ of 5.546. Nick Girdlestone nearly as fast with 5.572 and then Billy K with virtually no practise a very respectable 5.650. By comparison at the winter Nat's only a few months ago Cody Bramble got down to a 5.382. The brackets worked out well with 28 entries as the perfect number for a 7 lane track with 7 drivers running in the 4 heats.
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The Am system grading worked well with all the drivers in this heat rated as Am's in the qualifying results. Mark from Show Us Ya Slotz lead the way to finish on 188 laps to beat Seagulls local Dieter by 2 laps with David Toyer 3rd on the same lap. Anthony, another SUYS racer was only 1 lap further back for 4th.
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Caine got off to a bad start with tyre selection as shown with his qualifying time by ending up being the Pro Cat amongst the Am pigeons under green Caine had to change tyres and subsequently finished last in the 1st bracket. He then raced thru the flock with a string of high lap scores over the next 6 brackets to become the Bracket winner. A very credible drive by Charles Warrell in this bracket saw him get a 2nd in Am overall. Next only three laps further back was Lof T which secured him 3rd place overall in Am's.
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This was the domain of Roundy from North Qld having a great dice with Jack Belot over 7 brackets. Alway's just a lap up Roundy won on 207 laps, Jack 206 ahead of Chuckie finishing on 201 laps.. the same score as Am driver Peter Hall who then secured 1st in Am overall. Daryl had a disappointing start on Red and green lane with traffic but finished strongly ahead of Dave and Qld Mick.
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The A main was a great race save for Aaron who exited the race in the 3rd bracket with mechanical issues. By the 4th bracket Fox, Nick, Ken and Rusty started their march towards the finish line with Fox on 152, Nick and Rusty 151 and Ken now starting to push on 150. Out Front Fox was in top form but it was anybody's race with most of the field doing 30/31 laps per bracket. Nick and Ken pulled a couple of 32 lap brackets which closed the gap with some tense racing but a final run by Fox on black lane also with a 32 did the damage for a win with Nick only a lap behind and Ken in 3rd place running his new Rickards chassis. 4th was Rusty a lap behind then on the same lap Billy with 207... but wait.. Caine from way back in the C main also had 207 which placed Caine ahead of Billy by 2000th of a second to secure 5th place with Hookey a further 2 laps further back.
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Flexi Sedan
Another great turnout for both Pro and Am in this class. This time it was Show Us Ya Slots driver Caine Newell showing the way by top qualifying and winning the race.. Some seriously good driving saw Caine almost get a lap per 3 minutes on the field for the win.
With 29 drivers the field was broken down to 3 groups of 7 and a round robin of 8 drivers for the D main.
Concours
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Chris from SUYS ( Show us Ya Slotz) had a very consistent run of 28 laps per bracket but managed to pull an extra lap out of the hat going into the last bracket to get him in a tie with Dieter a local Seagulls racer. 3 tense minutes later Both finished on the same lap only 2 thousands of a second different with Chris the victor with the rest of the field was 5 laps further back.
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Local Am racer Shack pretty much lead from start to the sixth bracket in this one.. Going into the 7th bracket Anthony from SUYS and Ben from B&S Raceway had stepped it up a notch and were tied with the three of them on 179 laps with Qld Mick hovering only a lap behind. Shack, finishing on the fast Black lane managed to get a lap up for the win and secure 2nd overall in Am.
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Rusty, a little off pace to his usual car speed just missed an "A" main position in qualifying but became top dog winning this heat with a fast improving Eddy only a couple of laps further back picking up the 1st Am home. The rest of the field were a bit more spaced out with another Am Lof T securing the 3rd Am placing.
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With Caine as top qualifier and yellow taken it's always a bit of a lottery for what lane to choose next.. Go for the fast black lane or start of slow on red. Nick took the black option, Fox took the slow option and Ken went for the the middle lane. By the end of the first bracket Caine and Nick had 2 laps on the field.. by the end of bracket 2 Peter Hall had caught Nick. By the end of bracket 3 Pete was only a lap down on Caine and a lap ahead of Nick. Bracket 4 saw Ken now on the fast black lane passing Pete and Nick to be only 2 down from the leader... Bracket 5 it was all over for Ken with a hit in the bank and a broken car. Bracket 6 Nick now level with Pete but Caine is pulling away coming onto the fast lanes to take a 6 lap victory and 25 points towards the trophy. Roundy, Aaron and Fox were all in their own little battle finishing only 2 laps apart.
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Race Format: This time we decided to run heats, semi's and race for the main. Driver were divided into odds and evens.. As the Seagulls circuit is 7 lanes we had to be a bit creative.. This is how it played out. Qualifiers 1,3,5, sit outs for Semi A. Qualifiers 2,4,6, sit outs for semi B. The rest of the field equally mixed into heats. Four move ups from the two heats join Semi A and B. Three drivers move up from each semi to the main with the 7th driver highest lap scoring driver from either semi being the wildcard entry.
Concours
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Pro driver Caine TQ'd with a 4.932, Roundy almost the same with 4.935, Fox 4.979.. So close! Dave Jones was the highest placed Am qualifier in the group with a very respectable 5.116.
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2 Min brackets: 4 move up's. Ken made first move up to the semi by winning this heat on 160 laps and going into Semi A. Daryl 2nd on 156 into Semi B, Anthony 3rd ( an Am driver) 153 laps into Semi A and 4th move up went to Qld Mick 152 laps moving up to semi B.
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2 min brackets: 4 move up's. Chuckie won this one on 156 laps so into Semi A. Beaky (Am in this class ) 2nd on 155 into Semi B. Dave Jones 3rd - 154 laps into Semi A. Peter Hall ( Am in this class ) 147 laps into Semi B
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3 minutes: 3 move ups only. Rusty's turn 1st on 247 laps. 2nd Jack Belot 244 laps. 3rd Roundy 243 laps.
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3 minutes: 3 move ups only. Caine got this one on 244 laps. 2nd Chuckie 240 laps. 3rd Fox 238 laps.
The Wildcard: Daryl got this one .. and Qld Mick.. two wild boys together in the move up! This happened because Chuckie had to relinquish his spot in the main and leave because of a win and move up at the Pan Pacific comp men's basket ball.. Good effort mate playing competition at your age!
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3 minute heats : What a race.. A few weeks ago Rusty would not have believed he had a chance of being competitive in this class.. let alone winning it! Without a doubt I feel the LMP Brushless was the best race of the weekend. The repechage system gives everyone a 2nd chance if they qualify badly. and by introducing it to the BL class these was no chance of running out of motor brushes halfway thru a heat!
Caine, Fox, Jack and Rusty virtually took charge of this event in the early stages with near identical lap totals up to the 4th bracket.. at this stage Caine and Rusty knew they had to go harder and the results show with them getting a 2 lap lead by the 5th over Fox and Jack. In the 6th bracket Rusty and Caine were tied for the lead on 110 laps each. The 7th bracket was a hold your breath type of race with Caine finishing on the faster black lane and Rusty on Yellow. Every time Caine edged closer for an overtake Rusty pushed even harder eventually set fastest time of the day for yellow lane. In the closing minute Caine kept edging closer and was in an overtaking position only seconds from the finish when the two cars lightly touched.. Caine de-slotted and Rusty got the win a few seconds later with the bell lap. Wow.. Had Rusty not held his nerve the result could have been very different.. Caine needed those 25 point to to have a chance of beating Fox for the Geoghegan Trophy and 20 points for 2nd just didn't quite cut it. Jack improving every meet came 3rd ahead of Fox for 4th. Roundy in 5th and the two Wildcards - Daryl and Qld Mick in 6th and 7th position. All in all a great race and wonderful introduction to many on how close racing is with BL motors.
Aaron won concours and Beaky won the Am class with Peter Hall in 2nd and Anthony in 3rd.
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The final race off the weekend and this was Roundy's day.. he pretty much knocked the rest of the field out of the ballpark by top qualifying and winning the race by 10 laps. His consistency in qualifying saw several laps within a few thousands of a second of each other to the point his backup time matched his TQ time of 4.701.
Concours
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Qualifying really sorted out drivers very well with all the Am's clustered into this heat with a couple of the slower Pro's which made for a great race. Racing was very close amongst the Am's but right from the start Dave Jones from B & S Raceway lead the field to win on 235 laps just 3 laps ahead of B&S Raceway boss Ben followed by Chris from Show Us Ya Slotz. All on the podium for the Am trophies.
A Main:
Straight up Roundy chose yellow lane to set the pace with an opening 37 lap run to take command of the race right from the start to the finish. In his wake a fantastic battle was going on with Aaron leading the rest of the pack right thru to the 6th bracket with some great driving. At this stage chasing the 3rd podium spot was Jack Berlot, Rusty, Fox and Caine all locked in with similar lap scores. Going into the last bracket Aaron under great pressure had a couple of offs and a mechanical issue that sidelined him and the focus the 4 drivers all now on the same lap for the two podium positions left. On the bell lap, all on 246 laps the final positions were 2nd -Jack Berlot 246 + 0.021, in 3rd -Fox on 246 + 1.146 . followed by Caine 246 + +3.320 and Rusty 246 + 3.735. Wow... A great race. Too bad Aaron dropped out in the last bracket as he would have been in the 246 mix of finishers.
Sorted Results
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What a great weekend of racing..I would like to thank all the out of town racers and our local racers that came along to share the experience of racing together in classes we have now mostly standardised with Show Us Ya Slotz, B & S Raceway and other raceways and clubs around the country. Huge thanks to Mouse for running the finances and shop, Ken for Scrutineering and support, Rusty in race control, Shayla for being our Concours Queen and presenter, Fox for just being Fox and helping with our locals to keep the show on the road when I got a bit wobbly.
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Conclusion
Fox takes the Trophy for 2024 with 2 wins and a third place followed by Caine with 1 win, a 2nd and a forth and followed by Nick on equal point with 3 second place finishes (finishing 3rd overall as Caine had a win).
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