2016 Nats @ Raceworld

[Mark Fox]

Hi All

The 2016 Nats for CanAm, F1 and the new RetroPro classes were scheduled to be held on Raceworld's Gerding King track on 22 June 2016.

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Unfortunately it was to be the last time we could race our Retros on this super fast track as the owner - Wayne Bramble - had announced that the track would be closed after racing Wings on the following day - 23 June 2016

As I love building and racing Retros this news hit me quite hard. It meant that there would now be less races and fewer challenges as a builder. This event would be the first and last race that we could try our RetroPro creations and the last time for our CanAm and F1 cars on the King.

Enough moaning and off to the races where my game plan was to TQ (preferably with a new track record) and score a win in all three classes - aim high in life I say

CanAm
Nine Starters here and a round-robin format where the driver just finishing Red lane has a bye and then comes back in on Green lane.

Qualifying saw me TQ with 3.8882 (which was 2.7 thousandths off my record of 3.8855) although I was able to do 3.84's in practice earlier, it only takes a slight change in conditions to make such small difference. Lindsay came very close to cracking the 4.0 sec barrier with his 4.0323.

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Opting to take the first bye and come in on the second bracket meant that I had to monitor the laps difference between me and whoever was in first spot. I was comfortably ahead of the leaders (Jake and Neil) in the first two brackets on this basis and when Jake lost his guide nut in the third bracket and I was 7 laps up on Neil I went into ‘calm mode’ and set out to drive nice and steady to avoid accidents and on this basis cruised to a 16 lap victory over a very fast finishing Jake who was a clear second over the ever reliable Darryl who finished 5 laps over Neil who ran into issues in the sixth and seventh brackets.

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Mark TQ and 1st

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Jake 2nd

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Darryl 3rd

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F1
Eight starters so one Main to be run.

Qualifying and another TQ with a new track record of 3.9545 (16.5 thousandths faster than my old mark of 3.9710) with Lindsay again in second spot.

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I will never forget this race for the reminder of the sheer brutality and misery that can happen in our sport. In the lead by ten laps at the half-way mark over Steve and Lindsay and again driving well within the car’s and my ability when Steve’s car loses a wheel in the bank just ahead of me and slides down - result - his car hit by mine at max speed (immediate dissipation of ‘calm mode’). By the time I had replaced the badly bent rear axle (had a struggle to get the gear off it!) and buckled rear wheels I re-joined the fray in 5th place after scoring only 14 laps for the bracket . I was now 15 laps behind eventual winner Lindsay and drove like a cut snake to finally make the podium in 3rd spot. Brad drove a very steady race to hold down 2nd spot from the halfway mark.

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Lindsay 1st

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Brad 2nd

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Mark TQ and 3rd

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RetroPro
Only five starters in this 1st and possibly last RetroPro race in Australia. I hope that we do get to race these again as they are really neat and offer a new challenge to builders – great effort by the five racers who built cars for this race.

Another TQ for me at 3.7515 blowing Brad - the next fastest - away by 0.4999 secs.

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All the way win for me by 40 laps over Darryl (running an inline no less) with Lindsay coming in 3rd to fill the podium. My car was a dream to drive and averaged 4.01secs per lap over the race. Brad ran into problems early and retired in the second bracket and Neil struggled with a car that liked to deslot before retiring after the sixth bracket.

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Mark TQ and 1st

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Darryl Concourse and 2nd

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Lindsay 3rd

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Neil - Concourse CanAm and F1

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Mark - TQ and 1st CanAm; TQ and 3rd F1; TQ and 1st RetroPro

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Jake - 2nd CanAm

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Darryl - 3rd CanAm; Concourse and 2nd RetroPro

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Lindsay - 1st F1; 3rd RetroPro

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Brad - 2nd F1

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The Motley Crew (less Jake who had to leave earlier) of Retro Racers at the last Retro race on Raceworld's Blue King
L-R
Bob, Neil, Mark, Brad, Stoo, Lindsay, Steve and Darryl

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Well its very sad not to have the pleasure of racing on this track again but a big thanks to Wayne and Kelly for providing the opportunity to race on a world class King track.

[neiljb]

Thanks Mark. I agree with your sentiments, we will all miss Saturday Nite Retro at the King.
It would be great to be able to develop the RetroPro class, there was five very different approaches (including Daryls inline). I certainly learnt from sacrificing strength for weight. Early on when it was straight, it was smooth and easy to drive, later when it was all bent up................
Thanks to Wayne, Kelly and Cody for supporting Retro over the last couple of years.
Neil