NSW Retro Titles Round 1 (STR) 3/11/2018
Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2018 7:02 pm
Hi
It was a hot muggy evening in Sydney on Saturday 3rd November 2018 when 11 hopefuls convened at HSC for the 1st round of the NSW Retro Titles to be held on the Sort Track for CanAm and F1.
We had a stray Queenslander in the form of Kim Axton join us for the fray as I had some time ago built him a Warmack CanAm and supplied a loaner F1 for him to come to grips with.
CanAm
Qualifying
I TQ’d easily as I only had to do 3 laps to cover Cody’s time by 0.0082 and so took my car off. Wayne B and Troy were also sub 5 seconds which is always fast.
Race 1
Comprising the bottom half of qualifiers this race kicked off with Jason leading in the 1st bracket by 1 lap over Wayne W who was 1 lap up on Kim in 3rd and Brad in 4th.
Brad was having none of that and knuckled down to lead for the next 3 brackets and at the half-way mark was 3 laps up on the fast learning Wayne W with Kim a further lap adrift. Jason and Neil were a bit back by now with Neil having an absolute horror show of a time on Purple and Black which sealed his fate and firm grip on 5th spot to the end.
In the 5th and Brad has his moments on Black to relinquish the lead to Kim followed by Wayne W with Brad still fairly clear of Jason in 4th.
The 6th was quite interesting as Jason passed Wayne courtesy of a terrible time on Black lane vs a good run on White lane by Jason. Brad has pulled himself up to be 2nd now 2 laps down on Kim. Jason and Wayne W are now in all probability out of the race for top honours and it’s a question of whether Kim can hold off Brad on Purple and Black vs Brad on Orange and White. It would take an epic drive; an epic melt-down by Brad; or both.
In the 7th Orange beats Purple by a lap and now the Queenslander has only a lap going into the final bracket.
Brad comes home to take out the victory by a lap over Kim who it must be said drove very well as it was only his 2nd drive of a Retro car but it must be said he is a world class driver and has had many hours of Model Car experience. He told me it took some time for his 6 second trained brain to catch up with the 5 sec pace of the Retros.
Race 2
Well just to get it said and out of the way Cody aka ‘Kid Kaos’ led from start to finish to finally win by 4 laps over Troy. The closest anybody got to him was in the 1st bracket when I was on the same lap as him with Troy a lap back and Stoo and Wayne B another lap down. Darryl started on Black so no prizes for guessing where he was at this stage.
OK ignoring Cody completely now it was a good battle for the minor podium between myself and Troy. Troy won this battle as soon as I hit Black in the 4th to have 3 laps up. We both finished very strongly in the final 4 brackets with 35, 34, 34 and 35 for Troy and 33, 35, 35 and 35 for me to result in Troy holding his 3 lap advantage.
Meanwhile Stoo, Darryl and Wayne B were mixing it up with Stoo also having a strong finish of 34, 34, 35 and 35 in the last half on the ‘good’ lanes to finish over Darryl; who had to contend with Purple and Wayne B who had both Purple and Black to negotiate in the last 4.
Wash-up
I was fairly happy with my TQ and fastest time for the night but my 3 month break and hangover had me making all sorts of unforced errors.
Having said that Cody would still have beaten me because I feel we are fairly even except for the fact he just whips me stupid on Purple and Black. Gotta rethink my whole approach to driving those lanes (Yellow too). I should join Wayne W and do another 1000 laps practice on each of them.
Troy put in a great effort and he can really drive but yet again the 3 lap differential he beat me by was attributable to Purple and Black where both me and my car could not settle.
Stoo also suffered the Black plague while Darryl was a bit off his usual pace but interestingly he had his equal best bracket of 34 on Purple (say 33 without the bell time).
F1
Qualifying
Roles reversed this time as I was up before Cody and after warming up he peeled off 3 laps all better than my best – OK I am back in my box .
Race 1
Flag drops Darryl is off to just lead Jason at the end of the 2nd by a lap with Neil 2 laps down on Jason. Troy having started on Purple and Black was in 4th but only 4 laps back off the lead so was also looking fairly good whilst Wayne W was only 1 lap further back.
Brackets 3 and 4 saw Jason take the lead whilst completing Black to be 1 up on Troy and 3 up on Neil with Darryl dropping to 4th on the same lap as Neil. Wayne W had a strangle hold on 5th by this stage.
In the 5th Troy hits the lead 1 up on Jason followed by Darryl 2 laps down and Neil 3 laps further back.
The 6th saw Neil consolidate 4th with Jason making a move and now a battle starts for 1st with Troy and Jason on the same lap and Darryl now 3 laps off the pace.
Troy breaks Jason’s ambitions with a 33 on Green and a 35 on Blue whilst Jason had an average; by his standards; run of 31 and 32 on Red and Green to cede the victory to Troy by 6 laps. Darryl was charging hard from behind as well to finish on the same lap as Jason whom he has been mentoring for the past 6 months or so in Retro Racing. Job done Darryl, stop now before it is too late
Race 2
Again the Kid just blew us away to lead Kim and myself by 2 laps with Brad, Stoo and Wayne B a further lap back. to cut a long story short Cody just waltzed away (I use the term ‘waltzed’ in the most figurative manner here) from the field to win by 12 laps!
Brackets 2 to 5 during which stage Cody had completed Purple and Black (33 and 34 mind you) we had myself holding down 2nd , Kim holding 3rd, Brad holding 4th, Stoo holding 5th and Wayne B holding 6th for the duration of the 4 brackets.
The 6th bracket saw things starting to move with Stoo taking Brad to be in 4th and move Brad to 5th with no other change. I need to now cover Purple and Black with 2 laps on Kim who also has to do Black and Yellow; 5 laps on Stoo who finishes on Red and Green and 6 laps on Brad who finishes on Orange and White. Wayne B needs several miracles to make a dent at this stage I feel but I am in for a battle with the other 3 for 2nd spot.
Bracket 7 and Kim takes nothing off me to remain 3 down whilst Stoo and Brad both take 2 off me to be 3 and 4 behind respectfully. I fight hard by having a really rubbish run on Black with a couple of major stuff-ups to cede 4 laps to Kim, 3 to Stoo and 3 to Brad to finish 4th on the same lap as Stoo and 1 ahead of Brad. Kim takes a well-deserved 2nd 2 laps on Stoo – another great effort as he had never driven a F1 Retro.
Close Retro Racing at its best for 2nd and 3rd .
Wash-up
All in all a big win for the ‘Kid’ with TQ, fastest lap on all lanes and a 12 lap finish over 2nd.
As for the old fellas it was close with 2nd to 6th being only 4 laps and if we take the Kids 12 lap victory apply that a further 12 laps we have 2nd to 8th covered.
I thought Kim’s run was brilliant – 2nd place and a qualifying time of 5.1536 for a first timer in Retro F1 is good by any standard. He showed us how to do it - borrow a great car and then just don’t come off .
Thanks
As always a big thanks to James who had the track in tip top condition and also to Joe who does some of the track prep and maintenance and also assists on the track call button
It was a hot muggy evening in Sydney on Saturday 3rd November 2018 when 11 hopefuls convened at HSC for the 1st round of the NSW Retro Titles to be held on the Sort Track for CanAm and F1.
We had a stray Queenslander in the form of Kim Axton join us for the fray as I had some time ago built him a Warmack CanAm and supplied a loaner F1 for him to come to grips with.
CanAm
Qualifying
I TQ’d easily as I only had to do 3 laps to cover Cody’s time by 0.0082 and so took my car off. Wayne B and Troy were also sub 5 seconds which is always fast.
Race 1
Comprising the bottom half of qualifiers this race kicked off with Jason leading in the 1st bracket by 1 lap over Wayne W who was 1 lap up on Kim in 3rd and Brad in 4th.
Brad was having none of that and knuckled down to lead for the next 3 brackets and at the half-way mark was 3 laps up on the fast learning Wayne W with Kim a further lap adrift. Jason and Neil were a bit back by now with Neil having an absolute horror show of a time on Purple and Black which sealed his fate and firm grip on 5th spot to the end.
In the 5th and Brad has his moments on Black to relinquish the lead to Kim followed by Wayne W with Brad still fairly clear of Jason in 4th.
The 6th was quite interesting as Jason passed Wayne courtesy of a terrible time on Black lane vs a good run on White lane by Jason. Brad has pulled himself up to be 2nd now 2 laps down on Kim. Jason and Wayne W are now in all probability out of the race for top honours and it’s a question of whether Kim can hold off Brad on Purple and Black vs Brad on Orange and White. It would take an epic drive; an epic melt-down by Brad; or both.
In the 7th Orange beats Purple by a lap and now the Queenslander has only a lap going into the final bracket.
Brad comes home to take out the victory by a lap over Kim who it must be said drove very well as it was only his 2nd drive of a Retro car but it must be said he is a world class driver and has had many hours of Model Car experience. He told me it took some time for his 6 second trained brain to catch up with the 5 sec pace of the Retros.
Race 2
Well just to get it said and out of the way Cody aka ‘Kid Kaos’ led from start to finish to finally win by 4 laps over Troy. The closest anybody got to him was in the 1st bracket when I was on the same lap as him with Troy a lap back and Stoo and Wayne B another lap down. Darryl started on Black so no prizes for guessing where he was at this stage.
OK ignoring Cody completely now it was a good battle for the minor podium between myself and Troy. Troy won this battle as soon as I hit Black in the 4th to have 3 laps up. We both finished very strongly in the final 4 brackets with 35, 34, 34 and 35 for Troy and 33, 35, 35 and 35 for me to result in Troy holding his 3 lap advantage.
Meanwhile Stoo, Darryl and Wayne B were mixing it up with Stoo also having a strong finish of 34, 34, 35 and 35 in the last half on the ‘good’ lanes to finish over Darryl; who had to contend with Purple and Wayne B who had both Purple and Black to negotiate in the last 4.
Wash-up
I was fairly happy with my TQ and fastest time for the night but my 3 month break and hangover had me making all sorts of unforced errors.
Having said that Cody would still have beaten me because I feel we are fairly even except for the fact he just whips me stupid on Purple and Black. Gotta rethink my whole approach to driving those lanes (Yellow too). I should join Wayne W and do another 1000 laps practice on each of them.
Troy put in a great effort and he can really drive but yet again the 3 lap differential he beat me by was attributable to Purple and Black where both me and my car could not settle.
Stoo also suffered the Black plague while Darryl was a bit off his usual pace but interestingly he had his equal best bracket of 34 on Purple (say 33 without the bell time).
F1
Qualifying
Roles reversed this time as I was up before Cody and after warming up he peeled off 3 laps all better than my best – OK I am back in my box .
Race 1
Flag drops Darryl is off to just lead Jason at the end of the 2nd by a lap with Neil 2 laps down on Jason. Troy having started on Purple and Black was in 4th but only 4 laps back off the lead so was also looking fairly good whilst Wayne W was only 1 lap further back.
Brackets 3 and 4 saw Jason take the lead whilst completing Black to be 1 up on Troy and 3 up on Neil with Darryl dropping to 4th on the same lap as Neil. Wayne W had a strangle hold on 5th by this stage.
In the 5th Troy hits the lead 1 up on Jason followed by Darryl 2 laps down and Neil 3 laps further back.
The 6th saw Neil consolidate 4th with Jason making a move and now a battle starts for 1st with Troy and Jason on the same lap and Darryl now 3 laps off the pace.
Troy breaks Jason’s ambitions with a 33 on Green and a 35 on Blue whilst Jason had an average; by his standards; run of 31 and 32 on Red and Green to cede the victory to Troy by 6 laps. Darryl was charging hard from behind as well to finish on the same lap as Jason whom he has been mentoring for the past 6 months or so in Retro Racing. Job done Darryl, stop now before it is too late
Race 2
Again the Kid just blew us away to lead Kim and myself by 2 laps with Brad, Stoo and Wayne B a further lap back. to cut a long story short Cody just waltzed away (I use the term ‘waltzed’ in the most figurative manner here) from the field to win by 12 laps!
Brackets 2 to 5 during which stage Cody had completed Purple and Black (33 and 34 mind you) we had myself holding down 2nd , Kim holding 3rd, Brad holding 4th, Stoo holding 5th and Wayne B holding 6th for the duration of the 4 brackets.
The 6th bracket saw things starting to move with Stoo taking Brad to be in 4th and move Brad to 5th with no other change. I need to now cover Purple and Black with 2 laps on Kim who also has to do Black and Yellow; 5 laps on Stoo who finishes on Red and Green and 6 laps on Brad who finishes on Orange and White. Wayne B needs several miracles to make a dent at this stage I feel but I am in for a battle with the other 3 for 2nd spot.
Bracket 7 and Kim takes nothing off me to remain 3 down whilst Stoo and Brad both take 2 off me to be 3 and 4 behind respectfully. I fight hard by having a really rubbish run on Black with a couple of major stuff-ups to cede 4 laps to Kim, 3 to Stoo and 3 to Brad to finish 4th on the same lap as Stoo and 1 ahead of Brad. Kim takes a well-deserved 2nd 2 laps on Stoo – another great effort as he had never driven a F1 Retro.
Close Retro Racing at its best for 2nd and 3rd .
Wash-up
All in all a big win for the ‘Kid’ with TQ, fastest lap on all lanes and a 12 lap finish over 2nd.
As for the old fellas it was close with 2nd to 6th being only 4 laps and if we take the Kids 12 lap victory apply that a further 12 laps we have 2nd to 8th covered.
I thought Kim’s run was brilliant – 2nd place and a qualifying time of 5.1536 for a first timer in Retro F1 is good by any standard. He showed us how to do it - borrow a great car and then just don’t come off .
Thanks
As always a big thanks to James who had the track in tip top condition and also to Joe who does some of the track prep and maintenance and also assists on the track call button