I must admit, I was hoping for a slightly Larger turnout than we had, as there Are quite a few people that have suitable Retro cars, that could have attended, but then again, Many of those people have Not been doing much Retro racing of late, which Is a bit of a shame, as the racing has certainly been fantastic in the more recent months. Mind you, we still had a pretty good roll up and as usual, provided some really Great and extremely enjoyable racing! Also, as has often been noted by myself, the 'core' of Regular racers, who also attend most of the Plafit and Other classes, are a great group of very good, Fun and Friendly racers, that tend to make Any of these events a THOROUGHLY ENJOYABLE EXPERIENCE and so it proved for this Retro event, as well as for the Other Plafit races held over the rest of the weekend.
see here;http://forum.ascra.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=473
here;http://forum.ascra.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=475
and here;http://forum.ascra.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=474
We ended up with 12 starters for the CanAm and 8 for the F1 races.
Although all the recent weather reports suggested it would be raining for days, it did Not and in fact proved to be rather Warm, especially inside, it being a rather Sticky evening, making a breather outside in the evenings cool breeze a pleasant diversion from the Heat of the racing inside.
CanAm
Concours this time, was Won by Darryl Toole, Well done mate!
Qualifying;
I have to say the spread of times in Qualifying shows the closeness of the 'Field' these days.
Once again Mark Fox managed to put in a typical fast time to TQ ahead of us all, with a fine 5.042.
James was pretty close behind with 5.046 and a really fine time by young Jake of 5.091 showed just how his driving has improved in recent times.
There were six of us all in the 5.1 bracket with the rest only a few tenths slower, so it was obviously going to be a Very close event.
Semi B
This Semi saw James, Brad, Darryl, Cody, Jacco and Myself line up for the start.
As could possibly be expected from the qualifying times, this was a Very close race!
Apart from Cody, (who pretty much had 1st 'in the bag' from the beginning), virtually everyone in the field swapped places and move up positions at some stage during the race!
Whilst Cody did hang onto 1st, it was a Very close fought thing all the way to the wire, James seriously chasing him the whole way, with the two of them finishing on the same lap merely feet apart!
Darryl had held 1st and 2nd in the early brackets with Jacco and Brad in 3rd and 4th. It wasn't until the 4th bracket that the race positions changed a bit.
I had to drive like Hell to try and make a move up, not easy as we were All So close in laps and Jacco and I had a great fight in 3rd and 4th.
The outcome of Semi B;
1st Cody 170 laps
2nd James 170 laps
3rd Stoo 169 laps
4th Jacco 168 laps
5th Darryl 165 laps
6th Brad 160 laps
Semi A
It was Great to actually have Wayne Bramble actually have a race with us for a change and so this Semi, saw Wayne, Jake, Mark, John W, Troy and Dale do battle and as could be imagined from the lineup, was bound to be a tough race and so it proved.
This race also proved to be extremely close, with Wayne, Jake and Mark all swapping places race long. Dale, Troy and John similarly battling together, but the final outcome was really quite a dramatic finish.
The laps were really close all through, with Wayne grabbing 1st in the 4th bracket holding it to the end, with Jake and mark still swapping 2nd and 3rd almost to the end, when somehow mark managed to Lose a few places in the last bracket, with both Troy and Dale managing to get past in the last bracket, with Jake holding 2nd, leaving Mark and John missing the Move Up. Must say it sure has been a Long time since mark has Not made the main,..bad luck mate!
, but what a Hot race! It has to be said young Jake drove a very consistent race, Chasing Wayne the Whole way and finishing only a lap behind! Well done Jake.Outcome of Semi A;
1st WayneB 173 laps
2nd Jake 172 laps
3rd Troy 171 laps
4th Dale 169 laps
5th Mark 169 laps
6th JohnW 167 laps
From the results of the Semi's, it could be imagined that the main was going to be a tough race and it Sure was !!
CanAm Main;
The Final saw Jake, Wayne, Dale, Jacco, Cody, Troy, James and Myself line up for the start.
I guess, after a Season of Very close Retro racing the tension and competitive spirit of all of us came to the fore and to be honest, made this race Very, very tough, with some damn fast and hard racing, with almost all of the various places being swapped about amongst us.
Wayne took the early lead until the 5th bracket until Trot came on song, with myself holding onto 2nd and 3rd for most of the race along with Jake until virtually the last bracket when James finally took that spot after battling his way back up from 7th!!
Strangely, (considering his usual Dominance all season), this race was an absolute disaster for Cody and surprisingly also for Dale, both of them finishing well down on their usual positions! Jacco also had an unfortunate evening, having a tough time down the order,..but as I said this was a real Hard race and for myself, possibly the Hardest I have driven to Only manage third !!
It has to be said it wasn't the cleanest of races, with a quite a few frantic Track Calls being made and the laps being so close, it was Really hard to make ground,..one of those,..'Blink and you Missed it' kind of races, but was I believe really enjoyed by all of us and the Sighs of relief at the end showed how involved we all were.
The general level of competitiveness and driving of all of the Retro drivers always makes these races very challenging and this State Title final Must go down as one of the hardest fought races in a very competitive Season.
The Final Outcome being;
1st Troy 259 laps
2nd Wayne 254 laps
3rd Stoo 252 laps
4th James 250 laps
5th Jake 248 laps
6th Dale 246 laps
7th Jacco 244 laps
8th Cody 244 laps
Retro F1
As mentioned above, we only had 8 starters for this Class and so Qualifying, was really Only for Starting Lane choice and I Guess 'Bragging Rights',.lol, although there was a Trophy to be Won for TQ!
I must admit, after a year of being 'Creamed' by Wayne Brambles F1 chassis (usually and initially in the hands of Cody or himself), there are Now quite a few 'Copies' built by Wayne for other people to run and it IS arguably a pretty effective design, especially in the hands of Cody, so it Has been somewhat satisfying for myself, to have come up with a car/design of my own that has atleast proven to be relatively effective against it.
After Troy borrowed it for a race a few months ago, he asked if I could Build Him one, which I did and although initially I was Not completely Happy with how it turned out, with ongoing testing and tuning of both Mine and His car, it Now would seem to be Working Quite well thank you very Much,..lol, perhaps as can be seen from the following results
F1 Qualifying
I guess, as has often been 'the Norm', I was expecting either Mark Fox or Cody to TQ, so in that regard may I say it was 'refreshing' to have John Wiley manage to TQ, (With one of the aforementioned Wayne Bramble chassis), with a very respectable time of 5.201. My hearty congrat's to John !!
Although may I say, I wasn't That far behind him, turning a 5.273, with Mark Fox turning a similar time to myself, with a 5.279.
It Must also be Noted that the Slowest time was Only a 5.388 !!,..so it was a Very Close field of cars and drivers and suggested it was going to be a great race and so it proved to be !!
F1 Main
Here we had James, John, Mark, Jake, Brad, Cody Troy and myself taking the start.
I guess it has to be suggested, that John's 'form' in qualifying was perhaps an indication of how he might perform in the race and in that regard, he certainly made a solid argument for one of the Podium places from the start!
John swapped 1st and 2nd places with myself and Troy up until the end of the sixth bracket when Troy eventually moved into 1st, but it remained Ever so close all race long,..between ALL of us, even to the end!
As in the CanAm race, there were Many brackets, when many of us were All still on the same laps and virtually every place was swapped and held by almost everyone down the order! The outcome of this one was going to go 'Down to the wire' almost.
It wasn't until about the 4th or 5th bracket that any sort of final order started to appear and even then it was pretty close and I Must say, compared to the CanAm Final, was an Incredibly Clean and Very Fast race. Great driving by all made for a fantastic and thoroughly enjoyable and worthy Final for the Championship!
As noted, even by the 3rd bracket, there was virtually Only THREE laps covering the Whole field! and it was Only by the end of the fifth bracket that the Final order seemed to be vaguely clear.
James held Every position between 8th and 3rd, mark wobbled about between 7th and 4th, Jake similarly held 6th through 3rd, I somehow dropped to 5th and 6th at one stage, after Holding 1st and 2nd in the early stages, with Brad also swapping about between 8th and 4th, until the last bracket when he must have experienced some sort of problem, turning Only 10 laps. Poor Cody, had a Very rare and abysmal evening, pretty much never getting above 6th. Mind you his Lap totals and in fact everyone elses were Not in any way poor, it was Just THAT Close !!
Troy Started on Black, which meant he would finish on Purple and he slowly worked his way forward to eventually take over the lead and managed to hold it to the end,..BUT it was Incredibly Close for those last four brackets between John and himself, there never being More than 2 laps in it, the Two of them eventually finishing on the Same lap about Half a second apart !!!
For a State Title event, this was a Great race and after the 'Heat' of the CanAm race, there was almost a unanimous 'Sigh' of relief when it ended, as it sure was a Tough, fast and hard race and realistically rounded out a thoroughly fantastic evening of racing.
For Myself, it was doubly satisfying, managing to take 3rd myself and have Troy come home 1st with one of My Chassis as well.
Great Stuff !!,..
Final F1 placings;
1st Troy 252 laps
2nd John 252 laps
3rd Stoo 247 laps
4th James 244 laps
5th Mark 244 laps
6th Cody 243 laps
7th Jake 230 laps
8th Brad 215 laps
And so we came to the end of just another fantastic Race event at HSC, as seems to be 'typical' of almost All events at HSC lately, and Big thanks MUST go out to James and also to Wayne, for providing such a Great racing environment and for supporting this class as strongly as they do,..I for one am extremely grateful, as I am sure All the Other Keen Retro racers are as well.
Congrats to ALL the Winners and everyone else that competed and VERY Very Special thanks must go to the Spectator/Regular Marshals, who help make these events possible,..thanks guys and gals,..it's been a Great Year,..culminated with a Great State Title Event !!
