As can be seen from the Previous 'posts', the "Aussie Retro" 2011 Nationals have been Run and Won and whilst perhaps the overall numbers may Not have been as high as one could have hoped, (especially from Interstate), it certainly was a Quality field that prepared to take the start.
We had 12 starters for CanAm and 11 for F1, with that All-Round Stalwart of Aussie Slot Racing Geoff Little joining us from our Victorian Retro 'Brethren'.
I Know I have often gone on about just How Good the racing has been in Many of the Retro races I have reported on,..BUT,..it IS True!! and This event came close to 'Topping' ALL previous events. The Quality of driving in the Finals, was outstanding, with the Marshalls having Very little to do except Watch and be absorbed in the closeness of the racing.
The standard of driving ALL Evening was honestly quite fantastic.
I think pretty much everyone ended up having a Really Great nights racing and really enjoying the Event,...but,..it sure was 'Intense' !!
Our Good friend 'Hoff' was on hand to act as Concours' judge, with Dale Anderson and James Colfax taking the Honours in CanAm and F1 respectively.
CanAm
Qualifying was a pretty close thing across quite a number of the entrants, with Many people turning good competitive times and considering the performance of his car, it is perhaps a shame that Cody didn't get to turn a Sub 5 second lap, although he came Real close,..
Cody, obviously taking the Top Spot, with a
TQ time of
5.003. The Top 4 runners all putting in times below 5.1 !!
The fight for the 'Move Up spots in the Semi's, were Very tough and unbelievably close, with the 'Sharp End' fighting for and changing placings Race long, in Both Semi's,..the outcomes often Not being finalised Until the Very end of Both, with Many people ending on the Same laps, merely Feet apart!!
As an example, the finishing totals in Semi B, Had Troy finishing with 172 laps, James on 171, Dale on 171 and young Stephanie on 170, Brad on 170 and Geoff, after a shocker on Purple ending on 160. In the past, Semi totals of between 162 and 167 being Enough to move up, shows Just How Fast and Clean the racing was this evening.
Unfortunately, I don't have all the 'details' of Both Semi's,...but the Outcome of both meant we had;
James, Cody, Steph', Mark, Gregg, Troy, Dale and myself in the Final.
At the start, GreggT and myself managed to take advantage of an intial melee early in the first bracket, with 3 of us finishing on 32 lapswith myself holding 1st,...Barely,...lol. Cody managed to grab the Top spot in the next bracket and in fact held the lead from that point onwards.
James had managed to get himself into 2nd by the 3rd bracket and I was Very pleased that I still had 3rd place in my grasp after the 4th bracket and my runs on Purple and Black!,..with GreggT following Far Too close for comfort in 4th behind me,..BUT also on the Same Lap!,..Phew!
Whilst it looked as though the Top 4 places had 'Sorted' themselves by about Half Distance, it was still incredibly close and in fact, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th also changed places race long and wasn't really worked out until the flag finally dropped.
With Cody having a firm grip on 1st and james seemimgly cemented in 2nd, I was slowly becoming aware of the tenuous position I was holding in 3rd, as My motor had obviously given of it's Best performance and had definitely 'Lost it's Edge', requiring me to drive the living daylights out of it for the final 3 brackets, to avoid being overtaken by a Very Fast Finnishing Troy, who managed to come from over 4 laps behind me to finish on the same lap as myself at the end.
GreggT, after holding 4th for most of the race, lost his position to both Dale and Troy in the final 2 brackets, with Steph' giving an extremely good performance against such an experienced and quality field.
Poor Mark Fox, whilst perhaps Not having the Best evening's racing of his life, amazingly having his Guide 'Snap' off cleanly at the thread post after what appeared to be a fairly Minor accident and only turned 11 laps in the 7th bracket and none in the last,..Bad luck Mark.
So, the final outcome of one of the Most Competitive and Intense CanAm Finals we have had was;
1st Cody Bramble 267 laps
2nd James Colfax 264 laps
3rd Stewart Amos 261 laps
4th Troy Boldy 261 laps
5th Dale Anderson 258 laps
6th Gregg Treagle 256 laps
7th Stephanie ?? 245 laps
8th Mark Fox 204 laps
F1
Once again, Cody managed to grab TQ, with a time of 5.166 and perhaps somewhat amazingly, it was the same 5 people (Cody, Troy, James, Mark and myself in the top 5 spots), although with the exception of Cody, in slightly different positions.
Unfortunately, once again, I don't have all the details of Both Semi's, but there was some Great racing to find the 8 finalists for the Main and when the 'Dust had settled', we had Darryl, Cody, Steph', Troy, James, Mark, GreggT and myself prepared to do battle in the Final.
In the early stages, the top four places swapped between Darryl, Cody, Troy and myself, with James managing to grab 4th at one stage.
Somehow, I managed to keep a firm hold on 3rd for the first four brackets, with there only being Two laps between 1st and 4th at half distance and it wasn't until this stage that any clear order could be seen as so many of the places had been changing almost bracket by bracket.
By the end of the 5th bracket, I had managed to grab the lead, Troy had moved up into 2nd and the fight for 3rd, 4th and 5th, was still going on between a number of drivers until almost the end of the race. The top 4 places only becoming vageuly clear after the end of the 7th bracket.
It has to be said that this was really one of the fastest and Clean F1 races we have had and the racing was really close and a whole heap of Fun.
In fact it must be said that the Whole evenings racing was as has seemed to become the 'Norm' of late, Fast, Clean and generally, Very Courteous racing.
I must admit, heading into this race, I was considering whether to install some Fresh motors into my cars, and in fact it Might very well have been a good idea for my CanAm car as it transpired, (perhaps a slight shame considering my eventual position with what turned out to be a very tired motor at the end,..One of those "If Only" situations,..lol), but I knew the cars were OK and the F1 especially, has been going Very well of late, in fact both My car and the chassis I built for Troy, have proven to be rather effective Weapons in the F1 class. The two chassis coming home in 1st and 2nd merely adding to my personal satisfaction on the evening.
The Final outcome of a great race being;
1st Stewart Amos 258 laps
2nd Troy Boldy 256 laps
3rd Cody Bramble 253 laps
4th Darryl Toole 253 laps
5th James Colfax 248 laps
6th Mark Fox 248 laps
7th Gregg Teagle 244 laps
8th Steph' 135 laps
Not sure what happened to poor Steph', but it was obviously bad enough for her to withdraw after the 5th bracket,..Bad luck Steph'.
A somewhat interesting and amazing situation was noticed on the Race Monitor during one of the Lane changes,..Everyone in Order from Top to Bottom!,..Don't think I can say I have Ever seen this situation before,..Quite amazing!,..
- An Amazing set of positions at the end of the 3rd bracket.
- SAM_1554.jpg (96.22 KiB) Viewed 12400 times
So,..once again, a Truly Fantastic and enjoyable event with some really great racing in what is easily one of the Most enjoyable classes of racing we have, with for those that actually Do build their own cars, the added Bonus of doing well with a car that one has built themselves, which for myself and some others, makes it all the More satisfying,..especially when you Win !!,...
As always,..Many thanks must again go to James and all the staff at HSC for providing such a great and friendly racing environment for us all to enjoy,...Thanks guys,..it IS most Definitely appreciated!!
So,..2012 Aussie Retro Nats' in Melbourne eh!?,..Now THAT Is definitely going to be Different to what us HSC locals are used to,..should certainly be Interesting,..to say the Least,....
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