As has I guess become the expected 'norm' at HSC, we had another weekend of Greta Racing at the 2011 NSW Plafit State Titles this past weekend.
Racing started on the Saturday evening, with the classes mentioned in the Title of this 'post'.
To be honest, I Really had expected slightly Better numbers attending than we eventually had. It was also unfortunate, that a couple of people could Not attend due to prior arrangements, like Jimmy and Gregg, as in these classes, their presence would Only have added to the great racing we experienced on the Night.
Racing kicked off with the Two 1/32 divisions and we had 8 starters for Division 2 and 7 starters for Division 1.
1/32 Modern GT Div' 2
This really was a very good and extremely close race and for myself, a very Tough and Torrid affair,..lol
From the start, Kim was Off and Running and managed to gain a few laps over the field and hold onto 1st place for virtually the Whole race.
For the first 4 brackets, James, Jake and Troy battled Hard behind Kim, with Never more than about 4 laps between 1st and 4th.
By about half way through the race, a bit of a gap developed between the first 4 places and the last 4 places.
Dale had some issues with his front wheels I believe and tussled with Paul, myself and JJ and eventually Jake, as the Leading four had their Own close fought battle,..BUT,..things were about to have a somewhat dramatic change.
Troy had been trying to keep Kim extremely honest and was slowly closing the Gap. After a Lousy start driving wise, I had set about getting My act together and was beginning to really get a Move on, eventually getting ahead of the battle Jake and James were having and in the Final bracket, Kim's Motor started to Die and he ended with a car that was virtually Crawling towards the finish line, allowing Troy to get past into 1st.
Try as I might, the deficit of my earlier 'offs' meant I couldn't catch Kim at the end and James finally got ahead of Jake.
I'm not sure about everyone else, but I was sure sweating at the end of what seemed like a Really great and hard fought and thoroughly enjoyable race!
The Final outcome.
1st Troy 209 laps
2nd Kim 208 laps
3rd Stoo 202 laps
4th James 201 laps
5th Jake 200 laps
6th Paul 194 laps
7th JJ 194 laps
8th Dale 184 laps
1/32 Modern GT Div' 1
This race certainly looked like being another good race, as All the cars were turning very competitive times.
Troy had TQ'd and his car was Very quick but from the Start, young Stephanie took the opportunity to show just How Good a Driver she was, by turning in a 'Brace' of 4 x 27 lap brackets.
This kept her in 1st place for those four brackets and gave her a lead of 2 laps over Troy and 4 laps over James going in to the 5th bracket.
Unfortunately, the Gods did not seem to be smiling on Steph' in this bracket traffic or accident wise and being Purple as well, proved to be her Worst bracket but only dropped to 2nd.
It was also during this 5th bracket that other positions in the field started to change. This was actually a very tough race. I don't know about the other drivers, but I Do kinda feel that they were All driving as Hard as I was !!
The field was really motoring, with Many good lap totals being seen, Troy even managing to put in a 29 on Both White & Blue !!
As mentioned, Troy had moved into 1st over Steph', I had managed to Just get ahead of James and Kim, who had Not been having a Great race and withdrew at the end of the 4th bracket, with a Very Dead motor!
It appeared that Steph's Great run was in danger and after an OK run on Black, it all seemed to dissolve on Yellow and with the On-Track pace of Dale, James and myself, we all managed to get past and going into the 7th bracket had Troy in 1st, myself in 2nd, James in 3rd and Dale in 4th, Steph' in 5th and Jake, (who seemed to be having one of those races you hope you can forget lol),in 6th and it remained that way till the end.
All in all, a Very good and enjoyable Div' 1 race. For myself, I at times was amazed just How hard I Could actually drive the Maser' and was Far happier with my driving compared to the Div' 2 race !!,..lol
The final outcome;
1st Troy 219 laps
2nd Stoo 213 laps
3rd James 211 laps
4th Dale 208 laps
5th Steph 207 laps
6th Jake 194 laps
7th Kim 96 laps
1/24th CanAm / Historics
For the CanAm/Historics race, we had 10 starters, which wasn't too bad I guess, but like with the two previous 1/32 classes, we were missing the attendance of Jimmy and Gregg, which would have made it even better.
Mind you, it was another typically good field of very competitive drivers, which should have provided for an exciting race,...and,..So it most definitely proved to be !!
Qualifying.
The times set across most of the field were So Close, it really did look like it was going to be a Very tough race.
I knew My car Was rather fast and was actually quite happy when I turned in a 5.773 sec' lap. I don't often TQ and so was quietly hoping I had managed to TQ, BUT, next up was Kim Axton, who put in another great time to Just 'pip' me for TQ, by turning a 5.771.
Kim's and My times really were Very close, with Kim having his 3 best laps of 5.771, 5.786 and 5.937 against My 5.773, 5.796 and 5.843.
The 'Dark Horse' here, was Troy, as he did Not actually turn in a fantastic Qual' time, but Did in fact have a Very quick car, as will be seen later.
It was decided to run Two Heats, without an overall Final, which in some ways was a bit disappointing, as I feel it tends to provide for a More Race like outcome, with the Top eight All having the Same conditions to run under, but I guess with so many classes to run over the weekend, having an earlier ending evening was the best idea.
I must say here, that I perhaps threw a Spanner in the Overall 'Works', by suggesting to Wayne that it would be really good if we could arrange one of the Finals to allow Fox, Kim and Myself to have a run together, as we used to race together quite a bit in the past and figured it would be great to have another race together, which Is what happened.
To be honest, it wasn't really until I was reviewing the Race reports and Qual' times at home after the race, that from the Times, perhaps Dale should have been in the 'A' Final, as he was in fact the 3rd Fastest Qualifier!
As it turned out, Dale ended up in the 'B' Final, with Troy running in the 'A' Final.
'A' Final.
I knew this was going to be a tough and close fought race, even if I was slightly confident of my car's Pace.
In the previous 1/32 races, I must say I had de-slotted More than I would have liked to and in fact after holding down 1st place at the end of the first bracket, I had a less than perfect run on purple and in the next three brackets, which left me in 4th with a slight deficit to try and make up.
Troy was running very well and had seemingly cemented himself into 1st place from the 2nd bracket onwards, with Kim following closely, ahead of Mark.
Troy actually managed to achieve a 4 lap lead at one stage and after Mark had problems with the alignment of the front end after an obviously heavy accident, allowed James to move into 4th.
Kim and I were having a really good 'tussle', never being more than 2 laps apart and as the race progressed, I felt I was coming in to my stride and started closing the Gap. As we were Really motoring along, both Kim and I, started closing the Gap to Troy as well and from the 5th bracket onwards, the three of us held the same positions and at the end of the 7th bracket, we had Troy in 1st with 207 laps, Kim in 2nd with 207 laps and myself 3rd with 206 laps.
The last bracket was Truly Amazing !!
I had been closing on Kim over the last few brackets and as we battled in I managed to catch Kim on the track.
I knew I was running well in this last bracket, but had Not actually bothered looking at the Lap counters since about the middle of the race, so in reality, had No idea Just how close the race had become.
I was Totally 'Focused' on running Kim down to try and get 2nd, as I thought Troy was still well ahead of Both of us with a secure 1st,..BUT,...I actually managed to turn 32 laps compared to their 31's and at the end, I would have to say ALL Three of us were somewhat surprised about the outcome,..Myself Especially, as Both Kim and I had in fact Caught Troy and I must say I couldn't believe the number 1 next to my name when I looked up at the Lap counter at the end of the race.
The Three of us crossed the line Mere Feet/Inches apart, ALL ending with the Same Lap Total 0f 238 laps !!! Talk about a Close finish !!
As mentioned at the start, with Troy Boldy, Kim Axton, Mark Fox and James Colfax in this race I Knew it was going to be Very close and tough Race, So I was Very Happy to have Come out on top of such a good field and the fact that it was SO Close, proved Just how closely matched we all were. So, it was Only 'Fitting' to have the Photo seen below of All Three of Us together in 'Podium' photo.
Thanks guys!, it really was a Most thoroughly Enjoyable race!
'A' Final Placings.
1st Stewart 238 laps
2nd Troy 238 laps
3rd Kim 238 laps
4th James 227 laps
5th Mark 211 laps
'B' Final.
This was in fact another Very good race, with Dale, Jake, JJ, Paul and Stephanie taking the start.
Dale, as can be seen from the Qual' times Did have a pretty quick car, but had a slightly troubled beginning, with the various places being Very close for the first few brackets.
JJ was motoring along extremely well, managing to hold onto a very fine 1st place for the first three brackets, with 2nd and 3rd being swapped between Dale and Jake. Paul and Steph' were also running closely behind and running closely together, eventually swapping their positions as the race unfolded.
The race was relatively clean, but did have a few moments of angst I guess especially for Dale, who was trying very hard to turn in a good overall Lap Total at the end. He managed to grab 1st from JJ at the end of the 4th bracket.
In fact apart from Steph' grabbing 4th from Paul, the first three positions remained the same till the end from the 4th bracket onwards.
Dale eventually taking 1st from a fine drive by both JJ and Jake.
One has to wonder how the two races may have panned out had Dale been in the 'A' Final and Troy in the 'B' final, as it was, Dale was just slightly behind in Laps to take a podium spot, but as the 'A' Final was so Fast and Torrid, it was I guess always going to be a Big Task.
'B' Final Placings.
1st Dale 230 laps
2nd JJ 227 laps
3rd Jake 221 laps
4th Steph 216 laps
5th Paul 213 laps
So, as can be seen the Final outcome of the Two Finals was Very Close across the whole field;
1st Stewart 238 laps
2nd Troy 238 laps
3rd Kim 238 laps
4th Dale 230 laps
5th James 227 laps
6th JJ 227 laps
7th Jake 221 laps
8th Steph 216 laps
9th Mark 213 laps
10th Paul 213 laps
All in All, a Very Worthy 'State Title' Race.