Well,..I guess I Would say that wouldn't I,..
,...but it Was a Very friendly and Fun evenings racing, with a couple of New faces and also the return of my old racing buddy Mark Fox, (after quite a Lay-off due to injury).Great to see you back and 'On your Feet',..AND,..Back in Form !!,..
In reality though,..I guess in some ways it Was a somewhat disappointing turn out, (having initially 'Expected' a few More bod's than what appeared on the night), but,..as mentioned above, a Fun evenings racing was had by all I believe and it's always Great to see some New faces enjoying this Great class of racing and even better when they are also Quality drivers !!
So as can be seen from the pics below, we had a total of 4 x 2 man teams, racing for the (unknown by myself atleast) typically great HSC Trophies.
Being and Enduro and having a Very good and fast motor fitted in my CanAm car, (which I was wishing to keep for the Normal Championship rounds), I had fitted a Fresh motor, pinion and crown gear and was quite pleased after testing it to find it was also another quite quick motor, (it seemed good when running it in), but somewhat strangely, definitely dropped to Quite Average performance as the race wore on,..in fact becoming rather Painfully Slow in the closing stages of the race.
This situation beginning to look somewhat 'Dire' for myself and Mark, as we headed towards the finish with a VERY Fast Charging James seriously Eroding our lead in the last bracket !!
Lane choice was 'Drawn from a Hat' and Eeek,..I chose Black to start on, which I guess means that atleast we got it Over and done with early on,..(perhaps a Good thing considering the decline in the Motor's performance) and apart from the fact that I had a few more De-Slots than I would have 'preferred', I was quite Happy with the outcome, as the car was at that stage Very Quick and I Only managed to lose 4 laps to the leaders at the end of the first 15 minute bracket !!!,..Coool ,..
So we ended the first bracket in 3rd, with Steph' in 1st with 153, Jake in 2nd with 152, myself in 3rd (as mentioned), with 149 and Michael in 4th with 117.
At the end of the 2nd bracket, the overall Final placings had in fact sorted themselves out and so by Halfway, we had Mark and Myself in 1st with 630 laps, James and Step' in 2nd with 628 laps, Jake and Scott in 3rd with 598 laps and Darryl and Michael in 4th with 573 laps.
Michael and I had some great Fun during our racing when next to each other and for someone who to my knowledge hasn't done Much (if ANY) previous racing on this track at HSC, drove Very well.
Scott as well, was doing a Fine job in what was really his first Serious Retro race,..Especially when one considers that he was using a virtually 'Bog Standard' Parma 4 Ohm controller !!,...Might have to see if we can fit atleast a Brake Pot at some stage in the future !!,..
By the end of the 6th bracket and after some good runs on both white and red and some 'difficulties' for the others, mark and I had managed to pull a reasonably substantial lead over James and Steph', with Mark and myself having 952 laps, James and Steph' with 937, Scott and Jake with 911 and Darryl and Michael with 856.
BUT then it started to unravel slightly, (as alluded to earlier on), as Our car seemed to have fallen Well below it's initial great performance and was Now arguably seriously Slow, especially in the straight.
Fortunately the car handles Extremely well and so although getting marginally slower as the race progressed, was still turning acceptable Bracket totals.
Mind you though,..the Last bracket WAS starting to look as though the outcome was going to be Very, VERY Close, with Mark finishing on Purple and James ending on Orange and Obviously 'In the Zone'.
In fact it looked as though if he kept going as he was all the way to the end, he May have even caught and passed us,..perhaps,..But,..Mark was doing a Fine and Very consistent job of driving, to 'Bring it Home' and was aided by a couple of I am sure unwanted extra de-slots by James, which meant we had a few extra laps per Minute to help maintain our now somewhat more Slender lead.
I guess, in retrospect,..(sorry for the pun,..
), Our performance WAS actually quite good, seeing as WE used the Same car throughout the race, (which was How I thought it Was going to be for everyone, prior to the event), whereas everyone else took the 'Option' to Each Race their Own cars in the brackets they drove,..... which in Some ways kinda took the 'Enduro' aspect of the race 'Out of the Equation somewhat,..especially as people were allowed to utilise the 'Other' car, when minor troubles ensued during the racing,...which Did allow it all to remain relatively competitive for all I guess,...although,..there is nothing like Good car 'prep' though !!!,.. , so I'm Pretty Happy with the result really!The final outcome being;
1st Stoo and Mark 1,264 laps
2nd James and Steph' 1,259 laps
3rd Jake and Scott 1,216 laps
4th Darryl and Michael 1,161 laps
Once again,..Another Great Fun. Friendly and fast Aussie Retro race and thoroughly enjoyable evening's racing and cordial social interaction at HSC !!
Also, thanks must go out Again to the two Wayne's and Joe for their marshalling and to James for hosting the race and providing the Nice Trophies.
Thanks guys and thanks to all the racers who turned up to make the event as enjoyable as it was, even with a somewhat diminished field,...and ofcourse,...thanks Mark for your typically effective driving !!,...
and remember,..as you have Borrowed My 'Baby',..I Expect you to use it Well and Win on Tuesday !!!,... 
Cheers,
