Australian Slot Car Racers Association

Well,..this last ANZAC Day, was definitely one of the more interesting, enjoyable, cruisy and perhaps frustrating I have had in a while,..

Some Very Good Racing and Dicing and some Truly Impressive Lap Totals being turned in 'Generally',..let alone the 'Display', put on by Cody !!

Straight up,..Well Done mate !!

Sadly ,..once again for a number of various reasons, we had a somewhat small turn out,..BUT,..Once again,..those that did attend were also Very competitive and for the Most part all excellent drivers,..So as has been the Norm so far in Our Fledgling Class, some Seriously Good racing could be expected,..and So proved to be the case !!

I got to the track Early and had a Very Pleasant and relaxed start to the evenings events, eventually 10 of us were Ready to Race, WayneB was a bit Off Colour and he wanted Cody to Run His car, (Which has already proven to be a Good Car), so we Had Qualifying, 2 x Semi's and a Main.

Qualifying, was a Close Affair, with James Colfax (The Track Owner) TQ' ing, with a 4.900, with Cody turning a 4.927, as the Only two below 5.00 sec's,..But, the rest of us weren't Too Far behind ,.. lol, Nearly Everyone was doing 5.0 somethings, or 5.1 somethings,..Very Close!!

Semi B;

Well,..as a Marshall, I would have to suggest this was Mostly a Pretty Clean Race.
It Did have quite a few Fast guys and the Lap Totals Turned in by Many,..let Alone those done by Cody,..were Very Impressive !!

Cody didn't do a Bracket below 32 Laps and Managed 35 on Orange and Unbelievably, a 36 !!,..on Red !!,..Get Outa Here !!!

So that Means, the Car was Fast, Cody was Fast and He DIDN'T De-Slot !!

So Cody Grabbed 1st and held it all the Way to Win the Semi, but it was a Very Close fought thing for the 4 Move-ups, with the positions changing almost every Bracket

Hutcho was holding onto 3rd for a while after being in 2nd and it was only towards the End of the Semi, that he slipped from 4th
With Troy having secured 2nd it was Mark Fox and Daniel whoi drove well to pick up 3rd and 4th.

The outcome;
Cody Bramble 271
Troy Boldy 266
Mark Fox 261
Daniel Harron 255
Steve Hutcheson 251

Semi A;

Well, for Myself, I have to say, I Really enjoyed this race!
The Car was running Very well, I was relaxed and seemingly driving pretty well, and had some absolutely Fantastic and Close Racing, quite a few of us enjoyed some Great Nose to Tail, side by side running for Many, Many laps,..Great Fun !!,..Exactly What and How it Should be and all real Friendly Fun racing!!

James and I 'Tussled' almost Race long to end with Myself taking 1st on 258 laps, with James Chasing Hard coming in 2nd with 255,..Phew !!!,..it Really did come down to the Last few de-slots in the Last Bracket !!,.. Great Stuff !!

Ivan, having once again running a 'Loaner' from Hutcho, had a Great run to finish 3rd, with 242, once again, driving smoothly and consistently!

The Last Move Up was taken by Lindsay, possibly having Not the Greatest of evenings, with 226, followed up by his Son Matthew, having,... Hmmm, shall we say a slightly less than Memorable evening,..lol , with 192.

There was some slightly 'Scrappy' racing in this Semi and Caution Was the Watchword,..and a very Enjoyable Race !! Thanks guys,..I had a Ball !!

Stoo Amos 258
James Colfax 255
Ivan Levanic 242
Lindsay Byron 226
Matthew Byron 192

So,..to the Main;

This was one Hell of a Tough Race !! and became at times a bit Too 'Scrappy' for the 'Talent' that was on the Track !!,..lol and although at times Frustrating,..fore Myself, it was still a 'Enjoyable',..lol,.if That IS the word I should use,.. rofl

Started Great,..Bolted from the Start with Cody, and Heard the Rest of the field start yelling, but then I made a silly mistake,..Doh !!,..then so did Cody and Mark,..and,..and so it went.

So,..ending the first bracket having figured Cody would be Off and running,..was relatively Pleasant to find Cody, Mark and myself, all locked on 43 Laps, with all The others Falling by the way side,...NOT !!,..lol, with 42's and 41's !!

As the Track had a Relatively 'Light' Spray Goo 'Condition tonite,..it was beginning to Wear a bit thin as the Main continued, requiring perhaps a Cautious and Tidy Driving approach, Which, for Myself, became Hard, as I kinda Lost it Myself, as at Times it DID seem Like Kamikaze Time and seemed to be being 'Nailed' from All Directions!!,..Cody got me a Few times from The Other side of the Track !!,..

So,..even though You DO Know Better and the Car Will Go Well,..as Long as you drive within yourself and Stay Calm,..We (Collectively,..lol), Manage to all Get Over excited and then Because you get Frustrated, You Over Drive,..Fall off More etc,..We all Know the Story,...lol

It Was I am Sure Damn Hard for the Few Marshalls and I for One,..Thank them Very Much,..Once again, as well, to Kim,..Thanks a Bunch. I have absolutely No 'Issues' in That regard it was Very tough at times, with at One Point No Cars running!!,..We had All Come off !!,..Go Figure,...lol

BUT, It Remained Extremely Close between Fox, Cody, Myself and Daniel for the First few Brackets, Until Mark Had a Few unfortunate Excursions with his Car, He in Fact finding it Badly Bent at one point, losing him a Bunch of Laps and dropping him to Last place for the duration.

Cody,..Once again, Won the event and Turned some Exceptional Bracket Totals on some Lanes, with young Daniel driving extremely well, (as always ) and Holding 1st place for Half the Race until the 4th bracket, when Good Old 'Softly, Softly, Catchy Monkey' Troy managed to 'Slip into second Place, cruising 'discreetly Past myself and Daniel.
Ivan also was doing another fine Job with His Black Hutco Mobeel !! and keeping us all Honest and having a good old 'Tussle' with James and Lindsay, finally ending up 5th! Great Run Ivan !!

I would have liked to have driven the Last 4 brackets as well as I drove the First couple!!,...lol and maybe I would have been a Happier Chappy,..lol,.. It was Very close at times, a 3rd would have been Nice ,..but I still had some Great Racing, against a Very competitive and skilled bunch of racers.

So,..once again,..another Great evenings racing, on a damn challenging and Very Satisfying little Track.
Some Great driving by all making for such Good racing,..the 'Scrappiness', could I guess arguably be due to the condition of the track on the Nite,.."By the Time' we Made the Main, the Grip levels 'Ultimately', Were Lower than Earlier in the evening,..BUT, it was Tough, Hard, Fast and Close racing, and as has been 'Noted' elsewhere, could also arguably be suggested that 'Over Driving' of the conditions was what was causing the Scrappiness,..I Know it Was the case for Myself towards the end,..but, it Was the same for All and was actually Fairly Smooth. Personally, I enjoyed the evening, the lighter Traction making a Change from some of the Nights which were More 'Stuck.

Thanks once again, to James and the 'Crew' for all that it takes to make these races happen as enjoyably as they Do !!

Oh Yeah,..the finishing order,...

1st Cody Bramble 342 laps
2nd Troy Boldy 340 laps
3rd Daniel Harron 332 laps
4th Stoo Amos 329 laps
5th Ivan Levanic 321 laps
6th James Colefax 318 laps
7th Lindsay Byron 315 laps
8th Mark Fox 306 laps

Pics to come,...

Thanks again guys for some Really enjoyable racing

Well done Cody, and thanks Stoo for posting and keeping us in touch.

Where's the Fox Flatboy?? Thought it may have got a run.