8 September 2012

After worrying all week about the weather forecast, the weather on the day was pretty good with an excellent entry of 11 for the first meeting of the year. New club member Dean Perkins who has repurchased his old XD Falcon was on fire, qualifying with a 1:10.998 lap time. Tony van Tiel unfortunately showed the rest of the class how much oil a Top Loader holds by emptying it onto the track going into the sweeper on the second lap. Andrew Turner, who had practised in the twilight session the night before, reported that the new Hankooks are about a second a lap faster than the Kumhos. Steve Swann had a very short practice with rumours that that the big container at the back of the car may not have had enough energy juice in it.

Race 1 was a grid start with Steve Swann powering his way through the field to finish 4th. Tony Gordon decided that turn 2 was not difficult enough for the rest of the field so parked in the middle of it as a red and white chicane. Tony unfortunately could not get going again and so sat out the rest of the race (off the track). Paul and Veen had a great battle for the whole race with Veen just crossing the line ahead but being penalised 10 seconds for a false start which dropped him from 5th to 7th. The final positions were Class A: 1st Dean Perkins, 2nd Andrew Turner, 3rd Duane Ingley. Class B: 1st Steve Swan, 2nd Graham Cargill, 3rd Paul Burnet.

Race 2 was the first of the two handicap races which was incident free with Dean coming through from the back to lead Tony Gordon across the line, followed by Graham Cargill.

Race 3 was gridded up under threatening skies, but still the wets did not get to be used. There was a very slight amount of heavenly mist falling in the first few laps but by lap 6 the track was quite damp with a lot of lurid tail-out driving by the field. However all managed to get to the finish line but Duane Ingley in the 65 Mustang. Tony Mackenzie Edwards while driving extremely well to finish the race in 2nd place managed to fall off in the cool down lap but fortunately with no damage to the car, or to his pocket, as this was the money race. The sponsorship from Tony Gordon Panel Beaters went to Dean Perkins who won again, Scary get organised as we need a Holden to keep that Aussie Ford honest. Second was Tony Mackenzie Edwards with 3rd going to Ross Golding.

The points leaders for the different classes after round one are:

Class A: Dean Perkins, Andrew Turner, Ross Golding
Class B: Steve Swan, with Graham Cargill and Tony Mackenzie Edwards tied for 2nd just 1 point behind.
Invitation Class: Tony Gordon

It was good to see new club members Rowan Tonkin and Richard Ross at the tracking keeping an eye on proceedings Rowan will be racing with us in the near future while Richard’s car is still in the building phase. The day finished with a great BBQ hosted by Dave O'Leary at his trackside apartment. It was good to see Tony Galbraith there even though his car is in a container on its way back from Oz.