Welcome to the home of Formula Classic, a dedicated group of enthusiasts in Western Australia who race historic open wheel racing and sports cars locally and around the world.
 

Next Formula Classic Event – Round 5

Saturday Sunday 1st November: Wanneroo

Tuning days: Friday 30th October – Wanneroo

2020 Formula Classis – Round 5
Coalfields 500 – 3^rd / 4^th October
 
The Collie track welcomed Formula Classic to the Coalfields 500 event for Round 5 of our championship. The weather stayed dry for the majority of the weekend albeit there was a bitter wind blowing most of the time.

A good entry of 12 cars turned up on the grid for practice, 10 regular Formula Classic entrants and two guest Formula Ford drivers from the Fastlane stables.

The qualifying pace was set by Marty Bullock in his Chevron and Simon Alderson in his Van Diemen with Craig Thompson, Ricky Virago, Jamie Kerkhoff and the two guest Formula Fords all snapping at their heels.

John Rowe made his first appearance of the year with his beautiful Lotus 18 Formula Junior. The car sounding very sweet but unfortunately a gearbox issue put him out after the first race.

Ricky Virago’s Collie misfortunes continued, having practiced and qualified well an electrical gremlin shut his engine down on the first lap of the first race and the problem could not be fixed track.

Marty Bullock won all three events but was given a 5 second time penalty in Race one for movement on the start grid that handed the win to Simon Alderson. Craig Thompson finishing third overall for the weekend, struggling with a clutch issue in the last run,

Outright results for the weekend were;

1^st           Marty Bullock                                    70 pts
2^nd          Simon Alderson                                65 pts
3^rd           Craig Thompson                               52 pts

Handicap results for the weekend;

1^st           Glenn Swarbrick                                 22 pts
2^nd          Leon Majestro                                     21 pts
3^rd           Martin Bullock                                    20 pts

Full handicap results can be found here

MA State Title, WASCC & MSW results here

The next round is at Barbagallo over the 31^st October / 1^st November weekend.

2020 Formula Classic – Round 4
Torque Trophy & Kostera Cup Meeting – 16th August

Well a worse day you could not imagine for Round 4 of the 2020 Formula Classic Championship. The weather was wet, windy and cold.
At the previous round there were 17 entrants in Formula Classic, this signalled a strong return to racing following the temporary suspension of racing due to the Covid virus. Round 4 unfortunately didn’t deliver a big field of cars with only 7 cars entered.

Sadly these 7 entrants were quickly reduced to only four with both Marty Bullock and Harvey Leys electing not to venture out due to their lack of wet weather tyres.

Glenn Swarbrick was also excluded from racing as his qualifying time was outside the 130% rule. This seemed to be a particularly harsh punishment as the Formula Classic group had been amalgamated with the F1000 group and the qualifying time was based upon their fastest time.

Race 1 saw Simon Barrett drop out after only a handful of laps with a major engine issue.

Simon Alderson won all three races, with Craig Thompson and Bob Creasy trading the minor places.

Outright results for the weekend were:
1^st           Simon Alderson               75 pts
2^nd          Craig Thompson             60 pts

Handicap results for the weekend: UPDATED
1^st           Glenn Swarbrick               23 pts
2^nd         Simon Alderson  & Bob Creasy               22 pts

Note: half points only have been awarded for the handicap championship due to the very low level of entries for this round.
Note: These handicap results have been updated to full points after consideration and Glenn Swarbrick has been calculated into the result set.

The next round is at Collie over the 3rd – 4th October weekend.

Full handicap results can be found here

2020 Formula Classic – Round 3
WASCC Tander Cup Race Meeting – 11th July

Note: original rounds 3,4 & 5 cancelled due to COVID

After an extended delay in 2020 season due to the Covid 19 virus Formula Classic returned to racing at the Tander Cup meeting.

A good field of cars were entered for the event, 17 but only 16 took to the track on Saturday morning for qualifying as Lance Carwardine had a major engine failure in his OMS in Friday’s practice session.

Qualifying was very close with less than 1.5 seconds separating the top four cars. Simon Alderson taking pole position with a 59.2 second lap, followed by Marty Bullock in his Chevron, Shane Gifford in his March and Dave Turner (Ralt RT4). Qualifying however also took it’s tole on a few other cars, Brian Searles Ralt RT1 had an engine failure, Harvey Leys Chevron had an excursion into the sand trap and severely damaged the front bodywork and Rob Jordan’s Lola dropped out too with problems.

Race 1 saw Marty get ahead of Simon and lead until the chequered flag, although Simon was glued to his gearbox throughout the event. Dave Turner finish 3rd ahead of Craig Thompson in his Van Diemen FF2000 . After a poor qualifying time, Jamie Kerkhoff got his TRD Toyota going well and recording a 60.7 second lap until rear suspension failure forced his retirement from the race and the rest of the meeting.

Races 2 and 3 saw Marty reinforce is position at the front of the field with Dave Turner running second, Simon Alderson third and Shane Gifford forth.

It was great to see Joe Ricciardo join the event driving his beautifully presented Brabham BT6 Formula Junior.

Outright results for the weekend were;

1^st           Marty Bullock               75 pts

2^nd         David Turner           58 pts

3^rd          Simon Alderson          56 pts

Handicap results for the weekend;

1^st           Ricky Virago          20 pts

2^nd          Shane Gifford            17 pts

3^rd          Neil Woodward          15 pts

The next round is at Barbagallo on Sunday 16th August.
Let’s see if we can put out a large group of cars to support this event and the WASCC club.

Full  handicap results can be found here

FOR SALE – 7 Jan 2020

Van Diemen Stealth, RF92
 
Australian Formula Ford
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Ohlin/Bilstien Shock Absorbers
Spare set of Wheels and Front Nosecone
$25,000 ono
Contact: Sonny Phone: 0415 999 000 for viewing and additional detail.

FOR SALE – 6 Jan 2020

 
ELFIN 620B
 
$25,000 ono

 
1974 Ford 4 cylinder 1600 cc
Fresh engine, new seat belts
Winner of State Championship 2018
Fully covered registered trailer and lots of spare parts
Enquiries to Mike 0437 642 542 or e-mail frontin@bigpond.net.au

2020 Formula Classic – Round 2
Collie Icebreaker Meeting – 14th / 15th March

For the second round of the 2020 Formula Classic season the cars headed south to the Collie circuit for their Icebreaker meeting.

A small number of cars were entered, only 9, and that number diminished with Bob Creasy withdrawing his Ralt RT4 late in the day and Lance Carwardine’s OMS only lasting a few laps in Fridays practice session before detonating its engine. The good news was that despite a grim weather forecast for the weekend clear dry weather was enjoyed throughout the event.

There was an interesting battle at the front of the field all weekend with Marty Bullock and Simon Alderson battling it out for top honours. In just about every race it was the first car into the first corner that picked up the win.

Craig Thompson ran consistently all weekend in third spot until the last race when he picked up a second place finish after Simon Alderson ran out of brakes.

Outright results for the weekend were;

1^st           Marty Bullock               140 pts

2^nd         Simon Alderson           128 pts

3^rd          Craig Thompson          109 pts

Handicap results for the weekend;

1^st           Glenn Swarbrick          39 pts

2^nd          Martin Bullock            38 pts

3^rd          Craig Thompson          34 pts

The next round is the Night Master event at Barbagallo on Saturday 28th March.
Let’s see if we can put out a large group of cars to support this event and the WASCC club.

Full  handicap results can be found here

2020 Formula Classis – Round 1

WASCC Birthday Meeting – 29^th  Feb/ 1^st March

The first round of the 2020 Formula Classic season kicked off with a 16-car entry list.  It was encouraging to see a few new cars on the grid along with the usual mainstay of the group and few contemporary Formula Fords joining us as there was no class for them at this meeting.

Sadly, we lost Lance Carwardine’s OMS SF/2A on the first lap of the first race with suspension failure. There were also one or two other cars that missed out on a couple of the races due to minor technical issues.

With the absence of last season’s dominant Ralt RT4 driven by Michael Henderson, the 51^st Birthday Meeting’s four race Formula Classic programme took on a different complexion with David Turner, Marty Bullock and Simon Alderson all fighting closely for the top honours.

Harvey Leys, in his beautifully prepared Chevron sports car, was a consistent 4^th place runner as was Craig Thompson’s 5^th place in his Van Diemen FF2000.

Outright results for the weekend were;

1^st           David Turner                                      100 pts

2^nd          Marty Bullock                                    78 pts

3^rd           Simon Alderson                                74 pts

During the off-season Kevin Taylor undertook a further revision of the handicapping system to allow the results to be processed quickly on the day, below are the handicap results for this round;

1^st           David Watkins                                   24 pts

2^nd          Marty Bullock                                    23 pts

3^rd           Paul Barron                                         18 pts

The next round is the Collie Icebreaker over the weekend of 14^th / 15^th March. Let’s see if we can put out a large group of cars to support this event and the Collie club.

Full  handicap results can be found here

Formula Classic Racing Inc. has recently been created to provide a formal body to enhance and promote historic open wheel racing and sports car participation in motor sport events and to represent Formula Classic with the controlling body Motorsport Australia (CAMS) and with event promoters WASCC, MSW, VSCC and other interstate and international bodies.

The Formula Classic – DRAFT – calendar for 2020 is:

• Round 1  – Weekend  Feb 29 – Mar 1 WASCC Birthday  Barbagallo
• Round 2 + Regularity – Weekend Mar 14-15  MSW  Ice Breaker   Collie
• Round 3 – Saturday Mar 28   WASCC Night Masters Meeting  Barbagallo
• Regularity – Sunday Apr 5 VSCC Northam Flying 50 Regularity
• Round 4 – Sunday Apr 19   WASCC Night Masters Meeting  Barbagallo
• Round 5 + Regularity – Weekend May 2-3  MSW Ernie Hasstle  Collie
• Regularity – Sunday May 31  VSCC Albany Classic Regularity
• Round 6 – Saturday Jul 11   WASCC  Race Day  Barbagallo
• Round 7 – Sunday Aug 16  WASCC Race Day Barbagallo
• Round 8 + Regularity – Weekend Oct 3-4  VSCC Coalfields 500   Collie
• Round 9 – Sunday Oct 18  WASCC TRY Barbagallo
• Regularity – Sunday Dec 6  WASCC Vintage Stampede Regularity  Barbagallo

The end of season dinner and prize giving was held on Wednesday 4^th December at the Mount Henry Tavern in Como. There was an exceptionally good turn out of 39 guests at the function, the largest group seen for many years.

Congratulations to the 2019 Formula Classic Handicap Championship podium finishers.

2019 Formula Classic Handicap Champion – Simon Alderson – Van Diemen RF 88

2nd place – Craig Thompson – Van Dieman RF 82
3rd place – Murray Charnley – Lotus 23B

“Spirit of Formula Classic”  winner was deservedly – Murray Charnley

This year’s trophies were made and donated by Jamie Kerkhoff and Brian Searles.

Full results for 2019 season can be found here and the FCR Newsletter here

2019 Formula Classic – Round 9

Barbagallo Rob Janney Tribute Meeting – 26^th / 27^th October

The final round of the 2019 Formula classic season was held at Barbagallo, the meeting being dedicated to Rob Janney a life member of the WASCC and substantial contributor to the Wanneroo race circuit and West Australian motorsport. The weekend meeting put a bit of pressure on some of the regular Formula Classic entrants following so closely the previous round at Collie with a few of the usual runners unable to prepare / repair their cars in time. That said, 13 cars entered the event and it was good to see a few new cars and drivers in the field.

Russell Sewell, the WASCC President, brought out his big Lola T800 Indy car for the second time this year, Jamie Kirkhoff made his season debut in his Formula Toyota TRD, Bob Creasy ran his newly acquired Ralt RT4 and there were a couple of historic Van Diemen Formula Fords with John Hurney and Ray Stubber and Leone Magistro in his beautifully presented 84 Reynard.

Five races over the course of the weekend took its toll on a few of the entrants with some DNS or DNF’s.

 The outright positions for the race weekend were;

1^st           Michael Henderson                       

2^nd          Simon Alderson                                               

3^rd           David Turner                                     

Handicap results for the event were;

1^st           David Turner

2^nd          Russell Sewell

3^rd           Craig Thompson

With this being the last round for the 2019 season there is a rest period over the summer before the 2020 season kicks off around late February.

The end of season awards night will be held towards the end of this year. An invitation to the event will be sent to all members once the venue and date has been arranged.

2019 Formula Classic – Round 8

VSCCWA Collie Coalfields 500 – 19^th / 20^th October

After a long break of over two months since the last event round 8 of the 2019 Formula classic season was held at Collie. It was great to see a much larger field of entries at the Collie circuit, than normal, and to see some ‘old’ faces making their first appearance for the year as well as a new face too. The weather was kind for the weekend being warm and bright with a light breeze.

John Rowe was one of the ‘old’ faces making his first appearance this year running his Lotus 18 Formula junior, Dick Ward also made his first appearance at collie in his rotary powered Fiat. Brian Searles brought out his Ralt RT1 for the event having spent most of the year rebuilding the car but unfortunately it was quickly put back on the trailer after qualifying following a clutch failure.

A first time entrant in Formula Classic was Paul Barron in his bright green 2001 Van Diemen Formula Ford. Paul ran consistently in all 4 races with a best lap time of 1 minute 24 seconds.

Michael Henderson and Simon Alderson continued to set the pace for the class with Craig Thompson and Harvey Leys trading outright third place honours.

With Hendo being disqualified in race 3 for a red flag incident the outright positions for the race weekend were;

1^st           Simon Alderson                               

2^nd          Michael Henderson                                       

3^rd           Craig Thompson                                              

Handicap results for the event were;

1^st           John Rowe

2^nd          Glenn Swarbrick

3^rd           Simon Alderson

The next round is only a few days away and is the season finale at Barbagallo, another two day meeting over the weekend of 26^th / 27^th October. Let’s see if we can make a strong showing for the final Formula Classic event of 2019.

2019 Formula Classic – Round 7

WASCC August meeting – 18^th August

Despite the beautiful winter day only a very small field of cars were entered for the August meeting, 10 in total. The WASCC deemed it appropriate to dock 2 laps from each of the races as ‘punishment’ to the class for providing such a small field of cars. Eight, 6 and 6 being the laps allocated to Formula Classics three events. (I shall comment further on the WASCC decision below)

With the recent introduction of unleaded race fuels only it was interesting to note several competitors struggled with starting problems this cold morning, coincidence or just the cold morning air? Hendo missing the qualifying session completely due to a non-starting car. Normal service was resumed quickly however for Michael, despite a rear of the field start in race one. Craig Thompson too started the race day poorly with a spark plug lead coming off in both qualifying and race one, thankfully this was successfully rectified by one of his support team before race two.

Harvey Leys pulled the pin on the event after the first race in protest over the shortened event durations. An honourable thing to do but maybe not the best strategy for the group as it left even fewer cars in the field.

It was a case of the usual suspects for the outright positions for the race day, the result being exactly the same as the July meeting;

1^st           Michael Henderson                       

2^nd          Simon Alderson                                               

3^rd           Dave Turner                                      

Handicap results for the event were;

1^st           Murray Charnley

2^nd          David Turner

3^rd           Craig Thompson

The next round is a little way off at Collie on the weekend of 19^th / 20^th October but closely followed by the final round for the 2019 season at Barbagallo the immediate following weekend of 26^th / 27^th October. Not great planning, some may say, having a two month break and then two weekend meetings back to back, but it is what it is.

The 2019 season, to date (7 rounds), has not been well supported with an average field of only 11 cars per event. It would be great to see a strong Formula Classic finale to the season at the remaining two rounds. Come on Chaps, let’s put a few more cars on the grid.

Commentary

I think the ruling by WASCC to ‘punish’ Formula Classic for providing a small field by reducing the number of racing laps is unfair and wrong. Unfair, as our entry fee is the same as other class entry fees yet we get less laps and wrong, because the people that are being punished are the one that actually entered the event and yet get penalised for something outside their control.

That said, I do understand that only so many racing laps can be run in a day and that the WASCC want to get and provide ‘best bang for your buck’ and that 15 to 20 cars on the track at one time is better than only 8 or 10.

From my perspective the solution is simple, Formula Classic needs to put more cars on the grid at every race meeting. Not only will this ensure we avoid the unpleasantness of having racing laps taken away from us but ultimately it will give us a ‘loader voice’ with WASCC to get better track terms and conditions for Formula Classic.

Over the past five seasons over 50 different cars and drivers have run in Formula Classic events at the Barbagallo and Collie circuits, with most of these cars and drivers still in the State.  Surely we can put on a better show than we have for the earlier part of this season and demonstrate to the WASCC and the viewing public that Formula Classic is a great class and one that’s here to stay.

2019 Formula Classis – Round 6

WASCC July meeting – 14^th July

Well it was a very different day weatherwise from the last meeting, blue skies and sunshine all day, magnificent, no wet weather tyres required for this meeting!

This was the first Formula Classic round to be held under the new CAMS fuel regulation that requires all vehicles to run on unleaded fuel. The WASCC was unable to offer any unleaded race fuel at the time of the meeting so entrants we left to make their own arrangements. Unfortunately Harvey Leys was not able to source any suitable fuel for his Chevron in time and withdrew his entry.

A small field of cars 12 cars were entered for the June meeting, it was good to see Rob Jordan and Dave Turner returning to the ranks with their Tiga Sports 2000 and Ralt RT4 respectively. Dave putting on a great showing with a consistent third place in each race.

In the dry conditions and with his engine recently set up on the dyno Michael Henderson returned to his number one spot with a magnificent 55 second lap in qualifying and maintained this dominance throughout all three races. Interesting the finishing order for the top six drivers was identical for all three events and with only a couple of minor changes in the lower finishing order too.

As with the June meeting the percentage finishing stats were high will all cars, bar one, completing all three races.

The prize giving debacle for Formula Classic’s last meeting was resolved and the points tally correctly allocated for this meeting.

Outright positions for the weekend were;

1^st           Michael Henderson                       

2^nd          Simon Alderson                                               

3^rd           Dave Turner                                      

Handicap results for the event were;

1^st           Craig Thompson

2^nd          Leon Majistro

3^rd           Rob Jourdan & John Hurney

The next round is at Barbagallo on 18^th August.

2019 Formula Classis – Round 5

WASCC June meeting – 23^rd June

A very wet Barbagallo circuit welcomed the drivers to the June meeting. Wet weather tyres were the order of the day although occasionally the sun teased us only to rain again just before the Formula Classic events.

Unfortunately, again, only a small field of cars were entered for the June meeting, 10 to be precise. It was good to see one new driver join our ranks for the event, Glen Page, driving the Sutol 23 from Neil McCrudden’s  the WARM museum.

Simon Alderson was all dominant in the very wet qualifying session posting pole position by 5 seconds from the second placed car. The three races were closely contested by Simon and Michael Henderson with Hendo taking two wins to Simon’s one. Leone Magistro, Bob Creasy and Allan Ould were scraping over the minor placing, Leone ending up with the final trophy.

It’s good to report that despite only a small field of cars for this meeting all 10 entrants finished the last race.

The prize giving was a bit of as debacle as WASCC recorded the results for Formula Classic in two sections (Historic and Libra log booked cars) and failed to combine the results for the prize giving awarding on the Historic log booked cars only. This was subsequently addressed but at the time it was a little awkward and embarrassing.

Outright positions for the weekend were;

1^st           Michael Henderson                       

2^nd          Simon Alderson                                               

3^rd           Leone Magistro                                               

Handicap results for the event were;

1^st           Murray Charnley & Leon Majistro

3^rd          Simon Alderson

The next round is at Barbagallo on 14^th July.