The second race meeting of the year was a bitter sweet event in many ways.
The Bitter
The choice of date for the event may have impacted the number of entries received being the same date as the Melbourne Grand Prix, plus several of our top running competitors were still waiting for their vehicles to return from the Phillip Island Classic following some transport issues due to bad weather.
However, the absence of some of our regular top running competitors opened the door for some of our other ‘mid field’ players to vie for top honours.
Race 1 saw Lance Carwardine put his Jane Brabham on pole position with Brian Searles alongside him in his Ralt RT1 on the front row. Some engine maladies hampered Lance allowing Brian to take the lead and hold the position until the chequered flag. (The Sweet – Brian’s first race win in over 30 years!)
Murray Charnley join us for Race 2 with his beautiful Lotus 23 following some oil tank breather issues in qualifying that were not resolved in time for Race 1.
Lance had resolved his engine issues after Race 1 and quickly took to the lead in Race 2, followed by Brian and Glenn Swarbrick. Dave Dearden, in his Vector FF1600 was struggling with third gear issues that were hampering his efforts to challenge Glenn and Brian.
Race 3 was pretty much a copy of Race 2 except for Lance starting from pole position.
Long time between drinks, one happy camper!
Natsoft outright results for the meeting were;
1st Lance Carwardine 67 pts
2nd Brian Searles 65 pts
3rd Glenn Swarbrick 56 pts
Handicap results for this round;
1st XXX XX pts
2nd XXX XX pts
3rd XXX XX pts
The next round of the 2024 Formula Classic season is at Wanneroo Park on Sunday 14th April.
The first race meeting of the year held all kind of promises that sadly failed to deliver.
The Phillip Island Classic drew several of our top competitors away from our grid together with several other regular competitors not have their cars ready in time for the event. The Formula Ford group were in a similar yet somewhat worse position with only a handful of entrants for their event. The organisers wisely amalgamated the two groups to make a half decent field of cars.
As if this was not enough of a challenge, the weather was very hot and humid making it very uncomfortable for everyone. Compound this now with a series of medical emergencies (none race driver related) that took the medical staff away from the track and halting proceedings. The perfect storm scenario.
Eventually the meeting was abandoned around 5.00 pm with only one race run but with many frustrated drivers and helpers.
It’s not clear at the time of writing whether points, partial points or no pints will be awarded for the day.
The highlight of the day was the barbeque at Jamie’s shed after everyone packed up and the beautiful MGTC of one of our guests.
Outright results for the meeting were;
1st Arthur Abrahams 25 pts
2nd Simon Alderson 20 pts
3rd Lance Carwardine 18 pts
Handicap results for this round;
1st XXX XX pts
2nd XXX XX pts
3rd XXX XX pts
The next round of the 2024 Formula Classic season is at Collie Motorplex on Sunday 24th March.
