Western Double – Rounds 7 & 8
FOR SALE – Elfin Catalina
| Make: Elfin Model: FJ (Catalina) Engine type/capacity: Ford 1100cc |
| Year 1962 Chassis No: 6319 |
| Current Owner: Bruce Edgar, Perth, WA 0414 416 200 Bruceedgar40@gmail.com |
History of car
Bought by the Victorian importer (Jack Hunnam) as a kitset, and built up for its first owner Vern Cerche (in Victoria) in early 60s as 1500c but never raced. It incorporated the existing alloy disc wheels and 4 wheel disc brakes.
After a series of owners and adventures, including a court case, the car was acquired by Dave Sullivan (in Perth) and he and his son Dave in 1978 and first raced in 1983 at Mallala and Collingrove. Subsequently the car was raced in a dark green livery through the 80s in Historic races at Wanneroo, Perth with some Round the Houses events. Only sporadically raced since the 80s including an appearance at the Caversham Reunion in 2007 where damage was sustained after an “off”.
Acquired by the current owner in May 2010 and completely rebuilt. The is a great, original example of this type. Raced as a Formula Junior in the original Cerche livery of red with white stripes. Has been raced almost continuously in the west with occasionally forays east and to NZ. Subsequently raced as part of the 2105 FJ series and 2016/7 series in Aust, NZ and USA.
Best lap time at Wanneroo 67.7 sec (Jun2015).
Description of Car
Rebuilt in 2010 to race as a FJ with 1100 Ford engine but not log booked as negotiations stalled. Can be converted to Elfin FJ specifications or as Group M 1500 (as originally built). Original early 60s build (with documentation) includes the solid, unique, wheels as shown and 4 wheel disc brakes. Car accepted by Elfin as genuine FJ (Catalina) and given chassis no 6319.
Car is complete with 1100 105E (3 bearing) Richardson based all steel engine, dry sumped, twin 40 Webers and VW tunnel 5 speed gearbox incorporating Taylor Race internals). Was rebuilt with approved design roll over bar, 6 point seat belts (with 2in top sections for HANS), GAS shocks (steel, single adjustment and adjustable spring height). Fully sorted with increased rate springs and adjustable antiroll bars front and rear. Currently on FJ spec tyres.
Has spare body panels (2 noses, pair of sides and tail, gearboxes) and some other spares.
Car is complete and ready to race. Fuller details on request.
2024 Formula Classic – Round 5
Wanneroo Park 15th June
The weather was perfect for racing, dry, sunny and mild.
Eight cars took to the track for qualifying. It was great to see Murray Charnley out in his Lotus 23 and Bruce Mitchell joining us for his first run this year in his Reynard FF2000. Bill Norman had experienced some issues at Friday’s tuning day and was still working on the car on Saturday morning trying to get ready for qualifying. He made it out for only two laps, an insufficient number to formally qualify and therefore had to start rear of the field for race 1. All other drivers qualified satisfactorily with Simon Alderson claim pole.
With Bill starting from the back of the pack, this break gave Simon enough of a gap to hold onto first place for a win of race 1. Bill was close on his heels for 2nd place with Lance Carwardine third across the line.
In an effort to improve the race day scheduling the WASCC introduced this year time allocations for each racing group rather than a prescribed number of racing laps. For race 2 FCR was allocated 15 minutes which translated to 13 laps for the lead cars. Several of the drivers commenting after race 2 on the noticeable increase in track time. Starting from the front row alongside Simon, Bill was able to take the lead of the race and hold it to the chequered flag. Bruce Mitchell made a good start and got up to 4th spot before an electrical gremlin sidelined at turn 6.
Race 3 was allocated 12 minutes track time, it was the usual suspects at the front of the field, Bruce starting from rear of the grid after his electrical woes were resolved only to end up spinning off and out of the event at turn 6. Murray pulled out of the final race too following a fall that resulted in some minor injuries whilst undertaking the self extraction test. Lance was pinged for a minor infringement on the assembly lap that saw him incur a 15 second penalty, this time penalty elevated Brian Searles to 3rd place in his Tiga Sports 2000.
Outright results for the meeting were;
1st Bill Norman 70 pts
2nd Simon Alderson 65 pts
3rd Lance Carwardine 53 pts
Handicap results for this round;
1st Simon Alderson 28 pts
2nd Murray Charnley 22 pts
3rd Bill Norman 16 pts
The next round of the 2024 Formula Classic season is at Collie Motorplex on one day over the weekend 17th / 18th August (whether FCR race on Saturday or Sunday is yet to be decided by the organisers).
There’s Trouble in Paradise
FORMULA CLASSIC RACING 20th April 2024
Newsletter 041
We are so privileged to own race cars of a golden era, to have access to two great local race tracks and to have some of the lowest cost circuit racing in the world, yet we regularly choose not to enjoy them. Why is this?
Sadly, as with most great things that are ‘on your doorstep’ they are taken for granted and often underutilised, ignored or forgotten about, assuming they will always be there whenever you want them. Please don’t take for granted this amazing privilege we have as one day it may all be gone.
I’d like to share with you some statistical data from the past few years regarding the number of drivers that took part in Formula Classic events by year;
To date this year we have managed to put out;
Round 1 – 7 cars
Round 2 – 5 cars
Round 3 – 7 cars
Round 4 – 3 cars (cancelled)
What has happened? What is going on? Why are we having so few entrants to our events?
The Formula Classic website lists 86 known historic racing and sports cars in WA, the majority of which are owned by FCR members.
FCR currently have 41 club members, 34 of these are racing members.
I’ve highlighted these statistics to demonstrate the imbalance between the number of racing members, the numbers of eligible race cars in the state in comparison to the number of cars on the track this season.
Last weekend’s showing would not have been missed by many and the reputation of Formula Classic will have been seriously tarnished as a result of having only 2 cars running in the final race.
I think this is only time, in my many years that I have been involved in motorsport, that I have ever seen such a small grid.
We all want Formula Classic to succeed and be around for years to come, not only for ourselves but for future members to ensure the legacy of historic motorsport continues.
Round 5 at Wanneroo Park is being held on Saturday 15th June. It is imperative that FCR put out a big field of cars at this event to show everyone that we are a robust class with a strong and deep membership. Whilst entries for Round 5 are not yet open, I would ask everyone to put in an early entry again signalling our strength as a racing group.
It has been said many times before but I’ll repeat it once again. Any member who needs help preparing their race car please do not hesitate to ask. There are several very able members willing to assist anyone in getting their car prepared for the track.
STAY SAFE Contact details; admin@formulaclassic.com.au
Since this newsletter was written we have had only 3 cars enter for round 4 and hence it was cancelled, let’s see ifwe can make a comeback for round 5
2024 Formula Classic – Round 4
Collie Motorplex 5th May
Event cancelled due to low entries. (3 only)
The next round of the 2024 Formula Classic season is at Wanneroo Park on Saturday 15th June.
2024 Formula Classic – Round 3
Wanneroo Park 14th April
Just when you thought things couldn’t possibly get any worse!
Only 7 cars entered the third round of the 2024 Formula Classic Championship. Lance Carwardine withdrew on the morning with a back injury.
Qualifying was uneventful with Simon Alderson putting his Van Diemen on pole with Marty Bullock in his Chevron alongside.
Race 1 saw Simon take the win, with Marty in second place, followed by Dave Watkins in his Royale, Glenn Swarbrick and Dave Dearden. Brian Searles dropping out with engine maladies in his Tiga Sports 2000.
Race 2 culled over half of the remaining cars. Watto’s Royale developed a terminal ignition issue, Glenn ruptured a water hose and ‘cooked’ the Macon engine and Marty had a major lock up at the end of the start finish straight ending him in the sand trap.
The final race of the day saw only two cars take to the track.
The highlight of the meeting was seeing Dave Dearden take an outright second place trophy home with him. Congratulations Dave!
Outright results for the meeting were;
1st Simon Alderson 75 pts
2nd David Dearden 56 pts
3rd Marty Bullock 20 pts
Handicap results for this round;
1st Simon Alderson 16 pts
2nd David Dearden 14 pts
3rd David Watkins 10 pts
The next round of the 2024 Formula Classic season is at Collie Motorplex on Sunday 5th May.
2024 Formula Classic – Round 2
Collie Motorplex 24th March
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 Glenn Swarbrick 27 pts
2nd Brian Searles & David Deardon 14 pts
The next round of the 2024 Formula Classic season is at Wanneroo Park on Sunday 14th April.
2024 Formula Classic – Round 1
Wanneroo Park 3rd March
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 Brian Searles 14 pts
2nd David Watkins 11 pts
3rd Glenn Swarbrick 9 pts
The next round of the 2024 Formula Classic season is at Collie Motorplex on Sunday 24th March.
Formula Classic 2024 Calendar
Round 1: Sunday 3rd March Wanneroo
Round 2: 23rd – 24th March Collie
Round 3: Sunday 14th April Wanneroo
Round 4: 4th – 5th May Collie
Round 5: Saturday 15th June Wanneroo
Round 6: 17th – 18th August Collie
Round 7: 14th-15th September Wanneroo
Round 8: 21st-22nd September Collie
Round 9: Saturday 19th October Wanneroo