2021 Formula Classic – Round 6

2021 Formula Classic – Round 6

Race Report Collie Coalfields 500

After a rain interrupted practice session on Friday Afternoon qualifying on Saturday morning was a moist but drying track.

Bill took pole in his RT4 with Simon just behind, Marty came in third with Ricky completing the first 2 rows. Unfortunately Andrew had a misfire that would eventually ruin his weekend’s racing. Lance continued a good run in the Brabham and the Formula Ford contingent was reduced temporarily to 2 cars as John Rowe’s car decided that full throttle should be a permanent fixture.

Race 1 started with a wet track which dried throughout the race. Bill had only slick tyres so this worked well for him, although Simon was flying on his wets, challenging on the first laps before the drying track saw Bill pull clear. The qualifying order was the race order in the end with Andrew just managing to keep in front of Lance with his continuing misfire.

Race 2 was dry, allowing Marty to get some use out of some new slicks to at least challenge Bill for some of the time. Ricky was the big improver, putting in some very fast laps in his beautiful RT5. Andrew’s misfire allowed Lance to take 5th with Craig being the best of the FF’s.

Saturday Night was a cracking event in the Federal Hotel, we had managed to exceed a table for 12 on the Friday but Saturday Night saw a table of 20 requiring at least 4 extra spots. Amazing that we can only manage to field 9 cars but can field at least 24 for dinner at the pub. The RSA v NZ Rugby Union on the pub TV made a fantastic backdrop as we have a good contingent of both RSA and NZ countrymen and women amongst us and the good natured rivalry was great to witness during a high class and very close match.

Sunday produced some fantastic weather, Andrew withdrew the his RT4 as the misfire was diagnosed as a crank angle sensor failure and no replacement part was available. Glenn had an unfortunate incident during his Regularity run late on Saturday when an absolute deluge of rain caused his car to aquaplane off the circuit into a conveniently place concrete barrier. Glenn was fine and his car not too bad.

Race 3 Saw Bill get another great start with Marty in hot but hopeless pursuit. The real action was behind this pair with Ricky and Simon going at it for 3rd place. Unfortunately Ricky spun exiting the back straight chicane and backed his car into the bank. Minimal damage to car and driver but a missed result after a great drive.

Race 4 and this time Bill did not make such a good start allowing Marty through and a race long 3 way battle with all 3 cars within 1 second of each other throughout most of the race. It was frantic stuff with Simon getting in front of Bill after his attempt to overtake Marty. In the end Marty prevailed (just) for the win. Unfortunately Lance struck a problem and had to pull in. Craig completed a very good weekend in the lovely Lola and John also ran solidly all weekend after fixing the throttle on the Valour.

It was a great weekend with some great racing and some very  good company.

Historic results for the meeting were;

1st           William (Bill) Norman                      95 pts

2nd          Martin Bullock                            85 pts

3rd           Craig Thompson                              67 pts

Libre results for the meeting were;

1st           Simon Alderson                                100 pts

2nd          Ricky Virago                            40 pts

Handicap Results:

1st          William (Bill) Norman         26 pts

2nd           Marty Bullock & Simon Alderson    24 pts

Full handicap results can be found here

MA State Title, WASCC & MSW results here

2021 Formula Classic – Round 5

2021 Formula Classic – Round 5
August Race Meeting, Collie – 21st/22nd August

A good field of 10 cars entered the Collie August race meeting. Of the ten entries 9 were historic log booked vehicles, Ricky Virago being the sole libre log booked car entrant. The weekend weather was changeable with a mixture of rain and sunshine which made the tyre choice interesting for most of the entrants.

Sadly, Bill Norman broke a driveshaft at the start of the first race, resulting in a restart for the group and ending Bill’s racing weekend before it really began.

Marty Bullock dominated three of the four races, however Ricky Virago recorded his first win on the Sunday morning whilst the track was still damp, electing to run on wet weather tyres. Ricky had run second to Marty on both races the day before and it was great to see him take the chequered flag for the first time.

Lance Carwardine ran a consistent third throughout the weekend, this was equally great to see as he had been struggling with various issues with the Jane Brabham that now have all, finally, been resolved.

There was also an interesting battle running in the mid pack too, between Glenn Swarbrick and Craig Thompson in their historic Formula Fords with both taking honours twice each over the course of the meeting.

Historic results for the meeting were;

1st           Marty Bullock                                    100 pts

2nd          Lance Carwardine                            80 pts

3rd           Leon Magistro                                   72 pts

Libre results for the meeting were;

1st           Ricky Virago                                        100 pts

Handicap Results:

1st           John Rowe & Glenn Swarbrick        29 pts

3rd           Marty Bullock                                    20 pts

2021 Formula Classic – Round 4

2021 Formula Classic – Round 4
June Race Meeting, Wanneroo – 13th June

Despite the gloomy weather forecast in the week leading up to Round 4 of the 2021 FCR Championship, the weather was kind with sunshine and blue skies for most of the day.

There was a good list of entrants for this event but sadly the numbers were depleted before the racing got underway. Lance Carwardine was the first not to run pulling his entry due to uncertainties with the engine cooling system on the Jane Brabham. Harvey Leys experienced fuel pressure issues and only managed a few laps in qualifying before withdrawing and both of Rob Jordan’s entries didn’t make it beyond the qualifying session either.

Simon Alderson maintained his winning form with outright wins in all three races and also taking the Libre class honours. Marty Bullock race consistently second on the track keeping Simon honest and collecting the Historic class honours.

Towards the end of race 3 Bob Creasy’s Ralt engine breather line parted from the motor liberally spraying oil around large sections of the track. Bob finished the race but unwittingly created a bit of chaos for his fellow competitors and causing a significant delay for the remaining events whilst the marshals cleaned up the track. Allan Ould sadly was an innocent casualty of this oil spill retiring his Aztec thinking he had a punctured tyre that was causing the unstable handling.

It was good to see John Hurney make his first appearance this year in a Durotec powered Formula Ford borrowed from the Fastlane stable.

At the conclusion of the racing FCR put on a barbeque that was well attended by their members, guests and friends.

Historic results for the meeting were;

1st           Marty Bullock                                    75 pts

2nd          Andrew Nielson                                58 pts

3rd           Leon Magistro                                   53 pts

Libre results for the meeting were;

1st           Simon Alderson                                75 pts

2nd          Ricky Virago                                        40 pts

3rd           John Hurney                                       36 pts

Handicap Results:

1st           Leon Magistro                                 23 pts

2nd          Andrew Nielson                               22 pts

3rd          Simon Alderson                               17 pts

2021 Formula Classic – Round 3

2021 Formula Classic – Round 3
Ernie Hastie Memorial, Collie – 15th/16th May

There’s New Kid on the block!

Bill Norman made a great debut run at his first event since moving to WA winning 3 out of the four Ernie Hastie Memorial races in his 1982 Ralt RT4.

Bill moved to WA earlier this year from Queensland to be with his family in WA and he towed the Ralt and his motorcycle engine powered hill climb with him when he drove across.

It’s great to see another competitive car and drive join the ranks of FCR.

Both Marty Bullock in his Chevron and Simon Alderson in his Van Diemen kept Bill honest at the front of the field, Marty beating Bill to race honour in the final race of the weekend.

John Rowe ran his recently acquired Valor FF1600 for the first at the event, John spending most of the weekend acclimatising himself with the car.

It is good report all the entrants ran reliably with only one DNS for Lance Carwardine in the Jane Brabham with a boil over on the dummy grid on the last race.

Historic results for the meeting were;

1st           Bill Norman                                        95 pts

2nd          Marty Bullock                                    85 pts

3rd           Allan Ould                                           69 pts

Libre results for the meeting were;

1st           Simon Alderson                                100 pts

2nd          Ricky Virago                                        80 pts

Handicap results:

1st           Lance Carwardine                              20 pts

2nd           Ricky Virago                                  18 pts

3rd           Bill Norman                                         17 pts

2021 Formula Classic Round 2

2021 Formula Classic – Round 2
Wanneroo Night Masters – 27th March

The second round of the 2021 Formula Classic season was held at Wanneroo Raceway. The grid consisted of 16 cars, with three Formula Ford cars joining the FCR field. FCR also had a guest entrant, James Hogan, from Northern Ireland, who is on vacation in Australia for several months. 

The qualifying session unfortunately saw Stuart Kostera in the Ralt RT4 drop out and not return to the track.

The competition at the front of the field was fierce with Marty Bullock and Simon Alderson going toe to toe. Simon taking out top honours in each round and Marty dropping away from the challenge with an overheating BDA engine in his Chevron.

Andrew Nielsen ran consistently in third place until the final race when Harvey Leys got ahead of him at the start in his Chevron sports car and never looked like losing that spot.

Ricky Virago’s beautifully prepared and presented Supervee Ralt finished 5th overall.

Lance Carwardine’s woes continued with the rebuilt Jane Brabham, having qualified and running well in the first race a mechanical gremlin forced the car to stop in the second race and not to return to the track.

Outright results for the meeting were;

1st           Simon Alderson                                 75 pts

2nd          Marty Bullock                                    60 pts

3rd           Andrew Nielsen                                 53 pts

Handicap Results:

1st           Harvey Leys                                 26 pts

2nd           Leon Majestro                                19 pts

3rd           James Hagan                                 16 pts

Pictured from left: Martin Bullock, Simon Alderson, and Andrew Nielsen

2021 Formula Classic Round 1

2021 Formula Classic – Round 1
Collie Ice Breaker– 13th March

The first round of the 2021 Formula Classic season kicked off at Collie with the traditional Ice Breaker meeting.

It was a full day’s programme with a qualifying session and three races.

Race one saw Marty Bullock and Simon Alderson take up their usual spot at the front of the field battling hard with each other for race honours, with Lance Carwardine in the recently rebuilt Jane Brabham and Ricky Virago doing battle for third position. Sadly for Lance his engine expired towards the end of the race with a blown head gasket and that put him out for the rest of the meeting.

Alllan Ould was next across the line followed by Glenn Swarbrick and John Rowe. John was running his newly acquired 1972 Valor Formula Ford for the first time and he was adjusting to his new steed.

Races 2 and 3 yielded the exact same result as Race 1, very consistent running by all competitors.

Outright results for the meeting were;

1st           Marty Bullock                                    75 pts

2nd          Simon Alderson                                60 pts

3rd           Ricky Virago                                        54 pts

Handicap Results:

1st          Simon Alderson                               23 pts

2nd          Ricky Virago                                 22 pts

3rd           Alan Ould                                       21 pts

2021 Formula Classic Calendar

The Formula Classic – calendar for 2021 is:
  • Round 1+ Regularity – Weekend Mar 13-14  MSW  Ice Breaker   Collie
  • Round 2 – Saturday Mar 27   WASCC Night Masters Meeting  Barbagallo
  • Round 3 + Regularity – Weekend May 15-163  MSW Ernie Hasstle  Collie
  • Regularity – Sunday Apr 4 VSCC Northam Flying 50 Regularity
  • Regularity – Sunday Jun 6  VSCC Albany Classic Regularity
  • Round 4 – Sunday Jun 13   WASCC June Race Meeting  Barbagallo
  • Round 5 – Sunday Aug 1   WASCC  August Race Meeting  Barbagallo
  • Round 6 + Regularity – Weekend Aug 21-22  MSW Race meeting   Collie
  • Round 7 + Regularity – Weekend Oct 2-3  VSCC Coalfields 500   Collie
  • Round 8 – Sunday Oct 17  WASCC T.R.Y. Race Meeting Barbagallo
  • Round 8 – Saturday Nov 13  WASCC Night Masters Barbagallo
  • Regularity – Sunday Dec 5  WASCC Vintage Stampede Regularity  Barbagallo
 

2020 Formula Classic Presentations

The end of season prize giving dinner was a huge success with nearly 40 members and their guests attending. The Melville Glades Golf Club gave us a great room for the function as well as preparing a beautiful meal for us too. On behalf of FCR I’m going to take this opportunity to give a big thank you to my wife, Anne, for organising the event at her golf club.

First place in the 2020 FCR Handicap Championship went to Glenn Swarbrick.
Glenn drove the WARM Macon FF1600 all season and accumulated 115 points.

Second place went to Craig Thompson driving his FF2000 Van Diemen with 93 championship points.

Simon Alderson finished third in the championship  

The Formula Classic ‘Spirit’ trophy was awarded to Allan Ould this year in recognition of all his work with Motorsport Australia in developing the Sporting Regulations for FCR.

see FCR-Newsletter-009

2020 Formula Classic Round 7

2020 Formula Classic – Round 7
WASCC Night Masters Meeting – 14th November

Unseasonal wet weather greeted the Formula Classic competitors for their final round of the 2020 championship. Sadly there was only a very small entry of 6 cars for the event and consequently the grid was amalgamated with the Formula 1000 cars.

The dry qualifying session saw Stuart Kostera take pole position in his Ralt RT4 from Harvey Leys’ Chevron and Craig Thompson claiming third quickest time in his Van Diemen.

The rain came on just in time for Race 1 and this saw Harvey Leys park up his Chevron as he has no wet weather tyres. Race 1 also claimed Stuart Kostera who pulled off after only 3 laps and he did not reappear for the remainder of the meeting. With the top two runners out and Craig Thompson struggling on old wet weather tyres Dave Turner in his Sports 2000 Tiga took the win, followed by Craig Thompson and Neil Woodward in the WARM owned Befa Ford taking third spot.

Race 2 saw the exact same finishing order.

Race 3 was looking like a repeat of races 1 and 2 however the race was marred by an incident between a Formula 1000 car and Craig Thompson resulting in his retirement from the race. Neil Woodward subsequently claimed second place and Glenn Swarbrick third spot.

Outright results for the weekend were;
1st David Turner           75 pts
2nd Neil Woodward         56 pts
3rd Glenn Swarbrick       52 pts

Handicap results for the weekend;
Equal 1st David Turner & Neil Woodward    26 pts
3rd Glenn Swarbrick                     20 pts

See you all next season!

Full handicap results can be found here

MA State Title, WASCC & MSW results here

2020 Formula Classic Round 6

2020 Formula Classis – Round 6
WASCC October Race Meeting – 1st November

A good grid of 14 cars was entered for round 6 of the 2020 Formula Classic season. Unfortunately the weather was wet, wet, wet and this didn’t change all day.
Stuart Kostera Jnr made a guest appearance driving Rob Jordan’s Ralt RT4, hopefully he’ll be a regular driver in the future with Formula Classic.

With the event declared a ‘wet’ meeting and treaded tyres only permitted on the track this precluded several competitors from venturing out of their garage, namely Marty Bullock, Allan Ould and Harvey Leys.

Qualifying took it’s tole on Dave Turner on lap one with a spin into the wall at the Esses. Dave was driving Rob Jordan’s Lola Sports 2000 rather than his usual Ralt RT4.

Race 1 saw Andrew Nielson, in his newly acquired Loynings powered Ralt RT4, take the win from Simon Alderson with Stuart Kostera running third.

Race 2 yielded the same result as Race 1 but in Race 3 Andrew Neilson unfortunately broke a drive shaft at the start of the event that side lined him from the race.
Ricky Virago in his beautifully prepared Ralt RT5 was rewarded for his consistency with an overall 3rd place for the meeting.

Outright results for the weekend were;
1st Simon Alderson      65 pts
2nd Stuart Kostera Jnr   56 pts
3rd Ricky Virago      52 pts

Handicap results for the weekend;
1st Ricky Virago     22 pts
2nd Neil Woodward   20 pts
3rd Robert Creasy   8 pts

The final round is at Barbagallo on Saturday 14th November.

Full handicap results can be found here

MA State Title, WASCC & MSW results here

2020 Formula Classic Round 5

2020 Formula Classis – Round 5
Coalfields 500 – 3rd / 4th 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;

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

Handicap results for the weekend;

1st           Glenn Swarbrick                                 22 pts
2nd          Leon Majestro                                     21 pts
3rd           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 31st October / 1st November weekend.

2020 Formula Classic Round 4

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:
1st           Simon Alderson               75 pts
2nd          Craig Thompson             60 pts

Handicap results for the weekend: UPDATED
1st           Glenn Swarbrick               23 pts
2nd         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

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;

1st           Marty Bullock               75 pts

2nd         David Turner           58 pts

3rd          Simon Alderson          56 pts

Handicap results for the weekend;

1st           Ricky Virago          20 pts

2nd          Shane Gifford            17 pts

3rd          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

2020 Formula Classic Round 2

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;

1st           Marty Bullock               140 pts

2nd         Simon Alderson           128 pts

3rd          Craig Thompson          109 pts

Handicap results for the weekend;

1st           Glenn Swarbrick          39 pts

2nd          Martin Bullock            38 pts

3rd          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 Classic Round 1

2020 Formula Classis – Round 1

WASCC Birthday Meeting – 29th  Feb/ 1st 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 51st 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 4th place runner as was Craig Thompson’s 5th place in his Van Diemen FF2000.

Outright results for the weekend were;

1st           David Turner                                      100 pts

2nd          Marty Bullock                                    78 pts

3rd           Simon Alderson                                74 pts

Podium

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;

1st           David Watkins                                   24 pts

2nd          Marty Bullock                                    23 pts

3rd           Paul Barron                                         18 pts

The next round is the Collie Icebreaker over the weekend of 14th / 15th 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