Was a lovely Sunday, and thankfully not April Fools day (being the 2nd). A good field of 32 turned up for the 4 laps per run Sprint, where just your single fastest lap counts.
The track was a little loose early, and a couple of rut/berms through the sweeper, and the right off the back straight made it interesting because there was no way to avoid them and be fast. As the day wore on, and the water truck got into action, the track got faster. There were two retirements during the second run as the Vivlios's in the dual entered WRX succumbed to water leak (from memory) that was in a difficult place to fix at the track. Of the remaining 30 drivers, 28 put their best time during the last run.
A, B, D and E clases all had 6 or so entries and the competition was pretty good. The closest class was D, where Tim Crase in the Mazda 3 MPS was quickest at the 1/2 way mark by a second or so, from Ian Maguire in the good looking (and declared Best Presented car) red Commodore, with Lloyd Robertson only 1/10 of the pace and Robert Maclaurin a further 1/2 sec back. Greg Woodbridge was another second back and Beau Watson (doubling on flags with Nathan Suchting) was doing alright as well, apart from a spin that knocked a tyre off a rear wheel but was repaired. So after 5 runs Tim and Robert had shared the fastest times, but at the end Robert had to settle for 4th by 0.07 secs (48.34), with Ian Maguire's 48.27, 0.02 off the lead in third, Tim Crase's 48.26, 0.01 off the lead in 2nd and Lloyd Robertson putting down a 48.25 to win, in what is the closest top 4 (0.07 secs) I can remember in 20 or so years.
In the Juniors it was siblings Alex and Sam Niven with James Bonnici. The Nivens had a scare as the Lancer let an awful lot of smoke out after run 2 or 3, but after a bit of work in the pits and (strangely) topping the oil up the Lancer was full noise for the day. Strange really, often when the smoke gets out things stop. Alex taking the win from Sam and James, but all three improved every run, and set their best times on the last run. Great job and always fun to watch.
C Class was pretty much as expected with some very differnt cars. Robert Clark taking the win in the lovely MK1 Escort Twin Cam 2.3, Bruce Dan 2nd in the BMW and Graeme Haynes 3rd in the mighty Beetle (old school one).
Holly Kilbride, in the Ladies Class, was driving the GB Galant that Jeff and Ethan normally use, as they were in a Toyota Levin in A Class. Patricia McLead was driving the Swift and Nancy Stricklen in a Protion Jumbuck (not a vehicle one sees every day). All three ladies improved throught the day with Holly taking the win from Patricia and Nancy. All three took about 5 secs of their best lap from run 1 to run 6.
Speaking of the Levin, they were up against another father and son pairing of Paul and Leyton Bond in the GA16 powered Pulsar that has seen many laps at the track. Alos in A was Nathan Suchting in his Lanos and Russell Sticklen in the Jumbuck. Early on and the Bonds had a slight margib over the Kilbrides, but run 4 saw Jeff put a few tenths on Paul, and for the KLevin it just kept getting faster. End of the day and it was Jeff by 0.19 over Ethan, with Paul 3rd, Leyton 4th and then nathan and Russell. Notable was Russell Stricklen dropping from aRun 1 1:01 to a Run 6 53.5. Great job.
The 1600-200cc B Class was atight affair, where at the half way mark Allen Coles (Peugot) had 2/10ths on Ric Ganderton (Excel) with Barry Clark (BMW) 1/2 sec back. Stuart McLEad (Lancer) and John Coles (Peugot) were separated by 0.2 and just off the podium. Stauart edged out John, then Ric was pushed back to 3rd by a great l;ast run from Barry Clark (47.60), but a very consistenm last run from John Coles, with 3 laps in the 47 sec bracket, saw him take the win by 0.08 with a 47.52 last lap. He neede it because his second and third laps were just off Barry's time.
And so to the outright contenders in the 4WD E Class. Three EVOs versus three WRX's. Unfortunately the WRX challenge lost 2 runners early (Christos and Jimmy Vivlios), so David Micjan was the sole challenger to normal front runners Tracy Bavinton, Ant Bonnici (both in the EVO VIII) and Troy Moffitt in the EVO 6. After the first 3 runs Troy had 8/10ths on Ant, with David 1/10th up on Tracy for the last trophy. As the track got quicker Troy had nearly a second after run 5, so to the last run and Ant did a great consistent 4 laps with 45.25, 45.33 and 45.35, but Troy banged out a 45.03, 45.28 and 45.88 to take the win with the 45.03 v 45.25. Tracy was the 2nd last car to run, and needed a good lap to edge David out. They both did their best time on their very last laps, with Tracy's 46.50 edging David's 46.75 for 3rd. The Vivlios's both got a run in so were scored in 5th and 6th.
As always thanks to everyone who prepped and ran the event. Special thanks to Beau and Nathan for sharing Flag Point 2, and also to Rad Guerin who is nearly always there to help at Point 1. Kevin Parkes deserves a special mention as he fixed the alternator on the water truck in the morning after bringing Lloyds car out (has been doing some work on it also).