The 24th and 25th of June were busy ones at Wakefield Park, with an excellent turnout of Lotuses making their way to Wakefield Park for a motorsport double header. Part two of the weekend’s motorsport saw us return to Wakefield Park for Round 4 of the 2016 CSCA series.
Enjoy this report by Mike Basquil and scroll on for photos thanks to Mark & Annette Alexander, and Paul Cooper.
Thanks to Mike Basquil
June is the month in which winter officially starts and the faithful head south to Goulburn for the winter round of CSCA hosted by the Austin Healey Club. Many members made the extra effort to attend the Simply Sports Cars Lotus Only Day on the Friday as well.
Winter events always have the added bonus possibility of cold, wet or foggy conditions, or a combination of all three usually on the same day. Personally I was hoping for cold, as wet or foggy can stop us from play – cold just means you just have to take extra care early and wear a jacket and beanie.
The LOTD day was well supported with a full field and of course they had a combination of the weather conditions to keep everybody entertained. Goulburn has had over six inches of rainfall in June so the infield and run off areas were bogs to say the least – it’s not often that a farm tractor is needed for vehicle recovery, but Wakefield Park’s has been pressed in service recently.
It is pleasing to see so many new faces at the LOTD days and I hope that they will discover the fun to be had in CSCA events in the future.
I’ve volunteered to be Event Secretary for Healey for the past couple of years, and the entrant numbers this weekend were very strong. We ended up with 105 entries including 19 CLA representatives in a field of 101 runners. Conditions were cold as expected but dry.
A HUGE ‘Thank you!’ to all those that gave a hand on Friday afternoon in scrutineering. We managed to process half the field enabling us to start competition on time – the first cars were timed at 9:04am.
Those that attended the LOTD on Friday spread the word about the infield being wet and displayed muddy cars as proof that the black stuff was the place to be – a couple of rivers flowing across the main straight strengthened this news. I’m pleased to report that the day ran smoothly with only a couple minor hold ups with competitors getting 5 runs. Our goal was 6 but we decided that the last round of the day, in probably the best of the conditions, would be given an extra 2 minutes so that those who stayed until close of play would get the maximum track time available without the “but he got another run more than me”.
RESULTS:
Len Goodwin continues to demoralize the early marque classes, again winning Class C2 by a mere 4 seconds and 20th outright despite having a sore shoulder that made gear changing difficult.
Class D2 is becoming a real battle ground with the young guns coming to get the establishment. Andrew Lydon in his Elise pushed Rex Hodder’s Exige into second place by two tenths. A breath away was James Kinghorn in his Elise 3rd in class with Phil Easterbrook 4th over Richard Wodhams a tenth back in his Elise; with Dennis Brady home 6th proving that this class is one to keep an eye on 4 seconds separated 1st to 6th.
Class D4 saw Mark Alexander a class winner again and fastest Marque car on the day in his Exige S. Mark’s day was not without issue, however, having to be towed in at one point before the cause of his electrical problems were identified. Steven Alcorn was 3rd his times improving with each outing netting another personal best.
Class D5 has Martin Duursma in the V6 Exige a class winner with Leigh Fuller in his new Exige V6 a tenth back to come home 2nd in class.
Class R1 saw the battle of the Clubbies with Peter Klumper the class winner and Ross Klumper 2nd both sharing the most campaigned PRB in CSCA history.
Class R3 saw John Taylor as our only representative in the Peugeot 205 placing 9th.
In the Non Marque Classes Keith Edwards campaigned the Audi RS3 to a class win in Class 2BM – Keith just got quicker all day posting a 1:10.82 sec. lap and 22nd outright. I’m reliably informed that Keith continues to use ‘D’ for drive and lets the computers sort things out.
Class 3BM John Bott in the Skyline was the class winner with Team Deller campaigning the Commodore for a 6th to Peter and 7th to John.
To keep us all interested and supply our need for track time the Sprite Event round 5 of our Series is all prepared and entries are coming in thick and fast via the CAMS Motor Event Entry site. I will be missing from the next event due to a long anticipated holiday so I hope “someone” will fill my shoes in looking after the small details. My apologies for not informing everybody about entries opening sooner notification fell into the black whole that is sometimes called the interweb the remaining dates for CSCA Events are:
17th July SCCA at SMP Amaroo
13th August MOCA at SMP Gardener
17th & 18th September CSCA Driver Training Day and TSOA at Marulan Driver Training Centre.
I would like to make a note to all runners about tow hooks. We haven’t in the past been overtly strict about their presence but it is becoming an issue in the quick retrieval of cars that venture off circuit.
This simple piece of equipment is mandated in the Supplementary Regulations and the Standard Requirements for Vehicles, and is the quickest way of removing your car from a unsafe situation.
At present a lot of Entrants are disregarding this regulation, while not CLA members it would be good if you could encourage all competitors that may have inadequate or missing Tow Hooks to update ASAP, before as organisers of Event we have to enforce the letter of the Law
The longer it takes to recover a vehicle the less track time you get!
See you at the track,
Mike Basquil
Photos thanks to Mark & Annette Alexander, and Paul Cooper.
Thanks to Mark & Annette Alexander
Thanks to Paul Cooper
