Image thanks to Gino Valdes
Catch up on all the action at the first motorsport round of the year – CSCA Round 1 at Wakefield Park – thanks to this report by Mike Basquil.
By Mike Basquil
My apologies for no article last month. I’ve had an ongoing relationship with Rhinovirus and viral phenomena necessitating yet another hospital stay, and, having time before our event in March, I figured getting healthy was more important.
I did note that the South and West Australian branches are becoming the more prominent contributors to the magazine, so we need folks to step up to give the magazine a bit more life as well as what the regulars contribute.
As noted earlier my, focus this year to date was our event – the first CSCA round of the year. I have set a ‘fun’ standard and was keen to uphold that. As usual the regulars all chipped in; Anne as steward Brett and Belinda with timing, Ian Jensen and his wife Liz in Scrutineering ably assisted by Team Pate, Brian Sutton and anybody else that was standing around without a job.
This year we didn’t have a full field but covered costs and with 89 runners on the day I could almost guarantee 5 or possibly 6 runs for those that wanted it. As usual I prepared a roster of all CLA entrants to assist with the running of the day (despite me sending out last year’s roster initially – I mucked up and got ribbed mercilessly) so everybody did their bit to make it fun and share the load.
All was in place – I struggled with fitness towards the end of the day but everything just worked, the weather was as near to perfect as could be expected for Goulburn, and we eventually ran out of runners at about 3:15pm. Even Rex Hodder turned down another run so I was well pleased, along with all the competitors I spoke to or received emails and texts from, meaning CLA did good!
Read on for a full report from the day, and when you’re done click here for some photos of the action.
Class Results
We open our account in this year’s point score with Jen Hogan in the Batmobile Lotus 7, a much loved car. While Jen came second in Class A2, she was the fastest lady on the day.
Len Goodwin continues his blitz in the 26R replica in Class C2. The battle in this class was between the MGBs and the TR7s, but that was for 2nd place thanks to Len’s times.
Class D2 was the battleground of the naturally aspirated Elises and Exiges. It’s a battleground on which no prisoners are taken! Rex Hodder came out on top this round, with Leigh Mellor a close second. A puncture led to Leigh having to swap to his son’s car for a couple of runs late in the day.
Ashton Roskill was gifted third on his birthday, with Phil Easterbrook fourth. We welcomed Mark Beckett in his Elise111R to CSCA with a 5th in class and Ric Vincent for MG Newcastle was sixth in his Elise 11R. Dennis Brady was 7th, carrying the number 77 – I reckon Dennis is in for some good luck the way he lined up the 7’s in the Class results.
Thomas Husey in his Elise S slipped into Class D3 in the 1600cc Supercharged model and gave the Triumphs and Jaguars a bit of hurry up, claiming second in class for his efforts.
Class D4 had Mark Alexander a class winner again and fastest Marque car in his Exige S. Second was Peter Taylor in his Elise S (we had two Peter Taylors entered both form CLA an Event Secretary’s challenge). Third went to Steve Alcorn in his Elise S and we welcomed Emiliano Valdes to our madness in his Exige with 4th in class.
Steve Madden from Canberra finally bit the bullet and joined our ranks in his Exige, despite giving the noise meter a work-over. Liam Sheppard was gifted the keys to Craig’s Cup 240 for his first run in CSCA, improving his lap times by 17 seconds over the course of the Event.
Class D5 had Martin Duursma the class winner in his V6 Exige with Leigh Fuller in his Exige V6 second and looking to give Martin a very hard time in a battle to watch for the rest of the season. Class R1 saw Dave Mackie in his HPE Exige top the class and kept very honest by Syd Reinhardt in his Elise HPE. Peter Klumper in the Birkin placed third with David Hogan in the Elise HPE fourth.
David shared the car with his Mum Roslyn, from my memory this is the first mother and son Team in CSCA. Roslyn acquitted herself admirably and, judging by the size of her smile, was having a ball placing 9th in class. Ross Klumper and Brian Sutton were our other representatives in this class both in Clubmans. Ross took fifth in the Birkin and Brian in the Caterham set sixth (Brian has purchased another toy so keep an eye out for its first appearance).
Class R2 saw Graham Burton as the only runner in the Hawke Formula Ford. In the Non-Marque classes Keith Edwards in the Audi RS3 took first in Class 2BM with Rex Mellor in the BMW third.
Class 3AM saw father and son John and Peter Taylor in the Peugeot 205 battle it out on the time sheets all day. John eventually claimed the class win pushing Peter into second.
Class 3BM finished with Peter Deller in the Commodore second, with co-pilot John pushed into sixth place. These guys are the entertainers in the group, always on the edge and often sideways marked by huge smiles. Overheating curtailed the number of laps the car did on the day.
Greg Baker in the Pulsar GTi returned to the track class to place 10th, while Mark Prew and Garrath Johnstone shared a Porsche 924 complete with a Holden V6 power plant as our final runners in class. This car could be the sleeper in this field with development ongoing.
Looking through the results I was pleased with the number of laps most runners got on the day as quite a few reached over 40 laps timed. All of this was enabled by the low number of on track failures and no oil spills.
Round 2 will be complete by the time you receive the magazine so I will report on that next issue. With a field of 104 runners it should be another fun time and we are going to hold the 2016 CSCA presentation at the close of play.
The remaining 2017 season the dates are as follows:
- Round 3 – JDCA 13th May SMP North
- Round 4 – AHOC 1st July Wakefield Park
- Round 5 – MOCA 12th August SMP Brabham
- Round 6 – SCCA 24th September SMP South
- Round 7 – TSOA 15th October Wakefield Park
CSCA delegates are considering introducing targeted scrutineering as is run in the NSW State Championship and we all attended a presentation on the subject. Targeted scrutineering saves a huge amount of time pre-event and allows the scrutineering process for log-booked cars to spread over the day’s competition.
All that is needed is the will to make it happen and ‘someone’ to administer it (easier said than done!)
Speaking on Motor sport administration, I’ve decided not to re-stand for the job of Competition Secretary at the next General Meeting in September. This is a hobby I’ve enjoyed immensely over the past 17 years (time passes quickly while you are having fun), but the time has come to pass the baton on so that I’m available to mentor the process to make it seamless for our new Competition Secretary.
I have achieved all that I originally set out to. Supersprinting now has become the value for money option to racing. It has become evident to me over the past years that if you do a job well you just get left to it – In the past 17 years I only had one genuine offer of assistance, and since CLA represents over 30% of the CSCA participation it shows we like to play but disappear in the majority when the work needs to be done – so to continue to make it happen will depend on the next generation of administrators.
See you at the track!
Mike Basquil