Sandown Park for the traditional November meeting was supported by 6 of our cars
To run with J,K,LB and Invited Categories. It was extremely un fortunate the weekend clashed with Eastern Creek as splitting the numbers for our class is not helpful.
Conor Ryan, Chris Jackson, Ross and Dean McLaughlan, Phillip Gardner and Don Greiveson were all in good racing trim to take on the challenge. Grant Kelly parked the Vee and was offered the drive of dad Geoff’s Sports 2000 Tiga and was enjoying all that Horsepower. Geoff wasn’t so keen on the fact Grant drove the car using the Brakes like a Formula 1 car and wore the Brake Pads out in no time at all, and it uses more fuel.
Much cheaper to run a Vee, and just as much fun, with the suggestion to all, take note!!
The weather was quite hot for Melbourne so no trouble warming up tyres or cars.
Qualifying gave us up to 9 laps and Conor Ryan set the pace for the Vees qualifying a very respectable 10th out of a field of 27 cars. All the rest of us followed split by the cars in other classes and only Dean Mclaughan having any issues. Don 13th was in the next group of times,
under instructions from his pit crew to try and avoid crashing into another RED car.
After the Drivers Briefing pep talk about driving standards wisely figured $500 bucks might be better in his pocket. Phillip Gardner 15th, Chris Jackson 16th and Ross Mclaughlan 18th were in the mix not far behind and far from disgraced in this company.
Race 1 saw Conor in a ding dong battle with former Formula Vee veteran Ian Edgar in the MG TC special, and another TC special just in front. 11th outright for Conor with Don having been challenged the whole race by another “Red” special finishing 13th and the other 4 Vees line astern 19th to22nd in a great race together having been held up by the others.
Race 2 saw a traffic jam from turn 1 to turn 4 on the first lap with the bravest of the brave to find a way through the pack. This race turned out to be a 3 way battle with Conor and Don challenging the superior straight line performance of the Ian Edgar MG Special.
Well we certainly sharpened Ian up for his return to Vee racing next year in Noel Bulls Elfin.
With the end result Ian in the MG 10th, Conor 11th and Don 12th covered by .35 of a second at the line and Chris Jackson sandwiched between an MG and a Nota for 17th with Dean Ross and Phillip line astern behind the Nota in a really tight group. Chris being split by the 1st lap traffic jam robbed him of a Vees slip stream up the back straight, so frustrating!
Race 3 resulted in another titanic battle with Conor eventually getting a break after a wheel to wheel battle with another “RED “sporty to finish a terrific 8th slipping away due to a massive blow up near the end by another class car and leaving oil and yellow flags to be negotiated by all behind, Ian in the MG 9th was leading Don 10th by a slim slipstream when this occurred and thus let Conor slip away. Not far adrift Chris and Dean were travelling well 12th and 13th with Ross split up to be 16th. Unfortunately Phil Gardner had a Gearshift failure and that stuffed his race.
In all a great weekend of racing with former Vee drives Peter George, Frank Bathgate and Reg Gardner in attendance. Reg surprised us with the news that he still has a bottle of Formula Vee Port from 1980 in his collection. Not sure that it was that good Reg!
Another great weekend of “Historic Motor Sport” at Sandown.