25 vees were entered for the meeting, maybe our biggest field ever. Many were there for Friday practice to sort out rusty driving skills and make sure cars still worked after the recent covid induced lack of use. Matt Pearce found his car didn’t work and swapped a gearbox after the first session and was back out for the final session in the afternoon. Damien Spinks had a loose fan resulting in the pully throwing itself away and a frantic scramble to find a replacement. Saturday morning qualifying saw the front trio of David Cutts, Tony Paynter and Matt Pearce setting best times. The rest of the field were very close promising some close racing.
Your reporter failed to allow a margin of error for traffic at turn 4 and went on a long distance gardening expedition and had a very lonely drive thereafter, the resulting lap time was way off the pace. Ashley Cuttell was running on 3 cylinders and Gary Meyers ran a big end so had no choice but to go home early.
Race 1
Race 1 saw a win for Tony followed by Matt 0.04 seconds behind and then David. Natsoft shows the next 7 cars finishing within 2 seconds with the rest occupied with their own dices a little way behind. I failed to finish after being forced to take to the dirt to avoid a collision and filling the car with gravel which then jammed the throttle open. The over-rev resulted in all the tappet adjusters coming loose. (No, I can’t explain it) Don Collyer was also a DNF.
Race 2
Race 2 on Saturday afternoon saw Tony again win followed this time by David 0.02 seconds behind. Behind them the field broke up into a series of dices as everyone found someone to play with. Except me, the car went on to 3 cylinders and mindful of the previous problem I went to the pits to discover a plug lead fell off! (now cable tied). Pete Iredale and Peter Mohacsi were also DNF’s, cause unknown.
Race 3
Race 3 was held Sunday mid-morning, again the win went to Tony however the race was a non-event as we drove around behind the safety car after the first 2 laps. Chris Reeks dropped a wheel into the dirt at turn 1 and spun back across the track to lightly contact the wall. No damage to Chris but car repairs are needed. And I finished without drama this time! Steve Batty failed to finish with a cooked engine ending his weekend.
Race 4
David and Matt pushed Tony back to third in race 4, the three of them covered by less than 0.3 of a second. Once again everyone found someone to play with 2 or 3 car battles right through the field.
Natsoft can provide more info for those interested. Click here
So a great meeting! The weather was perfect, sunny, very light wind and not too hot. The commentators nominated the vees as the most entertaining of the weekend despite some serious competition from the Fords. I might have been better watching! It was fantastic to have such a large field. Nearly all were from NSW with the Molle brothers making the trip from Qld. Our SA regular Don had conflicting calls on his time and the Mexicans were similarly handicapped.
Next Meeting
The next NSW meeting is at SMSP in February on the north circuit. The north circuit is not a good vee track as it cuts out turns 4 to 8 which are the more interesting parts of the original track. Nevertheless, hope to see everyone in February.
Cutch