Fourteen very enthusiastic Historic Formula Vee competitors made their way to the 2024 Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motorsport held from March 8-10. Some very keen competitors trekked from as far north as Sydney and some crossed Bass Strait from Tasmania to compete and practice over the weekend.
Wednesday 7th March was the designated practice day which enabled three sessions for our historic Vees, although the practice sessions were amongst very mixed fields because of the high volume of entries across the eleven categories racing on the weekend. All of the drivers agreed that it was great to get back on track after what felt like an eternity since the last race meeting in Sydney in November 2023.
Qualifying kicked off on Friday morning in our mixed class J, K & L and Formula Vee event on track. Inevitably the performance differences of the mixed classes soon showed, often with the Vee drivers seeking the same piece of track at the same time as other classes. With some good sense prevailing, some decided to try and make it through the congestion at the start of the session while others waited for some space.
The key point with driving a Formula Vee is track strategy and getting a slipstream tow is critical to achieving optimal lap times. If the challenge of getting that tow around the Phillip Island circuit is successful it can make all the difference.
Some of the regular front runners had some teething issues while others set some personal best times. As usual there were some close results that set up an exciting first race.
Dean Briggs in his Spectre set the quickest Vee qualifying time with a 2:04.3 and was on pole by 1.6 seconds to Chris Jackson (Avanti) and Luc Botton (Standfast) followed by Glynn Briggs (Spectre).
Race One on Friday afternoon started with a forty second time delay to J,K & L, causing some anxiety to the Vee field waiting on the grid. The race was close and exciting, with Dean leading Luc and Chris over the line with only 0.3 of a second separating the three cars. The times generally looked fast and a few personal best times were set, no doubt helped by the the new track surface.
The unusually warm Phillip Island weather was starting to heat up and on Saturday it was also very windy and some would say getting hot. Of course our race suits, helmets and other protective clothing added to challenge the drivers all managed to soldier on.
Unfortunately, the second race saw two Vees not finish, which sadly seemed to plague a few competitors throughout the weekend. Grant Kelly (Stag) had a blinding start and great tow through the first three corners and was dicing for first at the apex of Turn 4 on the first lap after starting from the rear of the grid. Grant’s run unfortunately came to an abrupt end with a mechanical issue at the same corner stopping his race. The front pack of Luc, Dean, Glynn and Chris saw some very close moments, squeezing and bumping wheels across the start finish line as things got a bit too close. Luc took the win from Dean and Chris in another very close finish with the cars separated by less than one second.
There was a lot of memorable action further back in the pack with Ross McLaughlan (Malmark Elfin) getting the better of the group and breaking away with William Sala in another Malmark. Leaving the chasing five cars to battle it out, Michael Olsen (Elfin NG) led the group across the line, with Chris Curran (Rennmax Mk2), Brendan Sala (Malmark Elfin), Ed Gavin (Rennmax Mk2) and Jonny Scott (Elfin NG) all very close behind in a great battle pack.
The new stubby holders proved to be a hit at the merchandise stand under the HFVAA marquee, with Matthew Briggs representing the HFVAA at the merchandise area all weekend.
The third race on Saturday afternoon was a tale of two battle packs and the attrition of five competing Vees. The mid pack battle between positions five to eight was between William, Brendan, Jonny and Ross, resulting in another very close finish and great racing. Jonny taking fifth, William in sixth, Ross in seventh and Brendan in eighth. The battle for the podium was almost a carbon copy of the previous race due to Chris Neil’s engine requesting an upgrade mid race putting him out of contention for this race and the remainder of the weekend. The podium was again Luc, Dean and Chris with Glynn coming a lonely fourth trailing by about six seconds.
On Sunday morning, the hot northerly wind and sun was again out for the last day and last two races of the weekend. Sunday was also a a great day for checking out other races and the hundreds of display cars and race cars at the event. The third Vee race was at 9:55am, while the fourth and final Vee race was the last event of the meeting after 4:30pm.
The top three places were again Luc, Chris and Dean, with Chris finally getting ahead of Dean for second place. Dean McLaughlan finally cured the issue in his car and jumped out of his podium winning Datsun 1600 to join the Vee race, finishing in a very respectable fifth place, just beating Ross to the line after starting from the rear of the grid.
Brendan, William and Jonny had another close race-long battle changing positions every lap. Glynn finished fourth again with brother Dean suggested tongue-in-cheek that Glynn will need to change his race number from 3 to 4 after this weekend. Chris Curran’s personal best times in the earlier part of his weekend were a promising sign, but while his times slowed a little on the day, Chris finished and completed a great weekend.
The fourth and final race of the weekend finally arrived, after a nervous wait, nearing the track closing time and after Formula Ford. The field managed to get four of the planned seven laps completed. Grant Kelly managed to fix the Stag and was battling with Chris and Dean all race long with an eye on a podium finish. After a slip streaming run to the flag, Dean took the last win of the weekend narrowly over Chris and Grant. Glynn was fourth again and not far behind was the battle pack of Brendan, Ross, Jonny and William who had another race long battle with Brendan holding on for a fifth place.
The weekend came to a very warm close resulting in competitors and helpers packing cars onto trailers and our gear away in very warm and windy conditions. Thankfully all the cars completed the weekend incident free in what was a very enjoyable event and race weekend.
As usual all the competitors, families and friends owe the army of volunteers (the VHRR event organisers, flag marshals, fire marshals, medics and other staff) a huge thank you. Without these generous people we wouldn’t have the opportunity to race at such amazing places and events.
Historic Formula Vees will race all around the country coming up soon. Come and say hi to us at one of our next events and have look at these very popular racing cars.
Autumn Historic at Morgan Park in Queensland on April 27 - 28.
Historic Winton in Victoria on 25 - 26 May.
Regards
HFVAA