Western Australia’s circuit racing season is heading towards the night finale in November and had two days of track action at Wanneroo Raceway on Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th October.
The first day saw the running of the 2nd Rob Janney Memorial Time Challenge event with cars running in the regularity class attempting to the repeat the same lap time earning penalty points for being over or under their nominated times. Jamie Scott ended up the winner of the trophy for the day with Stephen Ellis and Michael Costa filling the final trophy spots.
Spare a thought for Graeme Greaves who finished in 15th spot however, on one of the rounds he managed to only gain an impressive 124 penalty points.
The Holden HQ competitors were back after their season has been impacted by COVID and Weather factors Michael Howlett proved that the #1 on his car has been well earnt with a clean sweep of the three races. The race for 2nd was close with Ryan Davis and Michael Woodbridge separated by just 2 points.
It was a case of the “usuals” in the Formula Vee category with David Caisley, Jason Fowler and Rod Lisson in the podium steps for the 1600 class, while back in the 1200 class, Brett Scarey, Andrew Lockett and Callum Lamont repeated the same.
Newcomer Warren Pavey made his debut putting in an impressive 5th place in the 1600 class.
In what should have been the Nationals event for the WA Excel Cup championship, the local competitors still put on a show for the with racing that would be likened to competing in a points round rather than just going out there for the sake of getting some laps in. Ryan McNess made it a clean sweep of the round with Brandon Sharpe and Stephen McGregor making up the podium places.
Close racing became contact between Woodhead and Martins-Xavier in the first race and apart from some debris on the track and a missing indicator, both cars continued on for the rest of the race and day without involving any others in their melee.
Mike Gallagher in his Jaguar Mark 2 had a moment in the first race of the Historic Touring cars turning it around in Turn 1 but evasive driving from the field saw no-one collected in this.
Day 2 brought out the big bangers of circuit racing in the Sports Car and Sports Sedan category.
From former V8 Supercars to a shed built Skyline R32 stepping up into the category and even a Huracan Super Trofeo out on track, this category is building every race meet. The latest additions to the category are the TA2 / Trans AM cars. There are currently 5 in Western Australia and the number is expected to grow to 11 by the time the 2022 season starts.
In the Sports Sedan classes, Grant Hill and Ryan Humfrey led the charge both in Ford Falcons. One a former Ford Falcon BF Supercar, the other a Ford Falcon XE. Followed behind were the three Howe Chevrolet Camaros TA2 cars piloted by Brock Boley, Ron Moller and Brett Niall.
The Sports Car class saw Richard Bloomfield in a Porsche 997 GT3 R keep Arthur Abrahams in his Muracan Super Trofeo at bay to take out the round win.
For the second race meet in a row, the WA Saloon Cars were out on track for a “bonus round” and you’d think that it was a championship round with 20 cars on track and extremely close racing with bump drafting occurring throughout the field. An unfortunate turn of events saw Rob Marcon who had won the first two races of the day not put any points on the board in the last race which enabled Matt Martin to win the round. Mason Harvey took out second spot in the Pro series with Marcons two wins enabling him secure 3rd.
In the PRO-AM series Michael Koberstein made it a clean sweep of the round, Mark Jones came in second pipping Neil Streatfield by just one point. Former rally driver Shane Eather made his debut in the series but unfortunately suffered mechanical issues with his EA Falcon and retired after just one race.
The FSR championship had a bit of a turn with Arise Racing opting to field a full field of Radical SR3s instead of any F1000 cars leaving Stewart Burns the only F1000 competitor out there for the round enabling him to gain maximum points to start chasing down class leader Gianni Lutzi.
Adam Lisle made a clean sweep of the round while second place Aaron Love returned to the circuit before he heads off east for his Porsche commitments. Max McRae rounded out the top three.
Formula Ford weren’t going to let the other categories out shine them on this varying day of weather with some sprinkles of rain throughout the day but nothing that affected the track or tyre choices. Close racing between competitors led to some heart stopping moments as they went three wide through turns that are only safely meant for two cars and tit for tat results up and down the field.
Craig Jorgensen came out on top for the day with 1 win and 2 second places securing him best of day, while behind him the results were a complete mix bag where winning or even being second didn’t mean you’d get near the podium. Josh Matthews and Simon Ridgewell however were best of the rest.
The final category for the race weekend was the combined Formula Racing grid with Contemporary Free Formula and Historic Racing Cars bringing 12 cars to the grid. As usual the museum pieces were being driven as if there were thousands of spares available for them with some competitive racing between them. Simon Alderson, David Turner and Allan Jones were the top three finishers for the Contemporary Free Formula group and Andrew Nielson, Leone Magistro and Lance Carwadine with the top three for the Historic Racing Cars.
The WA Sporting Car Club and categories now look towards the November 13th race date which is a Night Masters round which will finalise the results for the year.
