On Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 September the 2024 LGC Equipment Hire Nationals was run at CARCO Raceway as Round 5 of the WA Sporting Car Club Championship Season.
Featuring the Rightway Industrial Saloon Car Nationals and Formula Vee WA LiTech Systems National Challenge, the feature events were joined by 31 Historic Touring Cars including visitors from the east and Nicholas Swift from the UK, plus Free Formula, Formula Ford, FSR, Improved Production, Production Cars, Street Cars, Excel Cup, Sports Cars, Sports Sedans and WA Muscle Cars.
Beautiful spring weather greeted the 200 plus competitors over the weekend leaving the weather less of a factor than at the previous round.
FREE FORMULA
Free Formula, the historic open wheel category, opened proceedings for the weekend with 10 of the museum pieces taking to the CARCO Raceway circuit. Daniel Gate would set the tone for the weekend in his March 80A setting the fastest time during qualifying, followed by Simon Alderson and Martin Bullock.
Gate and Alderson would have it their own way for the entire weekend finishing 1st and 2nd respectively. Third place would be shared during the day between William Norman in Race 1, Jamie Kerkhoff in Race 2, Martin Bullock in Race 3 and Race 4.
Podium results for the round were Gate, Alderson and Norman.
EXCEL CUP
Fresh off the enduro race just over a month prior, the Excel Cup fielded 21 entries for the September round. Carlos Ambrosio made quick work of qualifying heading out for just 4 laps to set the top of the table time of 1:12.5042 with Salvatore Russo and Brett Sheriff behind him.
Race 1 would see Carlos Ambrosio storm away from the field finishing 3 seconds ahead of his nearest competitor Brett Sherriff. Despite being out of the car regularly for some time, penguin afficionado Andy Malkin managed to bring his car home just 0.28 seconds behind Sheriff.
Unfortunately for Malkin in Race 2 after being involved in an on track impromptu ballet dance and getting spun he’d end up a DNF for that race. Ambrosio and Sheriff again topped the table in a closer race between the two separated by just under 0.3 seconds with Jack Caiulo taking out 3rd 5 seconds down the track.
Race 3 would see a similar result in the top three of Ambrosio, Sherriff and Caiulo, however Andy Malkin made a comeback after starting 12th on the grid to finish a respectable 6th.
Podium results for the round were Ambrosio, Sheriff and Caiulo
HISTORIC TOURING CARS
34 registered, 31 turned up with 8 eastern states visitors and the UK entry of Nicholas Swift.
As soon as the green flag waved on it looked like it was going to be all Clinton Rayner for the weekend after he set a blistering 1:03.2777 in his Chevrolet Camaro with his nearest rival Peter Pisconeri over 3.5 seconds behind followed closely by John Bondi.
A mid race safety car period would bunch the field back up after Rayner took off into the distance from his rivals. However as the last lap board came out, Rayner decided to take advantage of the great weather and head to the beach a little early, albeit in Turn 7 leading to a DNF and localised yellows for the finish of the race which was taken out by Greg Barr 3 seconds ahead of John Bondi and Graeme Woolhouse behind in 3rd.
Race 2 would see Rayner start from the back of the field and put in a massive drive to finish first after just 5 laps. Greg Barr would finish in 2nd and UK visitor Nicholas Swift would be next in 3rd in his Morris Cooper S which had been shipped to Perth from Queensland for him to race in.
Race 3 and Rayner would continue his dominance of the overall Historic Touring Car Results with Pisconeri and Barr behind. In the Morris Cooper S field of 10, Cono Onofaro would be the best of the bunch with Jason Armstrong from South Australia and Dan Forster coming in behind. Nicholas Swift had an unfortunate DNF in the race.
Race 4, do we even need to say it? Rayner’s Reign continued! Peter Pisconeri would finish 2nd on track however a 15 second penalty relegated him down to 17th showing just how close the racing was in this category all weekend. Woolhouse was promoted to 2nd and Barr to 3rd with Queenslander David Streat finishing 4th.
Swift was the best of the Morris Cooper S’ holding off strong drives from South Australians Jason Armstrong and Justin Elvin while also dicing with the goliath entry of Don Behets’ Ford Galaxie.
The final race of the weekend and Rayner appeared to lift the pedal a little with his final results being 2.8 seconds ahead of Woolhouse and Pisconeri a further second behind.
Lap 5 and 6 was where all the action was with 3 cars ending up off track with technical issues and needing a safety car period to move them to safer locations. Mike Gallaher, Paul Van Den Rydt and Nicholas Swift would all end up DNFs within the lap of each other and, what may have been out of sympathy for his fellow Jaguar Mark 2 competitor, Laurie Lapsley soon joined the DNF list on Lap 8.
STREET CAR, IPC and 3E PRODUCTION
A combined grid of 21 Street Cars, Improved Production and Production Cars battled it out over three races for not only individual category wins but bragging rights of being best of the best.
Across the day there were battles up and down the field with both category battles and overall battles being fought hard for.
Street Car qualifying had Jarrad Carey top of the charts with Benjamin Peachey 1.6 seconds behind and Peter Callo just 0.5 seconds behind Peachey.
Race 1 results – Benjamin Peachey, Garry Utterson, Jarrad Carey
Race 2 results – Benjamin Peachey, Jarrad Carey, Peter Callo
Race 3 results – Jarrad Carey, Peter Callo, Martin Willard
IPC Qualifying was topped by Matt Cherry with Grant Gellan 1.8 seconds behind and Barry Baltinas 1.3 seconds further down the track.
Race 1 results – Matt Cherry, Grant Gellan, Steven Turpin
Race 2 results – Matt Cherry, Grant Gellan, Steven Turpin
Race 3 results – Grant Gellan, Steven Turpin, Garry Edwards
3E Production cars entries were lead by Damien Croxon, Suzanne Palermo and Kyle McPherson.
Race 1 results – Suzanne Palermo, Damien Croxon, Kyle McPherson
Race 2 results – Damien Croxon, Suzanne Palermo, Laurie Whittome
Race 3 results – Damien Croxon, Laurie Whittome, Kyle McPherson
FORMULA FORD
Formula Ford’s 12 car field opened up day 2 of the Nationals with Josh Matthews taking out pole position followed by Todd Vince 0.064 seconds behind and Tomas Chapman filling in the third spot just 0.1 seconds further behind.
Race 1 would see Marc Redman take control of the race from the 4th lap onwards after climbing up from 5th on the grid. A back and forth squabble between Tomas Chapman and Brock Brewer would assist Redman with the win as their squabble meant they fell nearly a second behind the winner at the race line. Further back in the field racing for 4th, the close racing between Joshua Matthews, Todd Vince and Xavier Henderson would come to an end through lap 6 on the final lap of the race when Vince would end up facing the wrong way and had to wait for the slower traffic to pass before rejoining in 8th.
Race 2 would be a four way dance for the top step with Brewer, Redman, Chapman and Matthews all keeping it tight as Brewer led them for the first 6 laps. Redman would eventually take over the lead of the race for a couple of laps before contact between Brewer and Redman in Turn 1 would see Redman slip back down the field.
Eventually Chapman would get past Brewer for the race win with Mathews in 3rd and Redman coming home in 7th.
Race 3 was an all Chapman affair leading the race at every crossing of the line. Brewer and Matthews, would continue their battle for second place behind while Redman made the charge from 7th eventually finishing 2nd after a last lap effort saw him move from 4th.
FSR
Bryce Moore, Chris Reindler and Cooper Cutts would be the names most mentioned by the commentating team over the three races on Sunday with Bryce Moore taking a clean sweep of the and finally breaking the deadlock in the Motorsport Australia FSR championship with Brandon Duncombe who’s consistent 4th places saw him drop down behind Moore in the championship.
Race 1 would see Cutts drop from 2nd on the grid to 4th in the opening corner before eventually climbing back up to finish third with this exchange being the only overtaking action on track albeit late in the race.
Race 2 saw the same top three however three laps in and Michael Tomic ended up losing control of his car after taking a wide line into the corner, collecting the outside curb and unsettling the car. The result of which was contact with the 22 car of Ryan Fisher who would pick up damage and retire the car.
Race 3 again would see the top three result of Moore, Reindler and Cutts. As the final lap board was shown, a turn 7 incident between Fisher, Luke Iustini and Tomic would see the latter two end with a DNF and Fisher finishing a lap down on the rest of the field.
SPORTS CARS, SPORTS SEDANS AND WA MUSCLE CARS
A smattering of Sports Cars, Sports Sedans and WA Muscle Cars featured on the Sunday race day with the track conditions looking right for some fast racing.
Race 1 and Ryan Humfrey wouldn’t have it all his own way in Sports Sedans with Grant Hill managing to keep Humfrey within his line of sight for the majority of the race finishing 0.9 seconds behind. In Sports Cars a 10th lap spin from Chris McKenzie would bring out the safety car for a couple of laps as his car was stuck in the most unfortunate positions in Turn 6. He eventually got the car out himself and would retire straight after. On the restart Campbell Nunn spun in Turn 6 and managed to avoid colliding with the rest of the field. Nunn would retire as the last lap was being displayed.
In WA Muscle Cars, Chase Hoy would put in a dominate performance over Ron Moller by not only finishing 2 seconds ahead but setting and resetting the lap record for the WA Muscle Car category to eventually finish with a lap time of 57.881.
Race 2 saw a depleted field with four of the five Sports Cars not taking to the start leaving Ryan Humfrey out front and a retirement from Grant Hill after spinning through Turn 1. Hoy finished second on track and the first of the Trans Ams while Epple was the only Sports Car on track and finished third.
SALOON CAR NATIONALS
A total of 38 Saloon Cars took to the grid featuring two classes of cars. The heat races over Saturday and Sunday mornings would set the final grid for the Nationals race on Sunday afternoon.
In the Pro class, Mason Harvey would establish dominance, along with a gaggle of Ford Falcon AU’s in the opening heat of the Saloon Car Nationals finishing 2.6 seconds clear of second place Rob Marcon and 3.5 seconds ahead of Jackson Callo.
The Pro Am class would see Michael Koberstein finish in the top 10 overall, and ahead of his brother Adam Koberstein by 0.9 seconds with Craig James 3 seconds further back.
The second heat for Pro class saw Mason Harvey at the front again in a close battle with Chris Kneafsey for the duration of the race. Scott Dornan was third breaking up the dominance of the Ford Falcon AU’s in his Holden Commodore VY.
The Kobersteins were again at the top of not only the Pro Am class but featured in 10th and 11th for Michael and Adam respectively with their nearest class competitor Craig James (NT) over 10 seconds behind them.
A 2nd lap incident would see the departure of Warren Ellis’ left rear wheel from the car leading to a four lap safety car period. Ellis would end up retiring from the race. Before the Safety Car boards were shown, Jackson Callo and Rob Marcon would make contact through the esses leading both drivers to drop down the order however still managing to finish the race.
Due to the length of the safety car period, the race would finish behind the Safety Car.
Sunday mornings’ 3rd Heat for the Saloon Car Nationals was again a Harvey / Kneafsey affair at the front with Callo and Marcon climbing back up the order to finish 3rd and 5th respectively. The Koberstein’s again dominated the Pro Am class with Travis Sharpe coming home for third with 4 seconds behind the Kobersteins with close racing all up and down the track in both classes and between classes.
The final event of the day on Sunday was the main race for the Saloon Car nationals. Harvey saved the best for last finishing just under 10 seconds ahead of Chris Kneafsey in 2nd while Brock Ralph would finish 3rd after penalties were handed out post race. As they finished at the line it was Scott Dornan (SA) in third, Jackson Callo in fourth and Brock Ralph in fifth, however after Dornan’s 30 second penalty, Callo would be promoted to third and Ralph to fourth, soon after Callo would receive a 15 second penalty dropping him to fourth and promoting Ralph to third.
The Pro-Ams would see a Koberstein 1 / 2 again with Michael taking out a clean sweep and Adam behind in second. Third would go to Travis Sharpe.
FORMULA VEE NATIONALS
Saturday would see joint running of the two classes of Formula Vee, the 1600 and 1200 classes.
In the 1600 less than 1 second covered the top 8 with Michael Kinsella (NSW) edging out Daniel Reynolds (ACT) for pole position. Simon Pace (NSW) was third with the first of the West Australian’s Rod Lisson finishing in 6th position.
Stephen Butcher (NSW) was the first of the 1200s with David Campbell and Andrew Lockett finishing behind him 0.3 and 0.8 seconds respectively.
The first race was again a joint affair with the 1600s having to navigate lapped traffic towards the final stages of the race adding to the spectacle of the event however all involved kept it clean during the race.
Daniel Reynolds would take the lead from Michael Kinsella in a close race that was only won by a margin of 0.16 seconds with Darren Williams (NSW) third. This time it was David Caisley who would be the first of the West Australians home for the 1600 class.
In the 1200 class, David Campbell from Western Australia would finish over 2.5 seconds ahead of Stephen Butcher (NSW) with Jonathan Scarey also from WA rounding out the top three 4.7 seconds behind Butcher.
Sunday’s first Formula Vee race was a stand alone race for the 1200s which is how both classes would compete on Sunday, ensuring that lapped traffic and different speed cars would be less of a factor in the final results.
Butcher would take the win ahead of Jonathan Scarey and Myles Lockett after Campbell dropped from second to fourth on the final lap.
Formula Vee 1600s first race of the day would be cut short after a lap 5 incident involving Rod Lisson, Ryan Stott and a third car which sent Stott’s Jacer 9919W into a barrel roll. Luckily for all involved able to walk away with some minor bumps.
The race was declared with Daniel Reynolds (ACT) getting the win, Michael Kinsella (NSW) in second and Aaron Pace in third.
The final race for Formula Vee 1200 saw a very dominate performance by Stephen Butcher (NSW) to finish 4.6 seconds clear of the field on the official timing sheets. Behind him Callum Lamont would finish 2nd on track but a disqualification saw his result removed and Myles Lockett promoted to second with Jonathan Scarey in third. The battle for 3rd on track which later became second was separated by only 0.3 seconds in a display of close racing by all.
Another battle pack was for fifth place which would see Bruce Welsh, who after 30 years is officially hanging up the race boots, finish ahead of Matthew Bialek (SA) and April Welsh with just 0.4 seconds covering them and a back and forth battle throughout the race.
After the shortend race earlier in the day, it all came down to this race with an exciting back and forth battle between Daniel Reynolds (ACT) and Michael Kinsella (NSW) going on for the entire race with Reynolds edging out Kinsella in the closing moments of the race for the win by just 0.0110 seconds.
Aaron Pace (NSW) would finish in 3rd just ahead of Simon Pace (NSW). Again battles further back in the field were highlights with fifth place separated by just 0.4 seconds between Darren Williams (NSW), Dylan Thomas (NSW) and David Caisley (WA).
THE FINALE
The final race meet for 2024 is on October 19 and 20 at CARCO Raceway and features Excel Cup, Formula Vee, FSR, Free Formula, Historic Touring Cars, HQ Holden, Formula Ford, Production Cars, Improved Production Cars, Street Cars, Saloon Cars, Sports Cars, Sports Sedans and Time Challenge.
To watch the action from these events, be sure to keep an eye out on https://www.youtube.com/@wasportingcarclub for the round recap videos and visit https://wascc.com.au
