2024 Formula Classic – Round 7
Wanneroo Park – 14th / 15th September
Round 7 of the Formula Classic championship took place at Wanneroo Park over the weekend of 14th / 15th September. The weekend event being part of the Western Nationals championship that saw large grids of Sedans, Historic Touring Cars and Formula Vees. The weather conditions over the weekend were perfect with a dry and sunny track.
It was great to see the return of a few drivers to the field, notably; Dan Gate, Marty Bullock, John Hurney and Jamie Kerkhoff for the weekend event.
Dan immediately stamped his name on qualifying taking pole position in his March 80A from Simon Alderson with Marty in third spot. Marty was racing for the first time his newly restored Ralt RT4, the car looked fantastic with its vivid yellow bodywork. Jamie Kerkhoff only managed a single lap in his Toyota Argo, a leaking oil union ending his qualifying run prematurely.
Race 1 saw Dan hold the lead from the start of the race with Simon hot on his heels followed by Marty and Bill Norman. It looked like this would be the finishing order but Marty rolled to halt on the last lap, out of fuel!
Race 2 saw Jamie return to the grid having fixed his leaking oil union. He made great progress through the pack to finish third just behind Dan and Simon. Further down the field Lance Carwardine and Brian Searles were having lonely individual runs in their respective Jane Brabham BT23 and Ralt RT1 with no other competitors near them to race with.
Having had a very early start on Saturday morning being the first group to qualify, it was nice to have a lazier start to the Sunday programme with race 3 commencing just before the lunch break. Jamie was running very well and looked as if he could challenge the front runners but a major engine failure on the second lap took him out of the race and ended his weekend. The race was yellowed flagged on lap 3 after John Hurney went off into the sand trap at turn 1. The race continued under safety car conditions until the last lap whilst the recover crew cleared John’s Spectrum from the sand trap.
The final race of the weekend saw Dan dominate again from the front with Simon keeping him honest and Marty running in third spot.
Throughout the weekend Glenn Swarbrick, Dave Dearden and Bruce Mitchell had been have their own battle in their Macon, Vector and Reynard Formula Fords. Bruce sadly struggling in all his runs with a variety of car maladies.
Outright results for the meeting were;
1st Dan Gate 100 pts
2nd Simon Alderson 80 pts
3rd Bill Norman 68 pts
1st Simon Alderson 33 pts
2nd Daniel Gate 30 pts
3rd Lance Carwardine 25 pts