2025 Formula Classic – Round 1
Wanneroo Park – 22nd February
The first round of the 2025 Formula Classic championship took place at Wanneroo Park on 22nd February with 12 cars entered for the event. The weather was a balmy 25 deg. C but with a fresh breeze helping to keep everyone cool.
Qualifying saw Bill Norman (who’s 79th birthday was the day before) claiming pole position in his Ralt RT4 by a couple of 10th’s of a second from Marty Bullock in his Chevron B20, both cars qualifying in under 60 seconds. Lance Carwardine was third in the Jane Brabham BT23 followed by Ricky Virago in his immaculately presented Ralt RT5. James Hagan, a guest from Northern Ireland, in a borrowed Van Dieman Formula Ford was next up followed by Craig Thompson, Brian Searles, Dave Dearden, Glenn Swarbrick and Leon Magistro. It was good to see Leon out in his Reynard 84F Formula Ford, another immaculately presented car. Unfortunately neither Bruce Mitchell nor John Hurney made the qualifying session both having issues at the start of the day.
Race 1 saw Bill take the lead from Marty with Lance and the remainder of the field in pursuit. On the opening lap of the race Dave Dearden, uncharacteristically, spun his Vector at turn 7 and beaching the car on the infield. This brought out the safety car for a few laps whist Dave’s car was recovered. Dave confessed in the pits afterwards that his left foot had slipped off the clutch pedal whilst changing down at the bottom of the hill and momentarily got stuck under the brake pedal and
causing him to miss his braking point! No harm done fortunately. Marty drop out on lap five with fuel starvation issues handing over a comfortable lead to Bill that he held until the end. Craig, had an incident at turn 7 too whilst running a steady 6th place when part of his rear wing collapsed on the corner exit, Craig electing to head to the pits then rather than risk being black flagged.
Repairs to the collapsed rear wing of Craig’s Van Dieman.
Race 2 was a 15 minute + 1 lap event. Bill led the pack away but developed an engine problem during the race and subsequently slipped back to 6th place. Brian Searles dropped out on lap five following a missed gear that ‘buzzed’ the engine that sheared the flywheel bolts. In the meantime Ricky was getting quicker and quicker in his Ralt finishing in third spot behind James in the Van Dieman.
The collective Formula Classic ‘Brains Trust’ examining the over revved Tiga engine.
Race 3, Bill retired his Ralt after race 2 with a shredding cam belt issue. Lance lead the field away followed by James , Ricky and the rest of the pack. Ricky continued getting quicker and quicker again in race 3 and eventually hauled in and passed James to claim second place honours for the race. Meanwhile at the back of the pack Leon and Glenn were having a ding dong battle. Leon had a little more straight-line speed than Glenn but Glenn made up for this in the braking areas and corner speed. Coming over the hill on the last lap Leon was ahead and pulling away slightly but Glenn made up heaps of ground under brakes and did the world famous under over move to sneak through on the inside and managed to hold Leon off to the line, but only by inches. A fantastic end to the days racing.
Outright results for the meeting were;
1st Lance Carwardine 70 pts
2nd James Hagan 56 pts
3rd Ricky Virago 55 pts
The next round of the 2025 Formula Classic season is at Collie Motorplex on 23rd March 2025