2023 Formula Classic – Round 2
Icebreaker, Collie Motorplex 25th / 26th March
The second round of the 2023 Formula Classic season was a very interesting event. Formula Classic was the first qualifying session on the Saturday morning. After only a handful of laps the red flag came out and we were told the timing system wasn’t working correctly. (Bob Creasy being provisionally on pole position with a 14 second lap!!) After a while the qualifying session restarted only to find out later the timing system was still not working. After about a 3 hour delay the timing system was sorted and a reduced race programme commenced for the afternoon session.
There was a good size field of 14 cars running including three guest Formula Ford entrants. Dan Gate and Arthur Abrahams were the pace setters in the first race in their Ralt RT4’s with Jamie Kerkhoff and Lance Carwardine chasing them.
Race 2 saw Arthur spin off into the gravel ending his weekend with engine damage.
Sunday morning came with a revised race schedule. Dan retired his Ralt before the start of Sunday’s first event with engine trouble. Two of the guest Formula Ford drivers had retired too, flying back to Melbourne for school on Monday morning! Jamie Kerkhoff retired his Toyota TRD as well with a frayed water pump belt.
To add to Collie’s woes for the weekend their PA system packed up on Sunday leaving the officials to run around getting race groups organised for their next event.
With the Formula Classic numbers depleted Lance and last remaining guest Formula Ford driver were battling it out for the day’s honours. Lance maintaining the upper hand until the final lap of the last event when his fuel pump packed up, handing the race and weekend win to Andrew Van Leeuwen.
Craig Thomson and Ricky Virago were having a great battle for third place honours in their Ford Pinto powered cars, Craig in a FF2000 Van Diemen and Ricky in a Lola S2000.
Outright results for the meeting were;
1st Andrew Van Leeuwen (guest) 93 pts
2nd Lance Carwardine 84 pts
3rd Craig Thompson 82 pts
Handicap results for this round;
1st Ricky Virago 42 pts
2nd Glenn Swarbrick 34 pts
3rd Craig Thompson 28 pts
The next round is at Wanneroo Park on Saturday 15th April.