2020 Formula Classis – Round 5 Coalfields 500 – 3rd / 4th October
The Collie track welcomed Formula Classic to the Coalfields 500 event for Round 5 of our championship. The weather stayed dry for the majority of the weekend albeit there was a bitter wind blowing most of the time.
A good entry of 12 cars turned up on the grid for practice, 10 regular Formula Classic entrants and two guest Formula Ford drivers from the Fastlane stables.
The qualifying pace was set by Marty Bullock in his Chevron and Simon Alderson in his Van Diemen with Craig Thompson, Ricky Virago, Jamie Kerkhoff and the two guest Formula Fords all snapping at their heels.
John Rowe made his first appearance of the year with his beautiful Lotus 18 Formula Junior. The car sounding very sweet but unfortunately a gearbox issue put him out after the first race.
Ricky Virago’s Collie misfortunes continued, having practiced and qualified well an electrical gremlin shut his engine down on the first lap of the first race and the problem could not be fixed track.
Marty Bullock won all three events but was given a 5 second time penalty in Race one for movement on the start grid that handed the win to Simon Alderson. Craig Thompson finishing third overall for the weekend, struggling with a clutch issue in the last run,
2020 Formula Classic – Round 4 Torque Trophy & Kostera Cup Meeting – 16th August
Well a worse day you could not imagine for Round 4 of the 2020 Formula Classic Championship. The weather was wet, windy and cold. At the previous round there were 17 entrants in Formula Classic, this signalled a strong return to racing following the temporary suspension of racing due to the Covid virus. Round 4 unfortunately didn’t deliver a big field of cars with only 7 cars entered.
Sadly these 7 entrants were quickly reduced to only four with both Marty Bullock and Harvey Leys electing not to venture out due to their lack of wet weather tyres.
Glenn Swarbrick was also excluded from racing as his qualifying time was outside the 130% rule. This seemed to be a particularly harsh punishment as the Formula Classic group had been amalgamated with the F1000 group and the qualifying time was based upon their fastest time.
Race 1 saw Simon Barrett drop out after only a handful of laps with a major engine issue.
Simon Alderson won all three races, with Craig Thompson and Bob Creasy trading the minor places.
Outright results for the weekend were: 1st Simon Alderson 75 pts 2nd Craig Thompson 60 pts
Handicap results for the weekend: UPDATED 1st Glenn Swarbrick 23 pts 2nd Simon Alderson & Bob Creasy 22 pts
Note: half points only have been awarded for the handicap championship due to the very low level of entries for this round. Note: These handicap results have been updated to full points after consideration and Glenn Swarbrick has been calculated into the result set.
The next round is at Collie over the 3rd – 4th October weekend.
2020 Formula Classic – Round 3 WASCC Tander Cup Race Meeting – 11th July
Note: original rounds 3,4 & 5 cancelled due to COVID
After an extended delay in 2020 season due to the Covid 19 virus Formula Classic returned to racing at the Tander Cup meeting.
A good field of cars were entered for the event, 17 but only 16 took to the track on Saturday morning for qualifying as Lance Carwardine had a major engine failure in his OMS in Friday’s practice session.
Qualifying was very close with less than 1.5 seconds separating the top four cars. Simon Alderson taking pole position with a 59.2 second lap, followed by Marty Bullock in his Chevron, Shane Gifford in his March and Dave Turner (Ralt RT4). Qualifying however also took it’s tole on a few other cars, Brian Searles Ralt RT1 had an engine failure, Harvey Leys Chevron had an excursion into the sand trap and severely damaged the front bodywork and Rob Jordan’s Lola dropped out too with problems.
Race 1 saw Marty get ahead of Simon and lead until the chequered flag, although Simon was glued to his gearbox throughout the event. Dave Turner finish 3rd ahead of Craig Thompson in his Van Diemen FF2000 . After a poor qualifying time, Jamie Kerkhoff got his TRD Toyota going well and recording a 60.7 second lap until rear suspension failure forced his retirement from the race and the rest of the meeting.
Races 2 and 3 saw Marty reinforce is position at the front of the field with Dave Turner running second, Simon Alderson third and Shane Gifford forth.
It was great to see Joe Ricciardo join the event driving his beautifully presented Brabham BT6 Formula Junior.
Outright results for the weekend were;
1st Marty Bullock 75 pts
2nd David Turner 58 pts
3rd Simon Alderson 56 pts
Handicap results for the weekend;
1st Ricky Virago 20 pts
2nd Shane Gifford 17 pts
3rd Neil Woodward 15 pts
The next round is at Barbagallo on Sunday 16th August. Let’s see if we can put out a large group of cars to support this event and the WASCC club.
2020 Formula Classic – Round 2 Collie Icebreaker Meeting – 14th / 15th March
For the second round of the 2020 Formula Classic season the cars headed south to the Collie circuit for their Icebreaker meeting.
A small number of cars were entered, only 9, and that number diminished with Bob Creasy withdrawing his Ralt RT4 late in the day and Lance Carwardine’s OMS only lasting a few laps in Fridays practice session before detonating its engine. The good news was that despite a grim weather forecast for the weekend clear dry weather was enjoyed throughout the event.
There was an interesting battle at the front of the field all weekend with Marty Bullock and Simon Alderson battling it out for top honours. In just about every race it was the first car into the first corner that picked up the win.
Craig Thompson ran consistently all weekend in third spot until the last race when he picked up a second place finish after Simon Alderson ran out of brakes.
Outright results for the weekend were;
1st Marty Bullock 140 pts
2nd Simon Alderson 128 pts
3rd Craig Thompson 109 pts
Handicap results for the weekend;
1st Glenn Swarbrick 39 pts
2nd Martin Bullock 38 pts
3rd Craig Thompson 34 pts
The next round is the Night Master event at Barbagallo on Saturday 28th March. Let’s see if we can put out a large group of cars to support this event and the WASCC club.
The first round of the 2020 Formula Classic season kicked off with a 16-car entry list. It was encouraging to see a few new cars on the grid along with the usual mainstay of the group and few contemporary Formula Fords joining us as there was no class for them at this meeting.
Sadly, we lost Lance Carwardine’s OMS SF/2A on the first lap of the first race with suspension failure. There were also one or two other cars that missed out on a couple of the races due to minor technical issues.
With the absence of last season’s dominant Ralt RT4 driven by Michael Henderson, the 51st Birthday Meeting’s four race Formula Classic programme took on a different complexion with David Turner, Marty Bullock and Simon Alderson all fighting closely for the top honours.
Harvey Leys, in his beautifully prepared Chevron sports car, was a consistent 4th place runner as was Craig Thompson’s 5th place in his Van Diemen FF2000.
Outright results for the weekend were;
1st David Turner 100 pts
2nd Marty Bullock 78 pts
3rd Simon Alderson 74 pts
During the off-season Kevin Taylor undertook a further revision of the handicapping system to allow the results to be processed quickly on the day, below are the handicap results for this round;
1st David Watkins 24 pts
2nd Marty Bullock 23 pts
3rd Paul Barron 18 pts
The next round is the Collie Icebreaker over the weekend of 14th / 15th March. Let’s see if we can put out a large group of cars to support this event and the Collie club.
Formula Classic Racing Inc. has recently been created to provide a formal body to enhance and promote historic open wheel racing and sports car participation in motor sport events and to represent Formula Classic with the controlling body Motorsport Australia (CAMS) and with event promoters WASCC, MSW, VSCC and other interstate and international bodies.
The end of season dinner and prize giving was held on Wednesday 4th December at the Mount Henry Tavern in Como. There was an exceptionally good turn out of 39 guests at the function, the largest group seen for many years.
Congratulations to the 2019 Formula Classic Handicap Championship podium finishers.
2019 Formula Classic Handicap Champion – Simon Alderson – Van Diemen RF 88
2nd place – Craig Thompson – Van Dieman RF 82 3rd place – Murray Charnley – Lotus 23B
“Spirit of Formula Classic” winner was deservedly – Murray Charnley
This year’s trophies were made and donated by Jamie Kerkhoff and Brian Searles.
Full results for 2019 season can be found here and the FCR Newsletter here
Barbagallo Rob Janney Tribute Meeting – 26th / 27th October
The final round of the 2019 Formula classic season was held at Barbagallo, the meeting being dedicated to Rob Janney a life member of the WASCC and substantial contributor to the Wanneroo race circuit and West Australian motorsport. The weekend meeting put a bit of pressure on some of the regular Formula Classic entrants following so closely the previous round at Collie with a few of the usual runners unable to prepare / repair their cars in time. That said, 13 cars entered the event and it was good to see a few new cars and drivers in the field.
Russell Sewell, the WASCC President, brought out his big Lola T800 Indy car for the second time this year, Jamie Kirkhoff made his season debut in his Formula Toyota TRD, Bob Creasy ran his newly acquired Ralt RT4 and there were a couple of historic Van Diemen Formula Fords with John Hurney and Ray Stubber and Leone Magistro in his beautifully presented 84 Reynard.
Five races over the course of the weekend took its toll on a few of the entrants with some DNS or DNF’s.
The outright positions for the race weekend were;
1st Michael Henderson
2nd Simon Alderson
3rd David Turner
Handicap results for the event were;
1st David Turner
2nd Russell Sewell
3rd Craig Thompson
With this being the last round for the 2019 season there is a rest period over the summer before the 2020 season kicks off around late February.
The end of season awards night will be held towards the end of this year. An invitation to the event will be sent to all members once the venue and date has been arranged.
VSCCWA Collie Coalfields 500 – 19th / 20th October
After a long break of over two months since the last event round 8 of the 2019 Formula classic season was held at Collie. It was great to see a much larger field of entries at the Collie circuit, than normal, and to see some ‘old’ faces making their first appearance for the year as well as a new face too. The weather was kind for the weekend being warm and bright with a light breeze.
John Rowe was one of the ‘old’ faces making his first appearance this year running his Lotus 18 Formula junior, Dick Ward also made his first appearance at collie in his rotary powered Fiat. Brian Searles brought out his Ralt RT1 for the event having spent most of the year rebuilding the car but unfortunately it was quickly put back on the trailer after qualifying following a clutch failure.
A first time entrant in Formula Classic was Paul Barron in his bright green 2001 Van Diemen Formula Ford. Paul ran consistently in all 4 races with a best lap time of 1 minute 24 seconds.
Michael Henderson and Simon Alderson continued to set the pace for the class with Craig Thompson and Harvey Leys trading outright third place honours.
With Hendo being disqualified in race 3 for a red flag incident the outright positions for the race weekend were;
1st Simon Alderson
2nd Michael Henderson
3rd Craig Thompson
Handicap results for the event were;
1st John Rowe
2nd Glenn Swarbrick
3rd Simon Alderson
The next round is only a few days away and is the season finale at Barbagallo, another two day meeting over the weekend of 26th / 27th October. Let’s see if we can make a strong showing for the final Formula Classic event of 2019.
Despite the beautiful winter day only a very small field of cars were entered for the August meeting, 10 in total. The WASCC deemed it appropriate to dock 2 laps from each of the races as ‘punishment’ to the class for providing such a small field of cars. Eight, 6 and 6 being the laps allocated to Formula Classics three events. (I shall comment further on the WASCC decision below)
With the recent introduction of unleaded race fuels only it was interesting to note several competitors struggled with starting problems this cold morning, coincidence or just the cold morning air? Hendo missing the qualifying session completely due to a non-starting car. Normal service was resumed quickly however for Michael, despite a rear of the field start in race one. Craig Thompson too started the race day poorly with a spark plug lead coming off in both qualifying and race one, thankfully this was successfully rectified by one of his support team before race two.
Harvey Leys pulled the pin on the event after the first race in protest over the shortened event durations. An honourable thing to do but maybe not the best strategy for the group as it left even fewer cars in the field.
It was a case of the usual suspects for the outright positions for the race day, the result being exactly the same as the July meeting;
1st Michael Henderson
2nd Simon Alderson
3rd Dave Turner
Handicap results for the event were;
1st Murray Charnley
2nd David Turner
3rd Craig Thompson
The next round is a little way off at Collie on the weekend of 19th / 20th October but closely followed by the final round for the 2019 season at Barbagallo the immediate following weekend of 26th / 27th October. Not great planning, some may say, having a two month break and then two weekend meetings back to back, but it is what it is.
The 2019 season, to date (7 rounds), has not been well supported with an average field of only 11 cars per event. It would be great to see a strong Formula Classic finale to the season at the remaining two rounds. Come on Chaps, let’s put a few more cars on the grid.
Commentary
I think the ruling by WASCC to ‘punish’ Formula Classic for providing a small field by reducing the number of racing laps is unfair and wrong. Unfair, as our entry fee is the same as other class entry fees yet we get less laps and wrong, because the people that are being punished are the one that actually entered the event and yet get penalised for something outside their control.
That said, I do understand that only so many racing laps can be run in a day and that the WASCC want to get and provide ‘best bang for your buck’ and that 15 to 20 cars on the track at one time is better than only 8 or 10.
From my perspective the solution is simple, Formula Classic needs to put more cars on the grid at every race meeting. Not only will this ensure we avoid the unpleasantness of having racing laps taken away from us but ultimately it will give us a ‘loader voice’ with WASCC to get better track terms and conditions for Formula Classic.
Over the past five seasons over 50 different cars and drivers have run in Formula Classic events at the Barbagallo and Collie circuits, with most of these cars and drivers still in the State. Surely we can put on a better show than we have for the earlier part of this season and demonstrate to the WASCC and the viewing public that Formula Classic is a great class and one that’s here to stay.
Well it was a very different day weatherwise from the last meeting, blue skies and sunshine all day, magnificent, no wet weather tyres required for this meeting!
This was the first Formula Classic round to be held under the new CAMS fuel regulation that requires all vehicles to run on unleaded fuel. The WASCC was unable to offer any unleaded race fuel at the time of the meeting so entrants we left to make their own arrangements. Unfortunately Harvey Leys was not able to source any suitable fuel for his Chevron in time and withdrew his entry.
A small field of cars 12 cars were entered for the June meeting, it was good to see Rob Jordan and Dave Turner returning to the ranks with their Tiga Sports 2000 and Ralt RT4 respectively. Dave putting on a great showing with a consistent third place in each race.
In the dry conditions and with his engine recently set up on the dyno Michael Henderson returned to his number one spot with a magnificent 55 second lap in qualifying and maintained this dominance throughout all three races. Interesting the finishing order for the top six drivers was identical for all three events and with only a couple of minor changes in the lower finishing order too.
As with the June meeting the percentage finishing stats were high will all cars, bar one, completing all three races.
The prize giving debacle for Formula Classic’s last meeting was resolved and the points tally correctly allocated for this meeting.
The second round of the 2019 Formula Classic season was dominated by the Formula Ford 2000 cars taking out the top three spots in the Collie Icebreaker event. However, it wasn’t all their own way to start with Michael Henderson dominating the first two races on Saturday in his Ralt RT4 until a gearbox failure on Sunday took him out of the running.
Twelve cars entered the event but sadly only 9 cars took the start after early failures in qualifying for Marty Bullock’s Chevron, Ricky Virago’s Ralt and Lance Carwardine’s OMS.
It was good to see the return of the Dave Watkins to the Formula Classic ranks reunited with his beautifully presented Royale RP31M and Colin McKee in his Reynard FF2000. Both drivers and cars performed well finishing 4th and 3rd respectively in the outright weekend results.
The first round of the 2019 Formula Classic season kicked off in glorious fashion at the WASCC Golden Jubileeevent with 17 entries. As usual, the field include a wide range of car ranging from early 60’s through to the early 90’s.
It was good to see two new cars joining the class for the first time, notably Andrew Nielsen’s Argo-Toms TRD and Lance Carwardine’s OMS SF/2A. Sadly the OMS didn’t make it beyond qualifying due to an engine oil problem. Similarly the Argo had problems and was retired after race 1.
It was also great to see the return of the WASCC president Russell Sewell to the Formula Classic ranks after a sabbatical for a few years with his monstrous Lola T800 Indy car. The rumbling of the V8 motor sounded fantastic as it went along the start / finish straight.
Maintaining his 2018 season form, Michael Henderson continued his domination in the opening round of the 2019 season winning all four races; however Simon Alderson and Marty Bullock were snapping at his heels all the while and kept him honest.
Harvey Leys was sporting a new vivid green colour scheme on his Tiga SC84, he ran well on day one but unfortunately did not run on the Sunday.
Outright results for the weekend were;
1st Michael Henderson 100 pts
2nd Simon Alderson 78 pts
3rd Ricky virago 68 pts
During the off season Kevin Taylor revised the handicapping system to allow the results to be processed on the day, below are the handicap results for this round;
1st Murray Charnley
2nd Craig Thompson
3rd Allan Ould
The next round is the Collie Icebreaker over the weekend of 30th / 31st March. Let’s see if we can put out a large group of cars to support this event and the Collie club.
Congratulations to the 2018 Formula Classic Handicap Championship podium finishers.
2018 Formula Classic Handicap Champion – Allan Ould – 2 years running!
2nd place – Glenn Swarbrick
3rd place – Craig Thompson
“Spirit of Formula Classic” winner was deservedly – Craig Thompson
Full results for 2018 can be found here.
