Shannon’s Summer Race Meeting – 24th October 2015
Bright blue skies and great weather for racing. Michael Henderson’s race dominating run and reliability came to an end when old tyres couldn’t keep out Andrew Gouldie in Andrew Gifford’s March 722, which is now running particularly well after a few teething issues, in race 1. A mishap in race 2 saw Michael retire for the day. This lead to a very close finish in the the WASCC championship with Lance Carwardine nipping at Michael’s heals.
Results Round 7
SETS Spring Race Meeting – 23rd August 2015
A great day with some fast times for most of the cars. Simon Barrett’s Ralt unfortunately had issues in race 1 leaving Michael to run the day out front by himself, second place all day was contested between Lance Carwardine and Glenn Caple. Sadly, at the end of this meeting, Henry Oosterbaan hung up his helmet (as far as racing goes) for a while so we won’t hear the six cylinder Holden motor outside of regularities. Allan Ould has sorted out the Aztec with it’s fastest time since it’s return to the racing scene at 67.9667. It was disappointing to see John Rowe excluded from the event due to the 130% rule, hopefully we can sort this out so we get to see more of his beautiful Cooper on the track.
Results Round 5
Autumn Classic – 11th April 2015
Our first event at Barbagallo for 2015. Autumn Classic try winter – Rain Rain Rain and then it got WET!
Good to see Murray Charnley back in action in the Lotus 23 and Glenn Swarbrick achieving 3rd outright, showing narrow tyres are a great advantage in the wet.
Results Round 2
Collie Icebreaker – 21st/22nd February 2015
Our first event for the year was held at the Collie circuit with eight Formula Classic cars and then grid numbers being made up with Formula Fords (thank you).
A great day for Michael Henderson who continuously broke the lap record with each race, setting a new best time for the track of 45.9222 seconds. And congratulations to Mike Connell for taking out the regularity event.
Results Round 1
Congratulations to the 2014 winners of the Formula Classic Handicap Championship. It looks like the three of them took out all of the competitions, rightly so as Brian and Lance were the only drivers to competed in every round and Michael was in all but one and that was due to a mechanical breakdown. A big thank you to Dick Ward for presenting the group with a fantastic perpetual trophy which will have Brian’s name engraved upon it as the first winner.
2014 Formula Classic Handicap Championship
Shannon’s WA All Historic – 25th-26th October 2014
Well what a fantastic event. A big thank you to everyone for making a huge effort to get 45 entries in (enough for three fields of cars), including all of our international and eastern states visitors who left with very fond memories of this event, the competitors in it and the WA hospitality provided.
The weekend saw some drivers and cars not seen on the track for quite a while plus a new addition, Andrew Nielson and his West, joined us for the first time. The racing in all three groups was very good with clusters of cars competing against each other throughout the fields, none more so than the lead group of four cars in the Formula Junior class, with a second covering them in all the races keeping the crowd and commentators very excited – and I am sure the drivers involved were as well. There was considerable activity in the infield garages with many a mechanic piecing back together cars that thought five races was a few too many. An unfortunate oil slick after Andrew Bryson’s new motor said “Enough” led to a massive off in the group1 race and also led to off’s in the group 2 race. The weather was very kind to us putting off any rain until after racing was finished for the day but by the end of it all I didn’t see any unhappy people, smiles were everywhere, so well done all on supporting a great event.
A special thanks to Martin Bullock (Densford Civil) for digging deep and financially supporting the event and associated activities, also to Neil McCrudden and the WARM museum for not only accommodating some of our visitors but providing cars to anyone who needed one – there were 9 WARM cars running and 1 spare. A thank you to Brian & Anne Searle for also accommodating some visitors and putting on a function for them, to ICL (transport, containers, storage) for sponsoring and arranging the movement of the container for our New Zealand competitors and finally to the WASCC and staff behind the scenes who helped co-ordinate and put on this meeting.
Results Round 7
Spices Cup – 21st September 2014
Once again very low entry numbers for what was a very wet meeting, thanks to those who took the effort to enter. Lance Barrett proved to be a sly old fox positioning his much slower car well up in the points in each race earning him 3rd spot outright (and on handicap) for the day.
Results Round 6
2014 VSCC Coalfields 500 – 13th-14th September 2014
Although entries were down the VSCC agreed to let our class run at the event which was thoroughly enjoyed by those who entered.
Results Round 5
Spring Race Meeting – 10th August 2014
13 Cars for race one with Michael Henderson in the Ralt getting a different view of the grid, by starting from the rear following starter motor issues in qualifying. Michael’s ails didn’t end there, however, as after making his way to the lead loose wiring caused him to DNF on the first lap resulting in a safety car for a couple of laps. The door was now open to the others to grab outright points and Shane Gifford took the win with a very respectable 58.85 second lap from Leon Magistro and Lance Carwardine 3rd. Martin Bullock finished 2nd on the track but suffered a 60 sec penalty after creeping forward at the start.
Race two saw Michael winning from the rear of the grid from a quick Shane Gifford and Martin Bullock, also starting from the rear. Leon Magistro’s drive shaft failed on his Ralt on lap 6 taking him out of the days competition.
With Martin Bullock pulling out with oil pressure issues and Leon’s driveshaft failure only 11 starters where left for race three. David Watkins had clutch failure during the race causing him to retire after some dices with Neil McCrudden in the earlier events. The safety car interrupted the event again closing the field up, this lead to some close racing mid-field between Brian Seales, Harvey Leys, Glen Swarbrick and Colin McKee. Michael Henderson finished out front from Shane Gifford and Lance Carwardine.
The two safety cars during the day played into the hands of the slower cars for handicap points with both Bruce Edgar in his Elfin Formula Junior, Glen Swarbrick in the WARM Macon and Jim Ridgewell in the Van Diemen picking up valuable points in the series. Lance Carwardine however did enough to extend his lead at the head of the championship.
It was good to have Andrew Gifford able to attend the meeting, even if only as an observer, hopefully looking forward to getting back in the seat to better his brother’s time soon. Thanks to Michael for enabling the inaugural Formula Classic Creche after his corporate box was filled will children from within the group.
Results Round 4
