Results for Graceville August meeting

[wixwacing]

Another good crowd arrived at Graceville for the August race meeting and there were a good selection of classes for them to get their teeth in to. Julian and Mark had the track working by the time I got there and with a couple of early birds on the track spent a degree of time getting models ready for the contests ahead . First class up was Indy cars and with the seventy metre four lane track warming up nicely the first heat was called to the grid.





A look that says it all! He’s either miles in front……or Ken is marshalling his car!!!



With a couple of gun racers in the first heat and marshalling being at an all time high I was surprised to see Peter take the flag well in front of some distinguished contestants. As it stood the first heats ended up as follows

Race 1			Indy			15 laps

Position			Driver			Best lap

1.				Peter				23.36
2.				Adrian				26.14
3.				Ken				28.92
4.				Rob				30.09

The second event saw me loose the lead early on but a consistent and steady drive enabled me to catch the leader and pass him in plenty of time. For once this lunar month the marshalls were on my side and a couple of errors of judgement were soon sorted and I drove comfortably to the finish line. After more than six minutes racing the finished panned out as follows

1.				Phil				22.79
2.				Mark				25.00
3.				Gary				24.05
4.				Julian				24.51

The last heat saw latecomers Tim and Mark G pit their skills against seasoned Graceville drivers in the form of Julian and Rob. Decisive driving and probably coercive tactics saw them split the pack. Tim drove a steady race but Mark decided it was better to be quick and give the marshalls something to think about but slow and steady paid dividends in the end!

1.				Julian				26.61
2.				Tim				28.40
3.				Mark G				26.82
4.				Rob				32.36

Tim gets a bit frisky in the ‘car park’ I don’t like it when we can’t see his hands

Next event was American muscle and this proved to be one of the closest contested races of the evening. The Scalextric Classic Trans Ams are always a favourite and lap times showed exactly how even they were. Heat one was an occasion not to be relaxed with and Gary and Peter were always less than a lap behind me. One slip of the trigger finger could decide it all. But as it happened my nerve held to the finish line. Time for Tim to shine in the second heat and sure enough he set a blistering pace with only Adrian bettering his best lap. But consistency once again won out over sheer speed and Tim took the heat ahead of Adrian. Last up for the class were deslots would decide the finishing order saw Julian steel himself against the onslaught and take line honours over the rest.

Classic Trans Am					17 laps

Heat 1

1.				Phil				23.28
2.				Gary				23.27
3.				Peter				24.64
4.				Mark G				26.51

Heat 2

1.				Tim				24.67
2.				Adrian				24.07
3.				Rob				27.75
4.				Ken				25.08

Heat 3.

1.				Julian				24.67
2.				Mark				24.88
3.				Tim				26.19
4.				Mark G				24.91

Peter being heavily barracked by a visitor! I’m not sure of his ulterior motives?


Just by way of a challenge, the next event was Gran Torinos supplied by ‘the management’! We started racing these maybe a couple of years ago and after each race the track would be a spectacle of glittering tiny parts everywhere. Either there are no more parts to fall (read knock) off or our driving in the face of adversity has vastly improved!? I’ll let the reader decide! Anyways. by the end of the class we breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Class				Gran Torinos			5 laps

Heat 1

1.				Tim				26.48
2.				Julian				29.55
3.				Phil				28.15
4.				Ken				27.04

Heat 2

1.				Gary				26.85
2.				John				27.37
3.				Adrian				27.90
4.				Peter				30.71

Heat 3

1.				Mark				30.26
2.				Ken				26.13
3.				Tim				27.04
4.				Mark				26.18

The picture says it all, Peter verging on being suicidal after his last heat and Gary really not bothered!

Moving on to class four it was time to bring out a great standard model, the Scaley Ford Escort. With reduced numbers for this event there were no ‘soft’ heats for the quicker driver. One of the quickest was Adrian but it didn’t seem to put him among the leaders?? Ten laps would sort the men from the boys and the men and boys panned out as follows.

Class			Scaley MK1 Escorts

Heat 1

1.				Phil				23.22
2.				Peter				27.05
3.				Mark G				23.75
4.				Adrian				22.96

Heat 2.

1.				Gary				23.53
2.				Tim				24.53
3.				Julian				23.46
4.				Ken 26.15

Last race was Rally over a gruelling thirty laps. A case of ‘just stay on!’ was the recipe for this event. A great cross section of models on the track and potentially anybody’s race but my Cartrix Hyundai had everything in its favour even though it wasn’t the fastest model on the track. Julian stood up to be counted one more time with a steady drive and the fastest lap in his heat.

Class			Rally			30 laps

Heat 1

1.				Julian				23.93
2.				Adrian				25.64
3.				Tim				26.82
4.				Mark				28.02

Heat 2	

1.				Phil				22.11
2.				Gary				25.84
3.				Peter				30.687
4.				Ken				25.15

The visitor being tested on his trivia prowess.



Last event was the crash and burn one lap dash with rally raid Mitsubishis. These varied greatly from model to model so it was in the lap of the gods as to which model you drew. Some unsuspecting souls ended up with a wheel shedder which was eventually substituted for a pro truck. Very quick and partial to changing lanes un announced!! But finally the torture was over and after each driver had raced each lane the score sheet looked very much like this

Phil				3 wins
Adrian				2 wins
Tim				2 wins
Julian				1 win.

Sometime life is just too much fun to handle and if you would like some off beat slotcar racing on what could be Queensland’s, if not Australia’s largest plastic slotcar track, pm me this board or email me at pwix@yahoo.com