Calder Park Sprints

Competition Report By Peter Thomson

MSCA Calder Super Sprint with MGCC Vic Saturday October 11th

Again the week leading up to the sprint was forecasting a 70% chance of rain, so again we were living in hope that it would be dry. Saturday morning we did the usual and met at the Avalon BP at the horrible hour of 6am to then all travel in convoy to Calder Raceway. Upon arrival we were somewhat surprised as to how quiet it was compared to last year when the place was packed and we had to squeeze in wherever to get a trailer parking space. Unloading, getting everything ready and checking in seemed to happen at a leisurely pace, and all seemed quite relaxed as we waited for the driver briefing. The gods had again been kind to us as, although it was cloudy and windy, the track was dry again.

Ross was first up in Group 1, where he had been placed after his entry was mucked up to the point that he wasn't entered, and only got in on a very late entry after contacting MSCA a few days before the event. He's not been very lucky lately, with fuel issues at Phillip Island that were subsequently fixed, and now clutch issues that got so bad he didn't do a fourth run. His best time was in his first session as the car deteriorated as the day wore on.

The rest of us were all in Group 3 and like Phillip Island, had all MG's from our club and the Vic club, and was going to be full on with so many strong Melbourne competitors. For our first session all our times were pretty good considering it's all about reacquainting ourselves with the track and trying to settle in. I was pretty pleased that I was in third place out of nineteen with Deahly 0.4 of a second behind me and then the three Melbourne hard chargers behind us. Brendan was again half a second in front of his Melbourne nemesis Tony Lupton.

Run 2 saw me a marked man with Deahly starting directly behind me. I thought it was going to be another Phillip Island with me being pushed until I blew it, but I managed to stay a couple of car lengths in front and after a few laps had widened the lead to about a quarter of a lap. The problem now was I had passed Paul Slawinski on the straight and now had him ducking, diving and doing the full on race thing trying to push through on the corners. I've never been attacked so hard before! Tony had now reversed the result with Brendan and was 0.25 of a second faster and I had roughly 0.4 of a second on Deahly, who had now started battling it out with John Hastie. For some reason young Charlie didn't run this session. Craig had finally found his mojo with his V8 GT and set a blistering time of 1' 15.550" compared with his midfield first run of 1' 19.713" and was now second fastest.

Run 3 was the most difficult driving I've ever done as it was no longer concentrating on a good time but full on racing with Paul who started directly behind me. We swapped leads numerous times, with each pass being full on. How we never hit each other I'll never know. Deahly was having a similar battle with John and finished up only 0.05 of a second behind him. Their times still stayed pretty good, but ours had plummeted two seconds in the course of battling it out. At one stage Craig passed me on the straight and it was amazing how rapidly he went by! He was now top of the times. Brendan was again a bit slower than Tony, and coming up behind them was Charlie in the V8, a little slower than his first run.

Run 4 was a no go for Ross as his clutch was so bad it wasn't worth going out. Deahly headed out just behind John Hastie but by the end of the session was 0.46 of a second in front of him having done his best time for the day. Paul Slawinski and I were chopping and changing again in what seemed an even fiercer battle until I just squeezed past him at the end of the main straight and threw the U turn from 180ks a bit too hot. The car was almost hopping out left and Paul was hard on my right but I stayed ahead through the right turn of the chicane, then getting through the left I felt the rear drift out, then snap I was spinning, heading backwards and across to the concrete wall. It ended with my rear quarter kissing the wall. I don't know how Paul managed to avoid me he was so close. A nearby marshall gave me the thumbs up to continue, luckily the car restarted and after a short wait I was back on the track, coming out just in front of Charlie. Getting away from battling with me saw Paul get a better time than all four of us. Charlie was just behind me as we entered the main straight, so I was expecting the V8 to come flying past me as Craig had done earlier, but for some reason he was only edging up until we hit the braking area where he backed off. I could only assume he was giving it full stick as we all do, until I found out later that he was having trouble with brake pads, hence perhaps the reticence! At the end of the session there was only 1.5 seconds separating Tony Lupton, Charlie Ogle, and Brendan. Garry Toulmin had spent the day staying out of trouble and hopefully had a good time.

Craig had not only done the fastest time for the run, but had done the fastest time for the day for our whole group. It was interesting to note that his average speed for the lap was 111kph. Sounds slow when you think he's probably doing over 200kph down the straight!

As for Deahly and me; he was stoked that he got a faster time, beating me by 0.008 of a second!!! Is 0.008 of a second really a bigger, better deal? Anyway, next time, agent 008. I think we all had a good day, the weather was kind, and we got four good runs in. The only downer for me was my poor little broken car that I have to try and get fixed and ready for Mt Tarrengower next weekend.

PS. Just ask any of us and we will tell you we're not competitive, we only do it for fun!!

Results:

Craig Ballinger MGB GT V8 1' 15.547"

Graham Deahl MGB Roadster 1' 17.220"

Peter Thomson MGB Roadster 1' 17.228"

Charlie Ogle MGB V8 Roadster 1' 20.219"

Brendan Sullivan MGA 1' 21.055"

Ross Boyd MGB Roadster 1' 23.715"

Garry Toulmin MGB Roadster