18th-Oct-22, 05:52 PM
Race Report Part Four - Muscle Car Mondiale
We did things slightly different this time - seeding the three heats from the morning's Club Car Rotation. That meant one of the top three finishers would head each of the heats. As usual, there was ten minutes of racing and the heat winner and runner-up would go through to a 5-minute sprint final.
There was a nice variety of cars - two new Bathurst Jags and Ollie was the proud new owner of an ex-Mike D Camaro. Dean kindly loaned Rob a car and Ryan was back with Andy's rather bashed-up Camaro. And it was Ryan who dominated the first heat, getting out in front and edging out a gap over Ollie - who was driving his new motor superbly in second place. It looked like both youngsters would qualify... until last-minute disaster for Ollie. Almost out of fuel, he missed the pit lane, ran out of fuel and missed the pit lane again. That let Jeremy get past for the qualifying spot - Ollie had to make do with third, Ash was fourth and Simon fifth.
Heat Two saw Andy's Javelin lead the way - it was Oli, Matthew, Oliver and Stephen who had a great four-way scrap for second. At half distance, it was Matthew with the slightest of advantages over the other three - and he held on to that as Oli's Audi started to sound a bit rough, Oliver's controller became less than perfect and Stephen's Cougar had a few too many offs. The order at the end: Andy, Matthew, Oli, Stephen and Oliver.
The third and final heat saw an enjoyable battle between Mike's Falcon XB and Alex's XJ-S - both models of Bathurst cars. They were the class of the field, although Dean - driving his Brut Camaro - was equally classy, helping race control problem-solve and fix the orange controller... and he still had time to recover to fourth place! Rob put in another nice drive to take third, but it was Mike who just beat Alex to the line - the two of them would race one more time.
The 5-minute final featured three Trans-Ams, an Aussie Falcon, a Jaguar XJ-S and a Sierra RS500 - a nice spread from the era and series represented by our Muscle Car Mondiale class...
There was carnage at the start - someone's controller not turned on - which meant Mike and Ryan escaped, putting half a lap on the pursuing pack in the opening few seconds! That's racing - and the others had five minutes to catch up... Pit stop strategy would be different in the half-distance race - and it turned out to be crucial to the outcome. Both Mike and Ryan came in to refuel, but Andy stayed out until just after 2m 30s - Alex and Jeremy stretched their fuel mileage to pit just before. When Ryan and Mike had to stop again, Andy passed the two of them sitting in the pits - and had about a quarter of lap lead over Mike to defend for the final minute or so...
It was a nail-biting run to the line - Mike chipped away at the lead, gradually increasing the pressure on Andy, who then had an off on the penultimate lap. Mike was now a couple of cars' lengths behind, the cars in opposite lanes. They went through the line for the final time with the Javelin just ahead, but the Falcon took the lead going into the complex at the far side of the track. Still in different lanes, Andy out-braked Mike going into the long, sweeping bend after the long bridge - taking the lead with just two corners to go. Mike tried the same into the next, much tighter corner, but didn't make it - just missing the nose of the Javelin as he went off the track, Andy getting round the final 180-bend without further incident. But what a dramatic ending to the day!
Ryan brought the Camaro home in third, Alex fourth, Matthew fifth and Jeremy sixth - everyone apart from Andy pitting twice. It was a classic fuel-strategy win, if you ignore that final lap excitement!
A very big thank you to all 20 racers who made it such an enjoyable day at the Barn. For some it was an important distraction - and hopefully the racing and companionship hit the spot. Special thanks - as always - goes to the set-up crew, the race control team and everyone who stayed behind to pack away at the end. We couldn't do it without you.
There's still a video to come, plus some championship tables and a few extra stats I'll attempt to pull out for the GT race - data I'd like to be able to use next year, like fuel usage, individual stint data etc. Expect all that over the next 24 hours.
We did things slightly different this time - seeding the three heats from the morning's Club Car Rotation. That meant one of the top three finishers would head each of the heats. As usual, there was ten minutes of racing and the heat winner and runner-up would go through to a 5-minute sprint final.
There was a nice variety of cars - two new Bathurst Jags and Ollie was the proud new owner of an ex-Mike D Camaro. Dean kindly loaned Rob a car and Ryan was back with Andy's rather bashed-up Camaro. And it was Ryan who dominated the first heat, getting out in front and edging out a gap over Ollie - who was driving his new motor superbly in second place. It looked like both youngsters would qualify... until last-minute disaster for Ollie. Almost out of fuel, he missed the pit lane, ran out of fuel and missed the pit lane again. That let Jeremy get past for the qualifying spot - Ollie had to make do with third, Ash was fourth and Simon fifth.
Heat Two saw Andy's Javelin lead the way - it was Oli, Matthew, Oliver and Stephen who had a great four-way scrap for second. At half distance, it was Matthew with the slightest of advantages over the other three - and he held on to that as Oli's Audi started to sound a bit rough, Oliver's controller became less than perfect and Stephen's Cougar had a few too many offs. The order at the end: Andy, Matthew, Oli, Stephen and Oliver.
The third and final heat saw an enjoyable battle between Mike's Falcon XB and Alex's XJ-S - both models of Bathurst cars. They were the class of the field, although Dean - driving his Brut Camaro - was equally classy, helping race control problem-solve and fix the orange controller... and he still had time to recover to fourth place! Rob put in another nice drive to take third, but it was Mike who just beat Alex to the line - the two of them would race one more time.
The 5-minute final featured three Trans-Ams, an Aussie Falcon, a Jaguar XJ-S and a Sierra RS500 - a nice spread from the era and series represented by our Muscle Car Mondiale class...
There was carnage at the start - someone's controller not turned on - which meant Mike and Ryan escaped, putting half a lap on the pursuing pack in the opening few seconds! That's racing - and the others had five minutes to catch up... Pit stop strategy would be different in the half-distance race - and it turned out to be crucial to the outcome. Both Mike and Ryan came in to refuel, but Andy stayed out until just after 2m 30s - Alex and Jeremy stretched their fuel mileage to pit just before. When Ryan and Mike had to stop again, Andy passed the two of them sitting in the pits - and had about a quarter of lap lead over Mike to defend for the final minute or so...
It was a nail-biting run to the line - Mike chipped away at the lead, gradually increasing the pressure on Andy, who then had an off on the penultimate lap. Mike was now a couple of cars' lengths behind, the cars in opposite lanes. They went through the line for the final time with the Javelin just ahead, but the Falcon took the lead going into the complex at the far side of the track. Still in different lanes, Andy out-braked Mike going into the long, sweeping bend after the long bridge - taking the lead with just two corners to go. Mike tried the same into the next, much tighter corner, but didn't make it - just missing the nose of the Javelin as he went off the track, Andy getting round the final 180-bend without further incident. But what a dramatic ending to the day!
Ryan brought the Camaro home in third, Alex fourth, Matthew fifth and Jeremy sixth - everyone apart from Andy pitting twice. It was a classic fuel-strategy win, if you ignore that final lap excitement!
A very big thank you to all 20 racers who made it such an enjoyable day at the Barn. For some it was an important distraction - and hopefully the racing and companionship hit the spot. Special thanks - as always - goes to the set-up crew, the race control team and everyone who stayed behind to pack away at the end. We couldn't do it without you.
There's still a video to come, plus some championship tables and a few extra stats I'll attempt to pull out for the GT race - data I'd like to be able to use next year, like fuel usage, individual stint data etc. Expect all that over the next 24 hours.
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