I promosed Andrew Pursey I would write something for the list .... this is
the Historic FF story .. he can write the Na News!
We had our first historic meeting of the year in the most atrocious
conditions I can ever remember at Amaroo. After a fine Friday practice
with quite good grip, a combination of steady rain and an amazing amount of
oil on the circuit made everything quite treacherous.
It wasn’t a case of one person having dropped some oil on line in a couple
of corners …. The stuff was spread quite liberally across the entire
circuit.
We were running with the mainly BDA engined Group Q cars - as opposed to
the M & O that we had run with at Eastern Creek - and for the first time in
NSW outnumbered them with 9 entries to their 8.
Richard Carter (who as a past FF Champion is almost one of us!) blitzed the
field by exactly 10 seconds in qualifying in his March 73B from Dr Michael
Henderson’s Lola T560. Most people know Michael from his wheels COTY
input, but he should be more famous as the guy who introduced the full
harness seat belt to motorsport.
The next 9 qualifiers were all FF with Alan Smart in the Age & Treachery
Lotus heading a hard charging Mark Grundy. I was really impressed with
Mark’s driving over the weekend, and the effort he has put into improving
the setup of his car has really paid some dividends.
Bob Morrow - Elfin 620 - was next followed by Bob Morey - Bowin P6F, Rob
Bishop -Merlyn, myself in the new Bowin P6F, Graeme Towers in his new ex
Ian Peters P6F, Tony Harper in the Elwyn 002, and John Evans in the RP21
Royale. Howard Blight in a 75B March brought up the end of the field
without recording a time as he spun on the first lap. None of the other
BDA machines ventured out!
The first race was a 7 lapper and I recorded most people’s comments after
the race. Here in the finishing order:
Michael Henderson. Spins 1. Very impressed with Alan Smart giving me so
much room when I repassed him for the lead under brakes and wasn’t sure
that I could stop.
Alan Smart. Spins 0. Car went beautifully. Wasn’t at all sure that
Michael was going to get the Lola stopped when he retook me for the lead.
Mark Grundy. Spins 0. Thought he was going to hit Bob Morrow when he spun
right in front of him in the loop.
Rob Bishop. Spins 0.5. The lose started at the beginning of pit straight,
turned into a motorbike style ’tankslapper’ and finished amazingly at the
Control Tower with the car headed in the right direction.
Graeme Towers. Spins - not sure.
Bob Morrow. Spins 1. Thought everything was "Shithouse".
Tony Harper. Spins 1. "Never seen so much oil."
Jeremy Braithwaite. Spins 2, the last under brakes at the stop corner.
Hope Tony Harper doesn’t think I’m going to drive off the road every time I
see him in my mirrors.
John Evans. Spins 0. Same comments as Bob Morrow.
Bob Morey. Spins - Warmup 1, race 3. Lost for words!
Richard Carter. Spins 0. Threw a timing belt. Very expensive. No
comments recorded.
The second race saw a further diminished field with FF’s filling the first
three places! Alan Smart, Mark Grundy and Bob Morrow beat Michael
Henderson followed by myself, Tony Harper, Rob Bishop and Graeme Towers
with Bob Morey DNF’ing. Thanks to Mark Grundy for doing such a good job of
missing the Bowin as it spun in the sweeper on the first lap. I don’t know
what happened to everybody else as we only lost that one place.
In the last race it was ‘dry’. I thought it felt a bit greasy over the top
of Bitupave on the warm up lap and found out how bad it really was on the
first lap. I suspect that somebody may have dropped Glycol because you
couldn’t see anything on the surface.
Jeremy Kenyon in the ex-John Smith RT1 Ralt and Howard Blight in the
ex-Giles Villeneuve March 75B started from the back of the grid but made
relatively slow progress through our ranks. Alan Smart held Howard off for
his second outright win of the weekend - he looked quite happy as he headed
back to Brisbane! Bob Morrow was very close behind Howard; Jeremy Kenyon
must have been wishing he hadn’t sold me the Lotus as he dived under me at
the stop corner in a move that Mark Grundy had tried and failed the
previous lap. Mark was followed home by Graeme, Rob and a spin free Bob
Morey.
All in all I think we acquitted ourselves extremely well. All the cars
finished the event without a scratch and all our people went out and raced
in the conditions. The comments I received from Richard Carter and Michael
Henderson about our driving were all complimentary and we are obviously
well on our way to overcoming all the concerns people had in introducing a
drivers category into the historic ranks.
Congratulations are also definitely in order for Graeme Towers who perfomed
magnificently in his new toy.
Andrew ... over to you!
regards
Jeremy
Age & Treachery Racing Australia
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