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Tour
de Course 2000
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With the burgeoning number of rallies available to members these days it’s getting hard to keep up. One event that has excited some interest over the past two years has been Rowan Harmon’s Tour de Course. This year, the club was again represented and Jeff Beaumont has filed this report: The
Quick Fit Tyres Tour de Course, not to be mistaken with the VVRC event of
the same name, was promoted by Rowan Harman as being
“the ultimate event for cars with grunt”. Consisting
of 13 all-tarmac special stage events and tests at tracks and venues
throughout Victoria on July 22, 23 and 24, the event attracted the usual
array of sophistication and high performance cars including two new
Porsche GT3's, a Ferrari F40 and a Ferrari 355, numerous GTR’s and
Porsches of varying models including the ultra-successful ex-Jim Richards
Targa-winning turbo 4WD Porsche 911, now capably driven by Mike Mansour
and Paul Sadler. The
Maserati Club was represented by Jeff and Nerida Beable in their familiar
and successful Skyline GT-R V-Spec N1, Romano Piva in this GT2 Porsche,
Francis Placentino in his Ferrari 355 and Jeff Beaumont sharing his old
Lancer EVO IV with new owner and event sponsor Andrew Manson from
Manson’s Quick Fit Tyres of Bayswater.
This grunty little turbo 4WD car, set up specifically for tarmac
rallying was expected to be snapping at the heels of the bigger, more
powerful monsters. A
unique aspect of the event was that BOTH driver’s times for each test
would be combined for an aggregate score.
Each driver had 2 runs at every test.
It would certainly pay dividends to have two near-equal drivers in
the cars. The
event started at Mangalore airstrip with a 1500 metre up-and-back driving
test through sets of cones. Most spectacular was the F40 Ferrari with a huge high-speed
spin in the damp conditions, fortunately without hitting anything.
Quickest single run was Andrew Manson in the EVO IV with a rapid
FTD run of 60.87 seconds (Yes, an average of 89 kph on a tricky motorkhana
test!). But it was the
Mansour/Sadler Porsche that scored the best combined time and gave them
the lead in the event which they never surrendered. Next
was a 390 metre Go-to-Whoa test with Jeff Beaumont’s powerful but nimble
EVO IV on 19.01 seconds beating Danny Loypur’s Skyline on 19.35 and
Bruce Harris’ Porsche GT3 on 19.82. The
combined 400 and 800 metre sprint was next and the big powerful cars used
their grunt to take top honours. Ross
Wilson’s 650 bhp Skyline covered the 400 metres in an impressive time of
10.96 seconds and the 800 metres in 17.73 seconds.
Jeff Beable’s Skyline scored 12.17 seconds with the Beaumont
Lancer EVO IV on 12.31, just ahead of Owen Weekes’ F40 on 12.33 seconds
for the 400 metre run. The
event moved on to DECA, with 2 driving tests: the Skid Pan and the Short
Circuit. On the mostly dry
(but still slippery) Skid Pan and its surrounding road, Jeff Beaumont’s
EVO IV Lancer battled against Paul Sadler’s turbo 4WD for top honours,
with the latter claiming a very narrow victory with a time of 90.59
seconds over Jeff’s 90.81. The
DECA Sprint circuit was a Porsche benefit with Mansour/Sadler both putting
up impressive times, from Bruce Harris in his Porsche GT3, followed by
Manson and Beable. A
very wet Winton Raceway greeted competitors on Saturday morning.
Jeff Beable’s GT-R scored
top honours on the wet and tricky short circuit, narrowly from
Beaumont’s EVO IV. They
were then followed by a hoard of Porsches and Skylines, with one German
vehicle bouncing off the concrete wall exiting the esses and one Italian
vehicle getting bock off the back of the circuit when the throttle jammed
open. Next
was the 3 laps of the Winton Tyre Testing track complete with operating
sprinklers and aptly named “The Wet Circle”.
Again the two Jeff B’s (Beable and Beaumont) fought for fastest,
with the nippy EVO IV posting FTD with a 42.48 seconds from the GT-R on
43.07. The
flying-lap test on the Winton main circuit provided drama for the two
Maserati Club members, with Jeff Beable’s GT-R losing its clutch and
Jeff Beaumont’s EVO IV with a 4th gear selector problem.
Bruce Harris in his new Porsche GT3 put up fastest overall from
Perry Spiridis (the other GT3) closely followed by Paul Sadler and Warren
Gainsmith. Next
morning the venue was Calder Park Raceway in sunny, but cool conditions,
with 4 tests being held. Jeff Beable had replaced the clutch overnight and was ready
to attack. Ross Wilson just
pipped Beable on the Southern Sprint with 38.23 versus 38.25 seconds.
Next test was up and back through the essess, where Danny Loypur in
the Skyline just beat Andrew Manson in the EVO IV (only needed 3rd
gear!) followed by Romano Piva. Jeff
Beaumont actually had the quickest time, but copped a 5-second
‘hit-cone’ penalty. Calder
short circuit saw the powerful Skylines again battling it out, with Ross
Wilson just gaining the upper edge from Jeff Beable by a mere 0.3 seconds
from the Porsches of Paul Sadler, Bruce Harris and Romano Piva.
The final test was the long Calder circuit and the battle for
individual honors was intense. Whilst
Jeff Beable scored a comfortable 2-second win, it was not quite enough for
the individual driver’s award. So
after 3 days of close and hard competition, the overall winners were
Michael Mansour and Paul Sadler in the turbo 4WD Porsche 911 from Warren
Gainsmith and Ross Wilson in the Skyline GTR, with Jeff Beaumont and
Andrew Manson third overall in the rapid Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IV.
The Quick Fit Tour de Course was a superb event, with an excellent and diverse range of driving tests (and no navigation). Next year this event will also include a “Classic” car section allowing the popular pre-1971 models to participate. Book it in your 2001 diary as a “must-do” event. Jeff Beaumont
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