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A total of 82 entries were received for this year’s Grand Prix Track Day, which just happened to be on the limit we have now set on our events at Sandown. Whilst it looked as if we would be in for some rain on the day, fortunately it didn’t eventuate and so we managed to preserve our record run of ‘rain-free’ days. Let’s hope it continues. We started this event a bit short handed as both Carol Williams and Travis Williams were unable to join us. Fortunately, Tracey Williams was on hand to keep some order in Pit Lane and to help participants maximise their track time. Stepping into the breach for the day in Carol’s place was Dee Stephen who helped keep the paper work rolling in the morning, whilst Travis’s role was taken over by Rob Graham. My sincere thanks to them both. Given the usual number of entries we were hoping to get things off to a prompt start but the track inspection by Clerk of Course David Floyd and the crew from VFRS found a problem with the track railing which delayed things a bit until the staff at Sandown could affect some running repairs. That done, it was down to business. A feature of the day were some of the cars present. This event has always been scheduled with an eye to Targa Tasmania, so that those running in that event can get in a bit of track time to make sure the car is OK, etc. However this year we were a bit light-on for Targa aspirants as most club members involved in the event decided to leave the cars at home, not so Len Cattlin, who despite having the Mustang set up for Targa nonetheless put in some quick times. In fact his best a 1:24.65 put him 7th outright for the day.
Of the 73 that managed to run in the timed sessions of the afternoon there were 18 who were under 1:30 and 9 who recorded times of 1:25 or better. At the sharp end of the field it was a bit of an arm wrestle between Mike Roddy in his Jaguar XJS and Simon Gischus in his spectacular Nissan 200SXR. By day’s end Simon pulled one out of the hat - a 1:18.63 to Mike Roddy’s 1:19.97. Simon and Mike were the only two to put in sub 1:20.00 times. Congratulations Simon for your FTD, looks like you will get #1 at the next club track day. There were of course quite a number of good performances on the day. Michael Palmer continues to get great times (1:21.31) from his Nissan GT-R. Romano Piva (1:22.22) in his Porsche 911 GT2 and Greg Lovett (1.22.65) in the Porsche GT3 were closely matched and Ben Derks (1:23.31) in his Nissan GT-R was close behind. A little further back in the field there were also some good performances. Des Dharumasena in the WRX put in some quick times, as did Ray Evans in his Nissan 200SX. Times recorded by John Kennedy in the Mitsubishi GTO and those of Steve Wilcox in the Commodore VT were also impressive. The Spiteri brothers gave the ex Peter Eames Jaguar a solid workout with Andrew Spiteri putting in the quickest times in the car. Meanwhile Peter’s Jaguar E-Type Lightweight looked spectacular, but was running well below its potential. Latest news is that Peter is considering ditching the mechanical fuel injection. We were fortunate to have two Ferrari 355 Challenges with us on the day. Peter Pless’s car unfortunately didn’t last too long and developed a problem causing it to be sidelined for the day. Ted Fregon however had the opportunity to become familiar with his 355 Challenge, which incidentally is the former Ross Palmer car previously driven by John Bowe. Now converted for road use, Ted was sensible and took it slowly for the day, but nonetheless circulated comfortably in 1:33's. Donald Esmore came along in a Lancia Delta Integrale, Colin Stark in his Alpine Renault GTA Turbo and there were a few Datsun 1600's and minis in the field. Anthony Morrow in his Datsun 1600 sports sedan which put in consistent times in the 1:25's made the more standard forms of the car look like they were standing still. Notwithstanding some of the quicker times recorded, the day really belonged to those who were showing some distinct improvement in times. Stuart Milham in his ‘bare bones’ BMW 3.0CS showed a big improvement of some 9 seconds a lap as did Kynan Stark in the Peugeot 205GTi. Peter Horton in the XR8 and Sean Hudgson in the Datsun 1600 showed similar improvement. Apart from one or two misjudgements by one or two drivers the event ran smoothly and apart from the always to be regretted mechanical failure was without major mishap. For that our thanks go to David Floyd, Tracey Williams and Rob Graham for their respective roles in Pit Lane, John Aust and his team of flag marshalls and of course Greg Aimers who managed single-handedly to capture the times on the day. Special thanks to those who volunteered to help our with Scrutineering and with Flag Marshalling, particularly those who also drove on the day. Lastly thanks to the O’Brien family for their smiling faces and great catering. We look forward to seeing you all at Winton.
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