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Annual Spring Track Day
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If you've followed some of the times recorded at Sandown over the last 12 months you would realise that Rusty French has usually posted the fastest time of day. At this event in 1997, Rusty with the Porsche GT2 only a few months old put in a scorcher with a lap of 1:19.47. He was closely pursued on that occasion by Graeme Hitchell (1:23.79) and Ojars Balodis (1:23.81), but 4 seconds is still a big gap. Times at the circuit in the Club's Grand Prix Track Day in March weren't as good and Rusty driving the RSCS squeezed in with 1:23.66 from Graeme Hitchell with a 1:24.34. At the event just past the outcome wasn't as quick as last year, but it was certainly quicker than in March. As the days results by driver show, Rusty French driving the GT2 posted a 1:20.96 on a set of very tired tyres and was closely pursued by Simon Froude in his Carrera RS in 1:22.64. Simon's time was only the second time the Club has recorded two cars under 1:23 at this circuit. Well done Simon! (Detailed results for this day and previous ones can be downloaded from this site) In what was one of the Club's more lightly attended events
for this time of year a total of 56 entries were received. Last year with Bathurst alive
to the sounds of the thundering V8's some 87 entries crowded the track. This year, the
weather was as good, Bathurst was on (2.0 litre Supertourers), but the big difference was
Mick Doohan was at Phillip Island trying to win his first FIM 500cc Grand Prix at that
circuit. The end result from the Club's point of view was nonetheless a highly successful
day. Those who came along found there was plenty of track time. In fact the track closed
slightly early, when only one driver was able to respond to the call for cars at 4.45 pm.
The Warwick family made a big impact on the day. Tom driving the F355 put in a very respectable 1:33 and brother Max and family put on a show in what must have been the most heavily used car on the track by days end. Max Warwick brought along son Luke and daughter Georgia for a try in the family RSCS. Max though Luke's times would be in the 1:45's and Georgia in the 1:50's. Georgia put in a 1:33.55 and Luke a 1:27.76, which was not far behind Max's time of 1:24.47. Who said they were "slow"? There were some other interesting times on the day. Scott Shearman in his newly acquired Ferrari Testarossa became the first Ferrari to lap Sandown at a Club day in under 1.30. Scott put in a 1:28.71. Congratulations Scott! Bryan Mendelson was also trying hard in his Ferrari 300 GT 2+2, but retired hurt with a blown motor. This is a car that has done at least four hard Targa's for a gold plate and has been seen regularly at many track days in Victoria. Bryan said it has been seven years since anything has been done with the motor ... I guess everything catches up with us in the end! It was also a good day for Maserati. We haven't seen any Maserati at a Club track day for some time. In attendance on this day were the 425 of Cris Johansen and two Ghiblis. The Ghiblis whilst sharing the same name were born some 25 years apart! The first was Norm Ciconte's recently acquired 1971 silver Maserati Ghibli SS (ex Stuart Anderson) and the other a 1996 Ghibli Cup Car recently acquired by Andrew Gregory. This car is red (not black as reported in the last issue) and is one of between 17 to 20 built by Maserati for Ghibli Cup racing in Europe between 1995 and 1996. It is one of two in Australia, the other (white) is currently being campaigned by Alfie Costanzo in the GT production series. It was also good to see two Lotus Elise, both of which ran near identical times. Jaguars were also strongly represented. Other interesting cars were John Hardy's Alpine Renault A110 and Guy Edmonds Opel Monza, the latter recording a very fine 1:27.56. The best times recorded by drivers on the day in the familiarisation session in the morning and the timed laps sessions in the afternoon are shown in the table below. Many thanks to the officials who worked so hard in Documentation, Scrutineering, Credentials, Catering and as Pit Marshals and Flag Marshals on the day. Special thanks also to David Floyd of the Alfa Romeo Club who gave up his time to act as Deputy Clerk of Course. Particular thanks of course go to Srecko Lorbek whose company LORBEK European cars again sponsored the event. Srecko's support for the day, turned a good track day into a great event. Many thanks Srecko and Lorbek European cars. Importantly it was also a day free from incident and we look forward to seeing you all at the event next year. To mark the occasion on this special track day, all Drivers and Officials received a commemorative medallion to mark the occasion of the event.
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