Newsflash 7/9/2017

Written by afja-admin on 12 September 2017. Posted in News

Folk,

Just a short note to bring you up to date with the latest round of the AFJA Championship for 2017.  Round 6 was held at Wakefield Park on the 2^nd and 3^rd of September.  It was still rather cool at that time of year and the track was quite cold and slippery, although the weather stayed fine for the majority of the weekend.  During our last race on Sunday a howling gale developed that brought clouds of dust and spots of rain making the track very slippery and threatening to blow us all into the next postcode, but we survived somehow.

The juniors of David Reid (Cooper T59), Robert Buckley (Golford) and Noel Bryen (Rennmax) joined a mixed field of L, M and Vee racing cars to form a grid of about 20.  Track time was generous with qualifying and two races on Saturday, and another two races on Sunday and each race was at least 8 laps long.  Jamie Larner also joined us in Frank Hook’s F3 Cooper from Group O, which was good because Group O was mixed with Q&R cars which would have monstered the little Cooper.

The meeting went very well with no bingles or offs, just the usual mechanical failures.  Surprisingly, this was Rob Buckley’s first visit to Wakefield and he spent Friday familiarising himself with the track, in between sorting out an annoying oil leak from the rocker cover.  A cracked gasket was the culprit but it made an awful mess of the hardware and his garage floor before it was sorted. 

The other incident worth noting was when David was interrupted by a passer by whilst refuelling.  As is David’s want, he became absorbed in the finer points of the Cooper and by the time the visitor left he had forgotten what he was doing and the filler cap wasn’t returned to its proper place.  As you may know, the fuel tank in the Cooper is at the very pointy end of the car and for some reason David decided to fill the tank right up.  Consequently, on the warm up lap of the ensuing race, the floor of the car became engulfed in fuel and by the time he arrived at the fish hook, it had found its way to the rear wheels and an embarrassing spin was the result.  Fortunately, everyone avoided the incident and no damage was done, other than pride of course.

The racing was great fun and quite furious in places.  I had decided to put some extra padding in the seat of the Rennmax to try and alleviate the usual sore spots and it felt quite good until I started to drive the car.  The extra half inch pushed me forward and up, so that I couldn’t heel/toe or get my hands between my thighs and the steering wheel.  The car was virtually un-driveable when we went out for qualifying, but fortunately I still managed to grab pole, albeit a second off my normal pace.  Needless to say, the extra padding went straight into the bin as soon as qualifying ended. During the first race I managed to spin on the second lap at the corner going up the hill.  I could blame cold tyres and a dirty track, but I just went in too fast in the excitement of leading.  I had some fun making my way back through the pack to eventually take third, which made for an interesting couple of laps in the following race until I regained the lead.  I was also quite chuffed to be awarded driver of the meeting, as judged by the commentators.

The results are detailed below:

The overall results after round 6 are also detailed below:

The final round for the year will be held at Eastern Creek aka Sydney Motorsport Park, on the weekend of 11/12 November which, stupidly enough, is the same weekend as Historic Sandown and Noosa Hillclimb!  Please, don’t go to Sandown or Noosa, we need you at the Creek!

See you there,

Noel Bryen

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