Sunday 21st Feb saw three of our members journey to RAAF base East Sale to compete in the very popular RACES Sprint meeting which is run on a track delineated by cones and tyres on the runways and taxi ways of the air field.
Those members were Ian Maud in his super charged Toyota MR 2 and David and Allan Richards as usual sharing the little 1.6 litre normally-aspirated Datto.
This meeting saw new green, yellow, blue and red lights erected in strategic places around the circuit to take the place of flag marshals and removing any potential risk to their safety. From my perspective the new lights seemed to work well. The club was also trialing new ?Dorian? style timers on their members? cars which if successful will be extended to all competing cars. These timers are the size of a wrist watch and about a third of the cost of a ?Dorian?.
The day was forecast to be fine sunny and upwards of 29 degrees, which I wasn?t looking forward to as there is no shelter and the bitumen of the pit area makes it feel hotter. Luckily the day stayed overcast albeit mild until later in the afternoon when the sun shone through raising the temperature to approximately 25 degrees with a gentle breeze, perfect for racing.
It was great fun for me when on a couple of runs Ian Maud managed to pass me just before the braking area at the end of the back straight, we were then both hard on the brakes and cornering nose to tail at speed before I was unable to stay with Ian?s superior power.
The little Datto is not the quickest car but it is by no means the slowest either, and so much fun to drive. I am indeed a lucky man to be able to share my passion with my son, we are very competitive, not giving each other any quarter, and today grey power reined, but only just as David can and has beaten me on a number of occasions.
Best lap times were: Ian Maud 1.03.0, Allan Richards 1.06.0 and David Richards 1.06.7
Allan Richards (pictures found on FACEBOOK)
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