See the THR webpage

RACE REPORT - Phillip Island Historic, March 2009

Report by Graham Jarrett.

Thought you might like a quick rundown on the Phillip Island classic just gone. As it was my first time there ( not strictly true, I did race there in 1979 ), I must say it is the most fantastic experience. Headed off around 4.00pm Wednesday and travelled through to Horsham where we stopped around 7.30. Rendavoued with the Oliver's and had time for a couple of frothies, not sure wether it was an omen, but Roger and I both commented about the electrical storm and heavy rain we passed through at Bordertown !! On the road around 7.30 thursday morning, the Navara towing the Chev like an absolute treat. Arrived in Mebourne around 11.00 thinking this is to easy, then proceeded to run into a traffic jam in keilor that held us up for around an hour.

Being the smart ass I am I was sure I could navigate my way through Melbourne and get onto the Freeway without any form of road maps," just turn left at the Phillip Island exit, off the freeway once you go throuh the tunnel" Roger said, yeah right ! 4 lanes of traffic, bumper to bumper, all doing 90kph in the rain, with the windows fogging up due to my heavy breathing ! there was no way I was going to see the exit, fortunately Bob Tweedie went flying past with the Elfin ms7 in tow, this was my chance, I pulled out behind him and proceeded to weave in and out of the traffic glued to his tail, i'm sure he must have wondered what this wanker was doing tailgating him, but it did work and somehow we transversed the city, found the right exits, and ultimately reached the island around 2.30pm. Unloaded the car, set up the spares in the lovely marquees on the grassed area, did the document check, had time to do some socialising etc, this was really all to easy. I did think it was a little strange that the Pringle's and Barnes's had left seven hours earlier than us on Wed, but where not at the track, this was explained when word came through that Ian's new dual axle trailer had decided to shed an axle near Ballarat, fortunately no major damage done but i'll let Ian tell you about that one.

Friday morning, sun was shinning, everything was going well, first practice session about to start and this is where reallity set in, shit !!! i had never driven on such a fast circuit, as i came down the main straight the first time, 7000rpm, 3.7:1 diff, the car was absolutely screaming, for some stupid reason I thought thank god Dave Armstrong made me put those secondary bonnett retainers on, as the bonnett banged against the retaining pins, turn 1 sweeper at the end of the straight and I was literally 'shittin bricks'. Anyway the more laps i did the more comfortable i became, and actually finished the session thing that was o.k, wrong !!, time sheets came out and I was a whopping 8 seconds off the pace, languishing in 21st position. I managed to convince myself that this was just my first time there and with an adjustment to the tyre pressures and a few more laps under my belt qualifying would be better, and I must admit qualifying felt better, braked later, held it in third longer onto the straight, this was better, wrong !! qualified a second slower than practice and was relecated to 30th on the grid !! At this stage I had seriously considered giving up motor racing and taking up Piano. Some more frothies friday night, a good feed, and some good South Australin company convinced me otherwise.

Awoke to slightly more threatening skies Saturday morning, the chance of some passing showers they said, yeah right. it started raining just before the under 3 litre touring cars were due to go out for race one, did I say rain, it quickly turned into a deluge, the racing was postponed as the water flooded the track on certain corners. And remember the nice grassed area our marquees were on, that quickly turned to swamp as the rain flowed off the marquees on both sides and turned the area you drove down into a small river, that the people from the lower lakes would proud to have. Racing was postponed until further notice, and it wasn,t until around 1.30 when it recommenced with one complete round of races lost.

Race one for over 3 litre touring, and the rain had eased to more of a drizzle. As I formed up in 30th position I remembered from the drivers briefing that the starter positioned alongside the foot bridge would give 10 seconds by hand, and the lights on the foot bridge would go red then off for racing, only problem was from back there I could hardly see the foot bridge, let alone the lights ! Anyway I did start when someone else moved and I have to say 200kph into turn one on a wet track from 30th position in a 42 car field really gets your attention, I have never driven in such spray before, but amazingly everyone got through those first few corners and I even managed to pick up a few positions during the race, finished 26th which wasn't good but I was feeling a little happier.

Saturday night, some more frothies, some more good S.A company, the skies had cleared and we all started to relax, wrong !! a call came through to Graham Stewart around 9.00, that a mini Tornado had ripped through the pits,all the marquees had ended up in bass straight and there was damage to cars, the workplace safety people had locked down the track and it was possible sunday's racing may be cancelled, great. After debating the authenticity of the call we decided to head to the track to inspect for ourselves, and sure enough the security gaurd on the gate confirmed there was some damage, but we couldn't get in until 7.00 am Sunday. We did try to peer into the darkness around the back of the circuit, somewhere near siberia, but really couldn't see anything. There was plenty of speculation and i'm sure a lot of the guys had a sleepless saturday night, funnily enough I had my best sleep for the week.

Sunday and we were up early, arrived at the track to find that a large marquee covering around 25 cars ( including Barnes cortina Pringle mini and Oliver sprint ) had blown over backward, and a lot of smaller individual tents had gone west. There was some damage to cars but it could have been a lot worse, thanks must go to a small group of guys who were at the track who pushed the cars that were in the marquee forward to the shelter of a solid group of garages, they had to put wheels on , let get cars off stands, all in the dark. A really fantastic job. there was major damage to a bonnett on a B.M.W, and the Bargwanna Torana was knocked off its jack stands by the flying marquee, as I said it could have been a lot worse.

Racing Sunday got underway as normal, and our first race Sunday was even in the dry, I moved a little futher up the field but a 22nd place finish was still a little dissapointing the highlight of this race was again the start, turn 1 at Mallala is nothing until you have jostled with 40 crazy Victorians for one small piece of ashpalt ! at tuns 1 & 2 on the island.

The downside to the rain easing was that the river running down between our marquees now turned to thick mud, and the racing was easy compared to trying to slide your car in and out of your marquee.

Race 3 and my prayers were answered, this time for rain, as Myself and Roger where the only ones without wets, the rain started as we were in formup and all the other cars were caught on their dry tyres, at last an even playing field. I managed to get up to 10th position and came away thinking motor racing isn't so bad after all, and as someone had told me, I was wishing if only we had another race.

Anyway thats my long winded story on what was really quite an eventful weekend, all I can say is if you can get the chance, and I know financially it is not easy, try and do the Phillip Island classic, it is sensational. And it couldn't possibly rain again like that ! I wasn't the only south aussie there, here is a quick update on how the all went :

UNDER 3 LITRE

Geoff Davis - our only breakdown, broke the gearbox and was on his way home after practice. Unfazed I could hear Geoff singing some opera as he drove out of the track.
Kirk Davis - Q 11th, race 1 - 3rd, r2 - 7th, r3- dnf, the pride of the croweaters, third in the first race was sensational, even the mud coudn't wipe the smile from his face.
Rory O'niell - Q 15th, r1 - 16th, r2 - 12th, r3 - 10th, Rory's usual troublefree run, only trouble Rory had was deciding wether to have chardonnay or cab sav saty night, and wether to turn the heater demisters on in the Porsche.
Stuart Barnes - Q 27th, r1 - 13th, r2 - 18th, r3 - 21st, The rainmaster had a great race 1 in the wet, then had the field attack him from all sides at the start of a dry race 2. picked the wrong tyres for race 3.
Ian Pringle - Q 22nd, r1 - 20th, r2 - 13th, r3 - 13th, had a great weekend, quickest of the Mini's, managed to pick up a first in class trophy for race 3 and was chuffed to keep Henry Draper behind him.
Mal Rutshak - Q 34th, r1 dnf, r2 - 32nd, r3 - 26th. Mal had an unfortunate altercation with an EH in race 1 ( the holden came off worse ) did a great job to repair it and fight his way up the field.

OVER 3 LITRE

Roger Oliver - Q 18th, r1 -25th, r2 - 26th, r3 - 15th, As I said earlier Roger was one of just 2 cars with no wets, did well and charged up the field in race 3. managed to show a lot of people the for sale sign on the car, hope somethimg comes of it.
G.J - You've herd enough of my story
Graham Stewart - Q 26th, r1 - 29th, r2 - dnf, r3 - 23rd. Suffered with the wrong wets and a radiator cap coming off in race 2, came good in race 3 but went all that way to dice with the south aussies !
Peter Ellison - Q 34th, r1 - 31st, r2 - 32nd, r3 - 24th. Pete ( like Rory, ) just enjoys his racing, had a big loose, bought a new set of wets for race 3 and then didn't have them on the car for the race.

As you can see, everyone did well and more importantly had a great time, hope you all put the Classic on you bucket list.

hope to see you all at Easter, cheers Graham