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[NATIONALS] Crashes and consistency on day 3
by Sean Henshelwood
pic: Sean Henshelwood 321Ignition Magazine
Crashes and consistency mark day three..
Rnd#5, Shannons Nationals presented by Hi-Tec Oils
Morgan Park, QLD - Sunday, August 14
It was another fantastic round of competition at Morgan Park near Warwick in Queensland for round five of the Shannons Nationals presented by Hi-Tec Oils, with a number of return winners, and some aggressive driving were the highlights of the final day of competition.
Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Australia were campaigning the final round of the Jim Richards Endurance Trophy, but whilst the first big prize for category for 2011 saw some intense competition, it was overshadowed by the return of the man who dominated the round 12 months earlier, Matt Kingsley.
After starting the event with pole position and a race win on Saturday, Kingsley continued his outstanding Morgan Park form on Sunday, with a further two race wins.
Kingsley (Action Tyres & More 996) charged to the lead at the start of Sunday morning’s Race 2 and quickly pulled a gap on nearest rival Jon Trende (Boston Kennedy 997). Further behind, a four-car incident involving Brad Rankin (Mdev Property Group 997), John Morriss (Mission Foods/Motorsport Leasing 997), Phil Morriss (Morriss Racing) and Jan Jinadasa (JJA Consulting Group) brought out the Safety Car early in the race.
Once underway, Kingsley again gapped the field to claim his second win of the weekend ahead of Trende and John Modystach (Prosurv 997) in third - his best result in the category - followed by Terry Knight (Standwood Building Solutions 996) and John Goodacre (Gap Solutions 997).
Kingsley lost the lead to Trende at the start of the final 36-lapper, but regained the front position later in the opening lap before again pulling a gap to his rivals. His lead would soon diminish though after a safety car was called to allow officials to extinguish a grass fire at turn six.
When the race resumed, Kingsley continued his form at the front to take his third win for the weekend. “It was a better result that I could ever dream of for my return to the track. The car was very impressive throughout the race meeting. We just pegged away a little bit at a time to make the car better,” Kingsley said.
“Towards the end of the stint the 997s were pretty quick so we tried to keep the tyres in good condition and get to the finish line. But the car was fantastic and it was a great result for the boys.”
Trende finished second to secure the round win in the 997 Cup Class, ahead of Lago in third, which handed him the inaugural Jim Richards Endurance Trophy.
“It’s a good trophy to add to the cabinet so I’m pretty honoured to win the series within the series,” Lago admitted.
Jeff Bobik (Creative Colour 997) finished fourth in Race 3 - and second for the round in the 997 Cup Class - ahead of Goodacre in fifth and Terry Knight in sixth for the race and second in the 996 Cup Class.
Tony Ricciardello extended his Kerrick Sports Sedan Series points lead at Morgan Park with a dominant display in his Red Rooster Afla Romeo GTV/Chev. The six-time champion dominated qualifying in the opening session by such a margin that he didn't bother with session two.
Scott Butler suffered a drive-shaft failure in the same session after recording the second fastest time, and had to arrange a return trip to Menai overnight to find a replacement. Sadly it didn't help his performance in the opening of three races, the Menai Blinds Camaro/Chev one of the first into the pits with no brakes..
“The pedal went most of the way to the floor, and after that it was all over,” he admitted with frustration, “only thing I could do was come in. There’s still a big vibration in the driveline, but there’s not much we can do about that at the moment.”
S2 class stalwart Damian Johnson was out too in his iconic LC Torana, an oil pressure issue in the number one cylinder ultimately forcing a hole in the block and an early trip home.
Dean Camm was next out, the big Five Star Fencing & Gates Corvette/Chev jammed in gear after the shift mechanism came apart mid-race.
None of this though impacted Ricciardello who went on to dominate the opening race, turning a best of 1:12.7215, six tenths under James Sera’s lap record from 12 months prior. Shane Bradford held on for second in his Aston Air Conditioning Camaro/Chev, with Bob McLoughlin (Marinelli’s Mechanical Commodore/Chev) third.
Race two was a repeat of race one, with Ricciardello off into the distance on his way to a new lap record (1:12.6124), whilst behind him it was chaos as first Butler returned to the pits with fluctuating water temperature, before a smoky McLoughlin stopped on the back of the circuit, but not before Shane Bradford fell off the circuit trying to pass him at turn one a few laps prior.
That was some of the big podium contenders out, which allowed the consistent Chris Donnelly to take his Aston Air Conditioning Falcon through to second, with recovering team-mate Shane Bradford hot on his tail.
Butler was clearly disappointed to have failed to complete his second race, and lamented a championship opportunity which he felt was now gone. "I think it will be easy to fix, but it was too risky to keep going," he admitted afterwards, but that’s the championship over.”
Sports Sedans were the final race of the weekend, and it was again Ricciardello who was happy to find that his punt on the new Dunlop tyre had worked out well, his fastest lap of the race, still inside Sera’s best from 2010 as he charged away to take a perfect score away from Queensland, and an increased points lead with just one round remaining.
“That was a great result for us,” he admitted. “We weren’t sure what to expect from the Morgan Park circuit because obviously we weren’t here last year, but we were also uncertain about the new tyre, so it wasn’t all that easy a weekend, there was a lot to do to dial the car in to get the best out of the tyre.
“Next up it’s Phillip Island which might suit the Audi a little better, but we’re running as well as we ever have and learning more with each outing with the new tyres, so it should be an interesting weekend.”
Ed Singleton (MPA Project Group) may have wrapped up the 2011 Radical Australia Cup title courtesy of two consistent finishes during the sprint races on Saturday, but it was 2010 champion Peter Opie (Radical Australia) who was the standout at Morgan Park.
Despite leading the championship prior to the penultimate Eastern Creek round, Opie scored badly, whilst Singleton took full advantage of the pace of co-driver James Winslow to come into Morgan Park with a 60 point buffer over Opie.
Opie's mandate for the season finale was clear, win, and win everything.. He did just that, but it was always going to be a tough ask, with 80 points on offer, and the consistent Singleton running inside the top five all weekend.
It was a moot point by Sunday morning after Singleton put the title out of question, so it was a clean slate for the final 50-minute enduro of the year, and the gloves were off. It started early too, Singleton spinning on his way out of the pits, forcing him to start rear of field, which was in the end a godsend as the action started off the line, action which ultimately forced Richard Bloomfield (Key Produce) and the other driver in the equation for the title - Simon Haggarty - into retirement after less than 200 metres.
Bloomfield had been starting like a jet all weekend and charged forward off the third row, to right where Singleton would have been, when a bottleneck forced four cars into two grooves, Bloomfield turned across from the outside of the track to the pitlane wall, collecting Haggarty in the process.
After the Safety Car returned the field to green, Opie and Formula JK Asia pilot Duvasehn Padayachee stormed away from the field, with Radical Team Melbourne's Robert Baird a brilliant third early before succumbing to Greg Smith (Radical Australia).
After the compulsory pitstop cycles, Opie remained in front, whilst Padaychee's co-driver Bill Medland had a high speed off at the sweeper, knocking off the nosecone, which bounced back and hit the charging Tony Palmer.
Medland was out, whilst Palmer continued to charge, attacking third placed Oliver Smith in the dying stages in a move that saw the two come together, spinning Smith to the infield. He attempted to rejoin but became stranded on the high kerb, ending his run, Palmer handed a 33 second penalty post-race for the infringement,
Up front though it was all Opie, who took maximum points for the weekend, with Byron Smith home a brilliant second, and Palmer (despite the penalty) third, Gary Walker was fourth and Tony Haggarty a deserving fifth.
Matt Lovell (Batteries Direct AU Falcon) drove one of the rounds of his life at Morgan Park to secure the Saloon Car round victory, after reigning Kumho Tyres V8 Touring Car champion Tony Evangelou (salooncars.net.au VT Commodore) did everything in his power to unsettle the South Australian.
Evangelou started the weekend strongly with pole ahead of local star Matt Shanks, but the Victorian was out mid-race in race one with a tyre failure. Harley Phelan (Kleenduct VT Commodore) was also out with tyre failure, although his tyre was still connected to the rim, but both had parted company with the left-rear necessitating a return to the pits on a tilt-tray.
Up front though Shanks led away from the line, and recorded an eight second win over fellow Queenslander Lindsay Kearns (Goldwell Haircare AU Falcon) and the recovering Lovell who was forced to run a spare Mark Primmer diff after dramas with his own.
“The last couple of rounds we’ve had a gearbox issue with top gear, and we finally worked out what the problem was, but now the drama has gone along the driveline to the diff and we discovered the spool was not right, so we’ve had one brought up from Melbourne,” the new championship points leader confirmed.
Clearly the replacement worked as Lovell took victory in both races two and three, although the result may have been different had Evangelou started further forward in the pack, the Holden driver storming through the field from the rear in race two to cross the line third behind Lovell and Coleby Cowham (AU Falcon) in what category manager Les Morrall exclaimed was the best race of the season.. “Awesome,” he grinned.
Off the start for the final race, Lovell grabbed the lead, and was hounded all the way by Evangelou who was never further than a car length away, the duo locked together for the full 10 lap journey, with Cowham holding Bevan Garioch (Kart Tourque/Valley Longwall International AU Falcon) and Chris Berry (Loscom Racing AU Falcon) at bay.
Lovell’s round win hands him a strong championship lead with two rounds remaining, the South Australian now on top with 621 points, ahead of Jamieson (466), Geoff Brown (412), Primmer (397) and Ian Chivas (350).
The Swift Racing Series continued to turn on some great on-track action over the Morgan park weekend, starting with Morgan Haber’s (Haber Excavations) maiden pole position on Saturday, and followed by Allan Jarvis’ (Achilles) second race win.
The always spectacular reverse grid race was first up on Sunday morning, and a superb start by Mackay teenager Haber saw him come through the field from sixth to lead by the end of the opening lap.
Allan Jarvis though wasn’t about to let Haber get away, and he fought back to take the lead as Haber retired with a handling issue that developed a vibration in the car.
This gave former V8 Ute pilot Steve Robinson the opportunity to push Jarvis, but the Swift Series rookie was unable to find his way past settling for second at the flag, with Brooke Leech ultimately getting the better of former Group C Touring Car star Peter McLeod for her maiden podium result.
With Haber off the rear again for race three, Jarvis knew he had to get away quickly and open a gap to the teenager from the start, the Toasted Motorsport pilot doing just that with Robinson in close pursuit.
Sadly Haber was unable to make it to the leaders after becoming involved with a battle between Leech, McLeod and Rob Jarvis, leaving Robinson to push Allan Jarvis all the way to the flag, the pressure forcing Jarvis off in the closing stages to allow Robinson through for the win.
Despite finishing just second, Allan Jarvis was crowned the round winner, his first in the series, the result handing him the championship points lead with two rounds remaining.
There may have been times in the past six years where people forgot that Chris Gilmour went wheel-to-wheel with now-V8 Supercar star Karl Reindler for the 2004 Australian Formula 3 Championship title.
That year they fought tooth-and-nail all season to go into the final round on the streets of the Gold Coast split by the smallest of margins. And although history will show that Reindler eventually won the title, Gilmour’s competition all year made it one of the classics.
This weekend’s fourth round of the Formula 3 Australian Drivers Championship has reminded people of just that fact, as the Queenslander not only broke a seven-year winless streak but dominated proceedings to sweep the weekend.
Gilmour won both of Sunday’s races to rocket to the top of the championship standings with three rounds to go.
After taking victory the first race, Gilmour won the second ‘sprint’ race but not before fending off second-placed Bryce Moore and John Magro all race long in a tense battle.
The feature race was no easier a mission, the bright red All Properties Group Dallara again fending off Magro all race to win and take his first ever round clean sweep
“It’s the one I wanted, it’s brilliant and puts our championship right on track,” Gilmour beamed after race three today.
“The car has been getting quicker and quicker all weekend and the final race was the best yet. It was a tough battle with John but I felt like I was capable of keeping him behind because it’s very tough to pass here.
“I had a target of coming here and getting a ‘sweep’,” Gilmour added. “With (James) Winslow away I needed to make sure that we took as much advantage as possible and aside from missing out on a couple of bonus points for fastest laps, it’s the best result we could have asked for.”
Bryce Moore looked set for another strong result - after finishing second the sprint race - but was cruelly robbed of a better result in the feature after his car had an electrical issue on the grid before the race start.
Magro’s second place did enough to move him to a clear second in the championship, with the absent Winslow now third and Moore still well in contention in fourth place.
Bryce Moore’s misfortune allowed Steel Guiliana the opportunity to sweep through and finish the main race third, but not before continuing his massive season-long battle with Forpark Australia scholarship rival Ben Gersekowski.
The local driver had the early advantage in the feature race - after taking the points in the sprint race - but Guiliana took advantage of a good run off the final corner to pass up the inside at turn four in the second half of the race.
Gersekowski was fourth by less than two car lengths and the pair remains virtually inseparable in both the outright and class standings, whilst Roman Krumins moved to a clear third in the class point score after a consistent weekend with great pace in the second BF Racing-prepared Dallara.
Team Mitsubishi Ralliart [TMR] continued its steamrolling of the Australian Manufacturers Championship for Production Cars presented by VIP Petfoods with an emphatic win in both one-hour races at Morgan Park.
The gun pilots Stuart Kostera and Ian ‘Inky’ Tulloch briefly surrendered a significant race lead in the opening leg of the third round, and despite an ill-fitting safety harness for Tulloch after the driver change, they were still able to win by a significant margin.
The result was a one-two-three for the Class C Extreme Performance Mitsubishi Lancers with two EVO 9s - Dylan Thomas and Jim Pollicina - chasing the race winning EVO X.
Fourth in the opening stanza, also on the lead lap, and first in Class C was the Mazda 3 MPS of Jake Camilleri while one tour down and best of Class B was the BMW 335i of Peter O’Donnell who had to seen off the challengers of Class B rivals Grant Sherrin (BMW 135i) and Jeremy Gray (Falcon FPV F6).
Class C’s Colin Osborne and Hadrian Morrall both figured in the top ten - ahead of the brakeless Gray while the class battle of the race was in Class D where the two driver combinations of Matt McGill and Geoff Brunsdon (Toyota Celica) and Decklan and Phil Kirkham (Ford Fiesta) were 49 seconds apart after the single driver entries of Trevor Keene (Mini Cooper S) and Richard Gartner (Renault Clio) failed with gearbox and engine dramas respectively.
Grant Phillips in the Proton mastered Class E ahead of Paul Nelson while Greg Symes who had moved from a Class C BMW to an Evo 9 in Class A also incurred engine woes as problems also hit the Mini Cooper JWC of Michael Sherrin.
TMR completed the double by winning the second leg, Kostera and Tulloch continued to dominate the series with an unbeaten record, going back-to-back at Morgan park after dominating the same event 12-months prior.
Like the Saturday race, the duo led from the outset, briefly let the lead go at their mandatory pitstop, before resuming at the front for another comprehensive victory in their Lancer EVO X. “We could have hung around and made a spectacle of it but you can get yourself into all sorts of problems,” Kostera admitted.
Second again went to the Class C rivals Thomas and Pollicina in their EVO 9s while Camilleri brought his Mazda 3 MPS home fourth, on the lead lap, and at the head of Class C. For much of the early part of the race, he was involved in a great scrap with the Class B BMWs of Peter O’Donnell and Grant Sherrin.
The latter was quick but didn’t have the consistency to maintain the lap times as he ultimately fell back to eighth while O’Donnell scored another fifth ahead of Osborne and Morrall in their team Mazdas. Sherrin still finished second in Class B, one position ahead of the Falcon FPV F6 of Gray.
With a reliable Proton under him, Phillips was tenth and winner of Class E ahead of Nelson in the Yaris. Michael Sherrin finished next, also taking Class I in his Mini JWC.
McGill and Brunsdon were leading Class D in their Toyota Celica until the driver change where the Ford Fiesta of Decklan and Phil Kirkham took over. However the Celica’s engine went up in smoke whilst the other was also a non-finisher.
Action from the fifth round of the Shannons Nationals presented by Hi-Tec Oils from Morgan Park can be caught on SBS Speedweek and SPEED TV’s Inside Speed in coming weeks - keep an eye on www.thenational.com.au for details.
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