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[RADICAL] It's Singleton's crown!
by Sean Henshelwood
Opie dominates, but it’s Singleton’s crown!
Rnd#5 - Radical Australia Cup [FINAL]
Morgan Park, QLD
12-14 August, 2011
“What a great track,” was the common theme of practice from the Radical Australia Cup competitors, many of whom were having their maiden run on the regional Queensland circuit during the fifth round of the Shannons Nationals presented by Hi-Tec Oils.
“It’s pretty bumpy though,”was usually the follow-up. That said, Radical Australia’s team-manager Garth Walden admitted that despite the bumps, he was running a lower ride height than the SR3s used at Winton during round three.
“Bloomy [Richard Bloomfield] and I ran here last year at an event, anddiscovered how undulating the surface was, so we worked on a good solid setup for this weekend, and have adopted a ride height that’s actually not as severe as Winton.”
Bloomfield admitted prior to practice that his run late last year would put him in good stead, but that the advantage wouldn’t last long.
Sure enough, despite a number of spins and an ill-handling car, Bloomfield (Key Produce) topped the timesheets first time out (1:18.8335) ahead of reigning champion Peter Opie (Radical Australia) and the increasingly competitive Phil Anseline (WT Partnerships).
It wasn’t all plain-sailing for Bloomfield, who was struggling with rear end grip, which hampered his progress in session two.
Peter Opie though was having no such drama, and with a sixty point deficit to championship leader Ed Singleton (MPA Projects Group), he knew that his only chance of back-to-back titles was to attack and win EVERYTHING..
By the close of practice he was well and truly on target (1:14.2216),setting a time in the final session, more than two seconds clear of Tony Palmer (Radical Events) and Byron Smith (Radical Australia).
“The car feels great,” Opie admitted, “but it’s only Friday..”
And where was Singleton? Fourth.. “There’s no sense doing anything crazy today,” he admitted post practice. “I’ve done the maths, I know where I need to be, but there’s still a long way to go..”
With a number of clashing dates and business commitments, the entries were down slightly for the 2011 RAC final, with another new crew in rookies Peter Johnston and Brett Trevillian sharing driving duties in a 1340cc ‘Drive Day’ car, whilst a late inclusion from JK Racing Series Asia [former Formula BMW Asia cars] regular Duvashen Padayachee in Chris Medland’s stunning chrome SR3RS had everybody talking.
Padayachee had been one of the stars of Eastern Creek despite campaigning a 1340cc DriveDay car, and his status as a ‘pro’ driver - the only one in the field – meant the teams would be watching him closely as the weekend progressed.
One driver who was watching Padayachee’s progress with interest was Peter Opie, as the two of them traded fastest times in the opening qualifying session, Padayachee (1:14.3614) holding the pole for the bulk of the session until Opie pulled out a blinder in the final seconds(1:14.1213).
“I couldn’t get a clean lap,” the reigning champion admitted afterwards. “And I was driving as well as I could. On my lastl ap I went too deep into turn nine too deep and almost came to a stop, and that was my fastest lap.”
Padayachee too was on a flyer on his final lap, and bumped the car into fifth gear as he brushed thekerb on the final corner.. “And that was that,” he shrugged, “I had tohold fifth to the line, and that was 15 one hundredths slower than mybest lap – that could have been it, but I’m happy with a front rowstart, I’m just not sure how I’ll go getting the car off the line..”
Withcar owner Chris Medland’s brother Bill starting the car for Q2, Opiewas untroubled (1:14.4578) on his way to maximum points fromqualifying, with Ed Singleton (MPA Projects Group) showing his handlate in the session to record the second fastest time.
“It tookme a while to find a groove, so I’m happy with that,” he admitted. “Nowall I need to do is stay out of trouble, but that’s easier said thandone..”
Third fastest was the ever-consistent Simon Haggarty, whowas the third driver in mathematical contention for the title, withOllie Smith continuing on the tradition of spinning the WT Partnershipscar of Phil Anseline, the pair taking bets on who could turn the mostrevolutions for the weekend..
Fifth fastest, despite being closeto the top for much of the session was Bloomfield who had rediscoveredhis opening practice form after issues with the rear end of the car –positions two to five covered by a quarter of a second, paving the wayfor an interesting afternoons racing.
Off pole for race one, Opiecharged away from the line, but Richard Bloomfield nailed the start tocharge from the third row into second.
As he predicted,Padayachee struggled to get off the line, and was swamped by the seriesregulars, dropping back to eighth by turn three.
Opie’s openinglap signalled to the field that he was in a league of his own, hisfirst lap more than three seconds faster than the rest of the field ashe set about opening an unassailable lead.
Behind him Bloomfieldwas comfortably second, as Padaychee started to work his way forward.He was sixth by the close of lap one, fourth two laps later, andsetting some seriously quick times.
Two laps from home he’dcaught Bloomfield, but had to find a way past. Bloomy wasn’t going tomake it easy, and the only opening Padayachee could find, three cornersfrom home, he went for.
“I had to have a go,” he admitted aftercrossing the line fourth, his move failing as he was forced onto thekerb, spinning the gorgeous #9 SR3RS allowing Bloomfield to takesecond, and in frustrating news for Opie, allowing Singleton through tothird.
The points deficit was now 53 points, with 62 points still on offer, it wasn’t over yet..
TonyPalmer (Radical Events) was fifth after suffering a damper failure inearly practice which threw his pre-race preparation into disarray, fromNathan Brumby (Ansarada Radical Works Team) who in just his second RACevent, couldn’t wipe the smile off his face. “That was awesome,” hebeamed afterwards.
Seventh was Greg Smith who like Bloomfieldstarted brilliantly and was looking to attack for a top five position,when he got caught out at turn two.
“Peter Opie had given me atip on how to carry speed through turn one, into two, so I ranged up onthe car in front at good speed, and thought about a pass but hesitatedand backed out and lost aero grip, so that sent me down the grass,” headmitted with frustration.
Eighth was Simon Haggarty who was oneof the movers in the field after a poor [for him] qualifying session,he was following Palmer around picking up positions when they caughtRobert Baird who was having his best run of the year. It took a numberof laps to round up the Victorian, but as Haggarty tried to emulatePalmer, he braked too deep and spun, taking Baird with him.
“Iwent so deep into that corner,” Baird admitted afterwards, “but Simonwent deeper. I knew he wouldn’t pull it up, so planned for thecross-over to get him on the exit, but he spun, and I had nowhere togo.. That was it. The car is brilliant around here, I’m really lovingit. Hopefully we can recover for a better finish tomorrow in theenduro.”
Bloomfield again charged off the line in race two,taking Singleton in the process as he jumped to third behind Opie andOllie Smith. By turn six he knew he had to attack Smith, and as theycame to the braking point Bloomfield was surprised to see Smith brakeearly, and he threw himself off the track to avoid contact, rejoiningat rear of field.
As he had done in race one, Opie was more thanthree seconds up on the field by the close of the opening lap, asbehind him a freight train started between Ollie Smith, Singleton, TonyPalmer, Simon Haggarty and Byron Smith that would last the bulk of therace. Despite a number of ‘looks’ at various parts of the circuit,no-one really looked like they would make a pass despite the relativelyslow speed of the train.
Up front Opie was comfortable in thelead, so he quickly dropped his pace to that of the chasing pack someten seconds back, at least until Radical Australia team-manager GarthWalden got on the radio and advised him that the recovering Bloomfieldhad set the fastest lap to record a valuable championship point.
Opie dug deep and put together a 1:14.9017 to regain the point and settled back into an easy rhythm.
Behindhim there was much tension as the five cars continued to circulate inposition, whilst all the time Walden was on the radio telling them to“Attack..!!”
"Ed was never going to challenge, he needed thepoints, so he would have made room, but they're all too gentlemanly..!”a frustrated Walden admitted afterwards.
In the end positionsremained unchanged, Bloomfield the biggest mover in the field, comingfrom the rear to seventh, just a lap short of catching the battle forsecond.
Despite another comfortable win for Opie, thechampionship was decided, Singleton crowned the 2011 Radical AustraliaCup with a second consistent run through to third.
"I'm stoked,"he admitted afterwards with a broad smile. “We knew what we needed todo, and the aim was to keep out of trouble in today’s sprint races toensure the result was out of question for tomorrow. Eighth was thecutoff, if we finished worse than that we would have had to completethe 50-minute race tomorrow with complete caution, fortunately thoughthat's it, so we can enjoy the race tomorrow and go on the attack."
Third was Tony Palmer, who like Haggarty and Byron Smith behind him, was happy to hold station.
"Idid think about it," Tony Palmer admitted afterwards about an assaulton Singleton’s position, "then I elected not to.. Ed has done a greatjob, and it was great to have the five of us racing so closelytogether."
Sunday dawned a new day and signaled the final roundof Radical Australia Cup for 2011. The champion had been crowned andwas keen to go back to racing, although his day didn’t start quite aswell as he’d hoped, spinning at the exit of the pits on the warm-up lap…
Whilsthe had the opportunity to start in his correct position (the secondrow), he started rear of field, which considering what was about tounfold at the front of the field, may have been a blessing..
Ashe had done in the sprint races, Richard Bloomfield got a monster startoff the third row and started to move towards the front of the field asa bottle-neck occurred in front of him, ultimately spinning him fromthe outside of the circuit across into the infield wall, taking SimonHaggarty with him.
That immediately eliminated both cars, and putan end to any chance Haggarty had of second in the championship,although with Peter Opie’s all dominating performance, it would havebeen an unlikely result.
Whilst all of this was going on, RobertBaird was continuing on with the forward progression of Radical TeamMelbourne to be third behind Opie and Padayachee as the Safety Car wasbrought onto the circuit to clear the carnage on the front straight.
“Ihad a great start,” Baird admitted, “and could see the field workingtheir way to the left, so I went right and around the incident.
“From there we had a pretty clean run to the line.”
Onthe restart Opie and Padayachee streeted the field up to the pit-stops,the duo trading fastest times in the 16s, the 15s and then the 14s,Opie opening a gap of around two seconds to keep the edge.
ForPadayachee though, it wasn’t an ideal situation, as being a ‘pro’ranked driver, he would need to stop during his compulsory pit-stop foran additional 30-seconds, and at this pace, Opie held a comfortableadvantage.
As much of the field started to pit after the20-minute mark for their compulsory stop, the leaders stayed out,Padayache one of the last to come in before the window closed, to handover to Bill Medland.
Sadly for Bill, his run would beshort-lived after a big off on the fast sweeper, threw him onto thekerb which tore off the front spoiler and tucked it under the frontwheels. From there he was a passenger.
He wasn’t the only victimeither, part of the front spoiler hitting Tony Palmer who was chargingthrough behind him for position.
“I didn’t know what hit me,”Palmer admitted afterwards. Fortunately it didn’t stop him, and withMedland coming to a stop well off the circuit, the field continued tocirculate and Palmer continued to charge.
After all the pitstops were completed, it was Opie comfortably in front from Byron Smith, Ollie Smith, Palmer and Gary Walker.
Palmerwas the big mover, and he was on Ollie quickly – sadly his firstassault didn’t quite work, dropping him off the circuit, forcing asecond charge.
Second time around he attacked at turn seven,after getting a good run through turn six, but as he approached thecorner, it was clear Ollie hadn’t seen him, and that left Palmer halfcommitted resulting in contact. That spun Ollie around and off thecircuit, and whilst he kept the engine going and rejoined, he becamecaught on a kerb and was unable to get the rear wheels to grip anddrive him off - his race was run..
With just a handful of lapsremaining, the field was allowed to continue, whilst a clearlydisappointed Smith was left to watch his certain top four finishevaporate.
In the end though it was all Opie, the 2010 championcrossing the line comfortably clear of Byron Smith, with Palmer third.Post-race though he was served a penalty after the onboard footage wasreviewed by Driving Standards Observer Paul Stokell, giving Palmer a 33second penalty – his margin to fourth placed Gary Walker; 34 seconds..The result stood, and Palmer was second for the round..
Opie wasclearly chuffed to have dominated the weekend, but lamented what hadbeen a difficult weekend at Eastern Creek, a result which cost himalmost certain championship victory, but, in the end, Ed Singleton didall that he needed to, and despite a deflating left rear tyre and anadditional stop for repairs, he managed to hang on for seventh.
Intrue Radical fashion, the result of the final round provided morefantastic results, with Tony Haggarty making up for the disappointmentof his race two exclusion at Eastern Creek with fifth, ahead of thebeaming Nathan Brumby. “I just can’t get enough of this,” he admittedpost race.
“I had a huge tank-slapper and a spin on the dirty circuit where Bill [Medland] went off, but apart from that it was awesome..”
Wellthat’s it for season 2011. Make sure you keep in touch with all thedevelopments as the 2012 season approaches, with as many as sevenrounds in the championship.
The Radical Australia Cup is proudlysupported by MPA Projects, Industrie clothing, Travelplan Holidays,Shell Racing Solutions and Dunlop.
2011 - Radical Australia Cup
Rnd#5 [FINAL], Morgan Park, QLD - August 12-14
Qualifying#1
1. Peter Opie - Radical Australia (1:14.1213)
2. Duvashen Padayachee - Radical Australia (1:14.3614)
3. Simon Haggarty - Haggarty Racing Team (1:15.3058)
4. Ed Singleton - MPA Projects (1:15.3193)
5. Richard Bloomfield - Key Produce (1:15.3426)
6. Robert Baird - Radical Team Melbourne (1:15.5170)
7. Tony Palmer - Radical Events (1:15.7036)
8. Greg Smith - Radical Australia (1:16.1862)
9. Nathan Brumby - Ansarada Radical Works Team (1:16.7275)
10. Phil Anseline - WT Partnership (1:16.8876)
11. Peter Johnston - Radical Events (1:20.0884)
12. Tony Haggarty - Haggarty Racing Team (NTR)
Qualifying#2
1. Peter Opie - Radical Australia (1:14.4578)
2. Ed Singleton - MPA Projects (1:15.2932)
3. Simon Haggarty - Haggarty Racing Team (1:15.3924)
4. Oliver Smith - WT Partnership (1:15.4872)
5. Richard Bloomfield - Key Produce (1:15.5692)
6. Tony Palmer - Radical Events (1:16.1303)
7. Byron Smith - Radical Australia (1:16.1878)
8. Nathan Brumby - Ansarada Radical Works Team (1:17.5261)
9. Gary Walker - Radical Team Melbourne (1:18.1401)
10. Tony Haggarty - Haggarty Racing Team (1:18.7784)
11. Bill Medland - Radical Australia (1:20.2480)
12. Brett Trevillian - Radical Events (1:21.1628)
Race#1 (12-laps)
1. Peter Opie - Radical Australia (12-laps)
2. Richard Bloomfield - Key Produce
3. Ed Singleton - MPA Projects
4. Duvashen Padayachee - Radical Australia
5. Tony Palmer - Radical Events
6. Nathan Brumby - Ansarada Radical Works Team
7. Greg Smith - Radical Australia
8. Simon Haggarty - Haggarty Racing Team
9. Phil Anseline - WT Partnership
10. Robert Baird - Radical Team Melbourne
11. Tony Haggarty - Haggarty Racing Team
12. Peter Johnston - Radical Events
Fastest lap: Peter Opie (1:14.5278) - lap 3
Race#2 (12-laps)
1. Peter Opie - Radical Australia (12-laps)
2. Oliver Smith - WT Partnership
3. Ed Singleton - MPA Projects
4. Tony Palmer - Radical Events
5. Simon Haggarty - Haggarty Racing Team
6. Byron Smith - Radical Australia
7. Richard Bloomfield - Key Produce
8. Gary Walker - Radical Team Melbourne
9. Tony Haggarty - Haggarty Racing Team
10. Nathan Brumby - Ansarada Radical Works Team
11. Brett Trevillian - Radical Events
12. Bill Medland - Radical Australia
Fastest lap: Peter Opie (1:14.9017) - lap 10
Race#3 (50-minutes)
1. Peter Opie - Radical Australia (36-laps)
2. Greg Smith/Byron Smith - Radical Australia
3. Tony Palmer - Radical Events
4. Robert Baird/Gary Walker - Radical Team Melbourne
5. Tony Haggarty - Haggarty Racing Team (35-laps)
6. Nathan Brumby - Ansarada Radical Works Team
7. Ed Singleton - MPA Projects
8. Peter Johnstone/Brett Trevillian - Radical Events (32-laps)
DNF. Phil Anseline/Oliver Smith - WT Partnership (31-laps)
DNF. Duvashen Padayachee/Bill Medland - Radical Australia (23-laps)
DNF. Simon Haggarty - Haggarty Racing Team (0-laps)
DNF. Richard Bloomfield - Key Produce (0-laps)
Fastest lap: Peter Opie (1:14.6450) - lap 24
Championship points (after round five of five);
1. Ed Singleton - 326 points
2. Peter Opie - 299
3. Simon Haggarty - 242
4. Tony Palmer - 231
5. Tim Berryman - 191
6. Richard Bloomfield - 185
7. Greg/Byron Smith - 184
8. Robert Baird/Gary Walker - 176
9. Glyn Edis - 164
10. Jonathan Miles - 151
11. Chris Medland - 149
12. Phil Anseline - 139
13. Sue Hughes - 115
14. Oliver Smith - 110
15. Tony Haggarty - 91
16. Steve Shelley - 74
17. Nathan Brumby - 72
18. Brett Sutton - 60
19. George Pethard - 30
20. George Davis - 27
21. Shane Otten - 0
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