Race Results & reports
Race 1
Race 2
Race 3
Race 4
Race 5
Race 6
Race 7
Points table
Round 1 - Mornington Park - 13/5/24
1st - Callan Thomas
2nd - Adrian Gray
3rd - Ben Lewis
1st - Callan Thomas
2nd - Adrian Gray
3rd - Ben Lewis
Round 2 - Sorell Creek - 20/5/24
1st - Bruce Thomas
2nd - Dave Bantoft
3rd - Rob Golley
1st - Bruce Thomas
2nd - Dave Bantoft
3rd - Rob Golley
Race Report - Round 2
Well, the full implications of the vast array of rule changes implemented by Bruce were on full display in round 2 of the 1970-79 F1 series this week. In the first round to be held at a Mag-Braid Track, it gave us a very good comparison between the non-mag round 1 & a full mag round. What was learned was that it will be a series of 2 fields. Those in the full magnet camp will be relying on big results on the mag-braid tracks of Sorell Creek & Gotham Park, while those in the Policar (no magnet) camp will have quite a pace advantage on the Mornington Park & Stratton Valley circuits.
Those left with the old Fly March, Lotus, Brabham’s and who have a foot in each camp, will be relying on middle of the field finishes on all tracks to see if consistency is the key in the overall series. All very fascinating, and whatever drivers feel about the more liberal rule change it has certainly had one positive affect, and this is on the sheer variety of cars on show over the full field compared to the previous series.
So, anyway, to the racing…..and the blueprint for the evening was set very early. In fact almost as soon as Rob arrived for practice he was banging out 5.6 second laps on red with no problem at all. So, with those expectations set, it was up to the rest of the field to do the best they could to keep pace. Unsurprisingly it was Bruce who “kept pace” with ease. The Red Scalextric Brabham was not much more than a red blur as it flew around the track notching up 5.5 laps with regularity, and even dipping into the rarefied air of the 5.3 range. 120 laps later & it was an extremely convincing win for Bruce by a mere 8 laps, leaving some of us looking forward to the non-mag round next week!
From there it was a little more competitive, and it was great drive from DB who jumped up into 2nd place on the night. His total of 112 laps was shared with early pace-setter Rob, but DB snuck past in on track position to take the place from Rob in 3rd. A surprising 4th was the writer with a total of 110 laps and who will be one of the drivers relying on consistent mid-pack finishes over the course of the series. In 5th & on 101 Laps JB was next in line followed by the first of the true non-mag cars with the Policar of Scott racking up a very good 100 laps to take out 6th.
Also sharing 100 laps was Dave Gray, but Dave was shuffled down to 7th on track position in the end. In 8th, Blairs total of 98 laps was 1 to the good of Adrians 97 with Adrian finishing 9th. Adrian will be one to watch on the quick & smooth flowing Stratton Valley Circuit next week though.
Ben on 95 laps rounded out the top 10, with Rhys in 11th on 94. Callan & Caie shared 94 laps in the battle for 12th & 13th, each with their own challenges. Callan with a wheel on bodywork issue that stymied his chances of a higher place finish, and Caine battling manfully with his non-mag March against the magnets & higher powered cars of the rest of the field.
It even came down the the wire for 14th & 15 as well, with Luke & Tom sharing 91 laps, and Luke taking out the place on track.
So, a big field of 15 this week, and it all points to another very interesting round next week with no doubt some completely different results.
Well, the full implications of the vast array of rule changes implemented by Bruce were on full display in round 2 of the 1970-79 F1 series this week. In the first round to be held at a Mag-Braid Track, it gave us a very good comparison between the non-mag round 1 & a full mag round. What was learned was that it will be a series of 2 fields. Those in the full magnet camp will be relying on big results on the mag-braid tracks of Sorell Creek & Gotham Park, while those in the Policar (no magnet) camp will have quite a pace advantage on the Mornington Park & Stratton Valley circuits.
Those left with the old Fly March, Lotus, Brabham’s and who have a foot in each camp, will be relying on middle of the field finishes on all tracks to see if consistency is the key in the overall series. All very fascinating, and whatever drivers feel about the more liberal rule change it has certainly had one positive affect, and this is on the sheer variety of cars on show over the full field compared to the previous series.
So, anyway, to the racing…..and the blueprint for the evening was set very early. In fact almost as soon as Rob arrived for practice he was banging out 5.6 second laps on red with no problem at all. So, with those expectations set, it was up to the rest of the field to do the best they could to keep pace. Unsurprisingly it was Bruce who “kept pace” with ease. The Red Scalextric Brabham was not much more than a red blur as it flew around the track notching up 5.5 laps with regularity, and even dipping into the rarefied air of the 5.3 range. 120 laps later & it was an extremely convincing win for Bruce by a mere 8 laps, leaving some of us looking forward to the non-mag round next week!
From there it was a little more competitive, and it was great drive from DB who jumped up into 2nd place on the night. His total of 112 laps was shared with early pace-setter Rob, but DB snuck past in on track position to take the place from Rob in 3rd. A surprising 4th was the writer with a total of 110 laps and who will be one of the drivers relying on consistent mid-pack finishes over the course of the series. In 5th & on 101 Laps JB was next in line followed by the first of the true non-mag cars with the Policar of Scott racking up a very good 100 laps to take out 6th.
Also sharing 100 laps was Dave Gray, but Dave was shuffled down to 7th on track position in the end. In 8th, Blairs total of 98 laps was 1 to the good of Adrians 97 with Adrian finishing 9th. Adrian will be one to watch on the quick & smooth flowing Stratton Valley Circuit next week though.
Ben on 95 laps rounded out the top 10, with Rhys in 11th on 94. Callan & Caie shared 94 laps in the battle for 12th & 13th, each with their own challenges. Callan with a wheel on bodywork issue that stymied his chances of a higher place finish, and Caine battling manfully with his non-mag March against the magnets & higher powered cars of the rest of the field.
It even came down the the wire for 14th & 15 as well, with Luke & Tom sharing 91 laps, and Luke taking out the place on track.
So, a big field of 15 this week, and it all points to another very interesting round next week with no doubt some completely different results.
Round 3 - Stratton Valley - 27/5/24
1st - Callan Thomas
2nd - John Batich
3rd - Scott Wyman
1st - Callan Thomas
2nd - John Batich
3rd - Scott Wyman
Round 4 - Mornington Park - 03/6/25
1st - John Batich
2nd - Ben Lewis
3rd - Adrian Gray
1st - John Batich
2nd - Ben Lewis
3rd - Adrian Gray
Round 5 - Stratton Valley - 10/6/25
1st - John Batich 2nd - Bruce Thomas 3rd - Callan Thomas |
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Round 6 - Sorell Creek - 24/6/24
1st - John Batich
2nd - Callan Thomas
3rd - Rhys Filbee
1st - John Batich
2nd - Callan Thomas
3rd - Rhys Filbee
Round 6 - Report
Well, better late than never I suppose, and we finally got to complete round 6 of the F1 series which started waay back a week ago. And it was a packed house indeed for the penultimate round with a massive 17 driver field, including a special guest from oooop North.
So, with heat times reduced to 2.5 minutes we strapped in for the first of the huge 17 heats of the round. Early pace was set from the first few of heats & after only 5 heats the 2 drivers with lap number to beat were myself & Schoee on 90 & 89 laps respectively. 1 Heat later Dave Bantoft joined the party alongside Schoee on 89 laps as well.
Heats came & went, 11 of them in fact and still the top 3 were unmoved from their podium positions. Right up until the final heat (17) of the round, at which point not 1, not 2, but 3 drivers all went flying past the incumbents & the best that any of us could managed was a 4th place for yours truly….That’s the luck of the draw I guess !.
Who were these inconsiderate souls ?
Of course, 1 of them had to be JB. A serial pest in this regard, JB always brings his best consistent form on occasions such as this & just when some of us & hoping for a couple of de-slots….JB never delivers. So another series win for JB, taking his run to 3 stright & looking very good for a series win with 1 round to go. So, who else were among the party poopers?……Callan Thomas. After seeing the state of his car in the top 3 photo from round 5, it was a minor miracle that he was able to enter a car in 1 piece, but of course in a typical bit of fortune the luck of the draw saw Callan running towards the end of the round when grip was at its highest, and he made the most of that. The 3rd joker in the pack was from further left field however. After a best of 8th in the series so far, it was Rhys who took 3rd in a huge improvement.
Therefore, after heat 17 of 17 it was JB & Callan – 93 laps, Rhys 92 taking out the top 3 this week.
4th through 6th were the initial top 3 hopefuls of myself (90 laps), Schoee & DB (89 laps each). Next in line for 7th on 84 laps was Ben in the first of the non-mag cars, 3 laps clear of Phil in the Lotus (81 laps). Tom broke into the top 10 in 9th on 80 laps, with Rob (78), Luke (77), Caine (76) & Scott (75) all in close pursuit.
Dave Gray took 14th on 67 laps, with a few mechanical problem affecting the final 3 drivers, Dennis, Adrian & Blair.
Final 1970s F1 round next week on the non-mag track on Dave Gray & it’s a 3 point lead to JB in the series currently over Callan, with daylight to 3rd.
Well, better late than never I suppose, and we finally got to complete round 6 of the F1 series which started waay back a week ago. And it was a packed house indeed for the penultimate round with a massive 17 driver field, including a special guest from oooop North.
So, with heat times reduced to 2.5 minutes we strapped in for the first of the huge 17 heats of the round. Early pace was set from the first few of heats & after only 5 heats the 2 drivers with lap number to beat were myself & Schoee on 90 & 89 laps respectively. 1 Heat later Dave Bantoft joined the party alongside Schoee on 89 laps as well.
Heats came & went, 11 of them in fact and still the top 3 were unmoved from their podium positions. Right up until the final heat (17) of the round, at which point not 1, not 2, but 3 drivers all went flying past the incumbents & the best that any of us could managed was a 4th place for yours truly….That’s the luck of the draw I guess !.
Who were these inconsiderate souls ?
Of course, 1 of them had to be JB. A serial pest in this regard, JB always brings his best consistent form on occasions such as this & just when some of us & hoping for a couple of de-slots….JB never delivers. So another series win for JB, taking his run to 3 stright & looking very good for a series win with 1 round to go. So, who else were among the party poopers?……Callan Thomas. After seeing the state of his car in the top 3 photo from round 5, it was a minor miracle that he was able to enter a car in 1 piece, but of course in a typical bit of fortune the luck of the draw saw Callan running towards the end of the round when grip was at its highest, and he made the most of that. The 3rd joker in the pack was from further left field however. After a best of 8th in the series so far, it was Rhys who took 3rd in a huge improvement.
Therefore, after heat 17 of 17 it was JB & Callan – 93 laps, Rhys 92 taking out the top 3 this week.
4th through 6th were the initial top 3 hopefuls of myself (90 laps), Schoee & DB (89 laps each). Next in line for 7th on 84 laps was Ben in the first of the non-mag cars, 3 laps clear of Phil in the Lotus (81 laps). Tom broke into the top 10 in 9th on 80 laps, with Rob (78), Luke (77), Caine (76) & Scott (75) all in close pursuit.
Dave Gray took 14th on 67 laps, with a few mechanical problem affecting the final 3 drivers, Dennis, Adrian & Blair.
Final 1970s F1 round next week on the non-mag track on Dave Gray & it’s a 3 point lead to JB in the series currently over Callan, with daylight to 3rd.
Round 7 - Mornington Park - 1/7/25
1st - Callan Thomas
2nd - Phil Kalbfell
3rd - Ben Lewis
1st - Callan Thomas
2nd - Phil Kalbfell
3rd - Ben Lewis
Series Top 3
1st - Callan Thomas
2nd - John Batich
3rd - Ben Lewis
1st - Callan Thomas
2nd - John Batich
3rd - Ben Lewis
Race Report - Round 7
Into the final round of the 1970s F1 series, and it was JB with a very slim lead over Callan Thomas in the overall points, so it would come down to this weeks results to decide the series.
In the early running, Callan put together 3 good heats & with a total of 98 laps, set a tough benchmark for JB to contend with in his later heats. And, after 2 very good brackets on Red & yellow, it was all looking promising for John going into the final bracket. Sadly, this is where things didn’t quite go to plan, and with the slightest slip up JB allowed Callan to take out the win & gain enough points to move into 1st place in the series.
Callan, 1st then with Phil on 97 laps in 2nd & Ben on 96 in 3rd making up the top 3 this week.
Just 1 lap back in 4th on 95 laps, was Adrian, and unlucky not to find himself on the podium. The battle for 5th & 6th was a close one with both drivers finishing on 94 laps, but in the end, by the small matter of the back straight, it was myself who luckily grabbed 5th ahead of JB in 6th.
7th was DB on 92, just 1 lap ahead of a great drive from Blair who finished up 8th on 91 laps in his equal best performance of the series.
Rob Golley & Schoee battled it out for 9th & 10th with their shared total of 89 laps, but Rob took the gong on track from Schoee in the top 10.
Rhys (87), Scott (86), Thomas (76) & Luke (73 laps) filled in positions 11 to 14, with the unlucky Dave Gray finishing up in 15th on 54 laps, after an inopportune visit inside just as he was due on track. His total of 0 laps on red doing nothing to help his cause this week !
So, in the washup, the end of the re-worked F1 series this year & the Top 3 of Callan, JB & Ben highlighted the range of cars participating this time. Also gives us much food for thought when pondering the possibilities for this class next time round.
