Podium Photos & Race reports
Race 1 - Shelmore Park - 16/8/22
1st - John Batich
2nd - Rhys Filbee
3rd - Phil Kalbfell
1st - John Batich
2nd - Rhys Filbee
3rd - Phil Kalbfell
Round 1 - Report
Group A Touring cars
The first round of the next new series for Group A Touring Cars saw a wide variety of makes, manufacturers, body shapes & sizes. Annoyingly though there appear to be some rules attached to this series that seem to want to govern the shape & size of some components of these vehicles. So in the last 20 minutes or so leading up to the first race we saw a flurry of work being done to :
Once the scrutineering had been done it was time for the series to begin, and what a great variety of cars we saw take the track for the pre-series field photo.
There were; BMW 635s, Jaguar XJSs, Ford Sierras, Rovers, Commodores, Mustangs, Volvos, or even a Maserati BiTurbo…..which will be of interest later on in the report…..but not much later.
*please note here, thanks to Adrian Gray who pointed out that Rhys was in fact running a Maserati BiTurbo & not another Volvo as assumed by me. I'm not sure what it was that made my mind jump straight to Volvo with Rhys ????
On a side note, wishing to find out a little more about the racing pedigree of the BiTurbo, I did some googling..........interestingly this result below was among the first articles to pop up !
Group A Touring cars
The first round of the next new series for Group A Touring Cars saw a wide variety of makes, manufacturers, body shapes & sizes. Annoyingly though there appear to be some rules attached to this series that seem to want to govern the shape & size of some components of these vehicles. So in the last 20 minutes or so leading up to the first race we saw a flurry of work being done to :
- Raise bodies
- Trim tyres
- Trim wheels
- Add weight
- Remove weight
- And in some cases (unsuccessfully), build cars
Once the scrutineering had been done it was time for the series to begin, and what a great variety of cars we saw take the track for the pre-series field photo.
There were; BMW 635s, Jaguar XJSs, Ford Sierras, Rovers, Commodores, Mustangs, Volvos, or even a Maserati BiTurbo…..which will be of interest later on in the report…..but not much later.
*please note here, thanks to Adrian Gray who pointed out that Rhys was in fact running a Maserati BiTurbo & not another Volvo as assumed by me. I'm not sure what it was that made my mind jump straight to Volvo with Rhys ????
On a side note, wishing to find out a little more about the racing pedigree of the BiTurbo, I did some googling..........interestingly this result below was among the first articles to pop up !
In actual fact, it was the Volvo of John Batich & the Maserati of Rhys Filbee which dominated the opening round with JB & Rhys both racking up 97 laps to finish 1st & 2nd respectively. Possibly the first time A BiTurbo has dominated anything racing wise !. Phil in the much larger (longer) Commodore picked up 3rd spot on 96 laps & Rob Golley’s car (proxied by Phil) took 4th on 94 laps, but only after undergoing some severe tyre surgery before the heat to fit them within the allowable width.
Dennis Murray made a another fleeting visit to the south & a came away with a successful 5th spot in the Rover on 93 laps ahead of myself in 6th also on 93 laps driving the very well sorted Jaguar XJS….sadly it was not sorted by me !
As is often the case, two of the Dave’s (Bantoft & Schofield) could not be separated by lap number, both racking up 90 laps with DB getting the 7th spot on track position from Schoee in 8th. Adrian Gray’s car proxied by Dave, made it into 9th spot on 89 laps, ahead of another two drivers that were hard to separate. Scott Wayman in the Nissan GTR grabbed 10th with Dave Gray in his XJS on the same number of laps (84) but 1 spot back in 11th. Thomas Males had a hard time getting to grips with the Mustang in his first heat but improved substantially as the heats went on & notched up 75 laps to round out the field of 12 this evening.
Dennis Murray made a another fleeting visit to the south & a came away with a successful 5th spot in the Rover on 93 laps ahead of myself in 6th also on 93 laps driving the very well sorted Jaguar XJS….sadly it was not sorted by me !
As is often the case, two of the Dave’s (Bantoft & Schofield) could not be separated by lap number, both racking up 90 laps with DB getting the 7th spot on track position from Schoee in 8th. Adrian Gray’s car proxied by Dave, made it into 9th spot on 89 laps, ahead of another two drivers that were hard to separate. Scott Wayman in the Nissan GTR grabbed 10th with Dave Gray in his XJS on the same number of laps (84) but 1 spot back in 11th. Thomas Males had a hard time getting to grips with the Mustang in his first heat but improved substantially as the heats went on & notched up 75 laps to round out the field of 12 this evening.
Race 2 - Mornington Park - 23/8/22
1st - Adrian Gray
2nd - Phil Kalbfell
3rd - Rhys Filbee
1st - Adrian Gray
2nd - Phil Kalbfell
3rd - Rhys Filbee
Race 3 - Stratton Valley - 30/8/22
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd - Adrian Gray
3rd - Dave Schofield
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd - Adrian Gray
3rd - Dave Schofield
Race 4 - Shelmore Park - 07/09/22
1st - Adrian Gray
2nd - Phil Kalbfell
3rd - Rhys Filbee
1st - Adrian Gray
2nd - Phil Kalbfell
3rd - Rhys Filbee
Round 4 - Report
Group A Touring Cars
An almost complete field greeted us at this week’s round of the Group A Touring Cars, held at Phills Track (Shelmore Park). It was only the absence of our long-distance Pacific Indian (Rob Golly) who prevented the creation of a new a record number of drivers. While this large number did lead to some slightly snoozy moments while we filtered all drivers through the two rally stages, it certainly granted us an unusually plentiful supply of Marshalls for the Group A rounds. There would be no excuse for a slow return to the slot this week. Not that this didn’t happen as usual, but there was just no excuse for it!
In the racing Adrian Gray returned to form in the big JPS XJS with a nice mathematically simple 25 laps in each heat to add up to the round 100. 1 lap back in on 99 laps in 2nd was Phil in the equally large but much whiter, Commodore ahead of the 3rd placegetter, Rhys Filbee’s BiTurbo on 98 laps. The consistent John Batich dropped into 4th just 1 further lap back on 97 ahead of two drivers sharing 96 laps. Callan Thomas in his 2nd drive of the series went from 9 to 5, which are probably shorter hours than he’s working up at Norfick these days & which also reminds me of a song, but I digress, Parton me. Anyway, Callan did take 5th ahead of myself in 6th & Dave Bantoft in 7th 2 laps back on 94.
Dave Schofield slotted into 8th on 93 laps, and after showing last race that he has the Sierra running very well, it seemed to have a couple of issues with 1 particular corner this week. Hopefully Schoee will have things sorted again next week. In his 2nd race of the series we welcomed back Dennis Murray again, and in his case (as opposed to Callan) Den decided to keep IT hours & went from 5 to 9 in the results with a total of 91 laps. Rounding out the top 10 this week was Scott Wayman on 89 laps. Bruce was next in 11th 3 laps back on 86, and possibly struggled with the added weight of the navigator in his car. Obviously his driver was learning the circuit & needed pace notes to talk him round the circuit, although after 86 laps I’d have thought the track might have sunk in by then.
1 lap back on 85, and in 12th, was Chris Priest in a welcome return to circuit racing, good to see you back Stack. Dave Gray grabbed 13th on 83 in his Scalex XJS (the “S” standing for “small” in this case) and in 14th for the evening Thomas Males in the Green Mustang on 77 laps.
Group A Touring Cars
An almost complete field greeted us at this week’s round of the Group A Touring Cars, held at Phills Track (Shelmore Park). It was only the absence of our long-distance Pacific Indian (Rob Golly) who prevented the creation of a new a record number of drivers. While this large number did lead to some slightly snoozy moments while we filtered all drivers through the two rally stages, it certainly granted us an unusually plentiful supply of Marshalls for the Group A rounds. There would be no excuse for a slow return to the slot this week. Not that this didn’t happen as usual, but there was just no excuse for it!
In the racing Adrian Gray returned to form in the big JPS XJS with a nice mathematically simple 25 laps in each heat to add up to the round 100. 1 lap back in on 99 laps in 2nd was Phil in the equally large but much whiter, Commodore ahead of the 3rd placegetter, Rhys Filbee’s BiTurbo on 98 laps. The consistent John Batich dropped into 4th just 1 further lap back on 97 ahead of two drivers sharing 96 laps. Callan Thomas in his 2nd drive of the series went from 9 to 5, which are probably shorter hours than he’s working up at Norfick these days & which also reminds me of a song, but I digress, Parton me. Anyway, Callan did take 5th ahead of myself in 6th & Dave Bantoft in 7th 2 laps back on 94.
Dave Schofield slotted into 8th on 93 laps, and after showing last race that he has the Sierra running very well, it seemed to have a couple of issues with 1 particular corner this week. Hopefully Schoee will have things sorted again next week. In his 2nd race of the series we welcomed back Dennis Murray again, and in his case (as opposed to Callan) Den decided to keep IT hours & went from 5 to 9 in the results with a total of 91 laps. Rounding out the top 10 this week was Scott Wayman on 89 laps. Bruce was next in 11th 3 laps back on 86, and possibly struggled with the added weight of the navigator in his car. Obviously his driver was learning the circuit & needed pace notes to talk him round the circuit, although after 86 laps I’d have thought the track might have sunk in by then.
1 lap back on 85, and in 12th, was Chris Priest in a welcome return to circuit racing, good to see you back Stack. Dave Gray grabbed 13th on 83 in his Scalex XJS (the “S” standing for “small” in this case) and in 14th for the evening Thomas Males in the Green Mustang on 77 laps.
Race 5 - Mornington Park - 13/9/22
1st - Adrian Gray
2nd - Phil Kalbfell
3rd - Dave Schofield
(Thank heaven for Schoee for providing SOME colour in the top 3 shots this series !)
1st - Adrian Gray
2nd - Phil Kalbfell
3rd - Dave Schofield
(Thank heaven for Schoee for providing SOME colour in the top 3 shots this series !)
Race 6 - Stratton Valley - 22/9/22
1st - Adrian Gray
2nd - John Batich
3rd - Phil Kalbfell
1st - Adrian Gray
2nd - John Batich
3rd - Phil Kalbfell
Race 7 - Shelmore Park - 26/9/22
1st - John Batich
2nd - Rob Golley
3rd - Adrian Gray
1st - John Batich
2nd - Rob Golley
3rd - Adrian Gray
Overall Series - Top 3
1st - Adrian Gray
2nd - Phil Kalbfell
3rd - John Batich
1st - Adrian Gray
2nd - Phil Kalbfell
3rd - John Batich
