The 2010 EP Victorian Titles were held on the weekend at TFTR. The weather was kind enough to allow 3 qualifiers on Saturday and 3 "A" Finals on Sunday, with lower finals having only a single run. On both days the track didn't really dry until around lunchtime and the TFTR crew ran a tight ship getting as much racing as possible for the 111 entrants.
BRCCC had a strong contingent of drivers and many placed well in qualifying and finals.
Congratulations to all those who attended and represented BRCCC!!! Below is my account of the weekend, sorry in advance if I forgot anyone!
Mini had a field of 20 drivers, with 6 from BRCCC. Qualifying was fast and furious, with mini being the first class on both days the track was very slippery on the intial run. Dave, Craig and myself made it to the A final, with Richie unlucky to miss the A's by one spot to join Oscar and Damien in the B Final. The finals saw some very close and exciting running between the top three, each taking a win. The final result was a draw between Shannon and myself, with a higher qualifiying position giving me the win. Dave came in 4th and Craig 8th, a great result. Richie picked up 3rd in the B Final and Oscar 6th.
540 Pro saw 6 BRCCC regulars competing with Craig, Aaron, Brendon and Carl right on the pace and all making the "A" Final. Brendon had qualified 3rd on the grid putting him in an excellent position for the finals. In the finals he held his nerve and carried thru for 3rd on the podium. Craig upped the ante in the finals improving from 10th in qualifying to 6th overall, Aaron 9th and Carl 10th. Craig J took 2nd and Max 10th in the B Final. The handout motors made things very interesting in this class, each driver had only one motor for the entire weekend (drawn from a hat), if it burned out it was game over.
Stock managed an impressive 33 entries, requiring 4 heats of intense battle during qualifying. BRCCC had 7 competitors in this class and at the end of qualifying they were right at the pointy end. Bully got the TQ, Jason, Karl and Trev all featured in the top 10. Steve who has been enjoying an RC break recently came out guns blazing qualifying 2nd behind Bully, an amazing effort. It was BRCCC 1-2-3 heading into the finals. The local TFTR boys decided it was time to step up for the finals and that's exactly what they did. All three finals were hotly contested with Jason holding on for 1st place and Stephen just squeezing out the TFTR young gun Matt for 3rd, not a bad return to racing! Bully came in 5th, Trev 7th and Karl 10th. Darren picked up 10th in the B Final and Dave 7th in the C Final.
Super Stock mixed it up with a 21 strong field of local and interstate drivers. Oscar, Chris K and myself flying the flag for BRCCC. Qualifying was extremely fast and furious, with some impressive laptimes being put down that placed well and truly into the top half of the modified field. After the 3 rounds Oscar had qualified 4th and I managed 2nd. The finals were very tough in the first corner with a lot of battles early on. The first final was a disaster for me, a small incident on the second lap breaking the steering arm leading to a sickening hit at full speed on the straight, severely damaging the front end of the car (think Dick Johnson Bathurst Greens-Tuf XE into the trees style). The look on Jason's face as he handed me the banana shaped car was priceless, i'm not sure mine was much better! Oscar was driving well and fighting hard through the first corner carnage, in the end just missing the podium by one point and coming in 4th. I managed 6th place with the almost repaired car, thankful i made it back out on the track for the remaining finals but kicking myself things didn't end up a bit better after qualifying higher up. After battling mechanical gremlins during qualifying Chris K finished 6th in the B final.
Modified had one of the largest fields we've seen for a long time in Victoria with 17 entries, a few interstate guys making the trek down. Tommy the Gun flew the flag for BRCCC and qualified very well in 5th place. Anyone who witnessed the Mod guys third qualifying on Saturday could see there was some amazing talent on display to steer the cars thru the darkness!! Unfortunately bad luck plagued Tommy in the finals. Completing 1 lap in the first after stripping a spur gear, an excellent 2nd place behind Ryan in the second final and just 4 laps in the third final after hitting a stopped car on the straight at warp factor 3. Still managing 5th place overall after 2 DNF's was an outstanding effort.
The full results can be found here.
Thanks to TFTR for hosting a great event, and looking forward to next year at Keilor.
Chris Piastri...