Classic Car Racing
Race Reports and Results

Winton Historics 2007

This was my first Winton Historics, and the first time I had raced the short track in a long time. I think the last time was in a Tour De Course rally back in 1999 or 2000, when my father Stewart and I were using the 356 with the 911 motor in it, CRC.

I went up Friday to set up and also to get some practice, as I knew that I would have to reacquaint myself with the shorter Winton track.

Winton is a great circuit, and the short track represents the way the track was originally configured before being lengthened to accomodate the V8 Supercars need for a longer circuit. The weekend also sees the return of vintage motorcycles and cars that don't generally get a dedicated event to run in. It is attended by a swarm of cars and entrants from all over Australia, including WA, QLD and Tasmania.

With Sa, Sb and Sc all running together, the grid was fairly well packed. The one thing that I did not realise until the first race was just how close you are to the cars around you on the grid. This made me feel uneasy at first, as I was terrified of someone hitting me, or me hitting them!

The first race I got a good start but had to get out of the throttle after the car in front of me bogged down and ruined my momentum. From this point on in all races I will point in one direction, not straight ahead at the car in front! Lesson learned Mr. so called Race Car Driver! Still coming to terms with the car being pretty loose through the sweeper and picking a wheel up at every opportunity, and therefore providing limited drive out of the tight corners, I was trying to find a driving style or line that would allow me to be quicker yet not give up track position to the cars chasing me from behind.

In the three races over the weekend, the car and I continually improved as to the times that I was doing, and the level of understanding as to what the car wanted to do. From this I learned and admitted that I do now need stiffer torsion bars to get rid of the roll that is causing the car to be a handful on the limit!

There is some great footage of this event, with many great dices with Steve Pike (blue Healey), Barry Pritchard (Red TR4) and others.

On a sad note, the hanicap race claimed two cars that had significant damage, one being my friend Hung Do. Hung spun on some oil that had been dumped on Turn 1, and as a result spun the car after passing some cars up the short straight. With nowhere to go, a MG hit him fair an square, and both cars would take some fixing.

Having never competed in a handicap race, I was interested to see how it would pan out. Having to work out how quickly you were catching the cars in front, I also had to keep an eye on my mirrors to see who was catching me! Overall I enjoyed the race, and made up some ground (albeit due to the Hung and MG crash).

I will certainly be back next year, hopefully with some upgraded suspension and maybe an LSD. My times should improve dramatically if I do!

Click here to see the videos of the race

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