Round 2 Rewind
WASSSCA Round 2 Recap
Well round 2 is finished and we are now two out of the three Nightmasters rounds completed. This round was the start of the State championship points for the year and as always it was entertaining to see more of our members out there and everyone race clean, fair and push themselves to the limit(and sometimes over it). A few familiar faces joined us for this weekend as well as some new members.
Ron Moller was back out racing again which was great to see. Tony Roskell has made a new purchase in the off season and is now driving around in an Ex V8 supercar, after missing round 1 with prior commitments he was back and getting used to the car very quickly with his fastest times falling all night, in only his second time out in the car he was doing low 1:01 lap times. We also had Neville Stewart join us for round 2 in his newly updated Porsche, with the new aero kit on the car it looked spectacular and aggressive out on track with its wider stance it currently has. Our new racing member for the evening was Brett Niall in his Marc Cars Australia Ford Focus, the car has just come back from racing in Europe last weekend. It was great to see his commitment to getting that car down to the track and racing in the category. Glenn Petersen had his Commodore repaired and back out for round two showing his and his families commitment to being a part if this years series.
Thank you to all the members who Raced. With our grid size increasing, along with Streetcars it is producing some great mixed racing in our categories for spectators. There were 17 cars out there for Qualifying this round.
Qualifying for the weekend went to Ron Moller in the Chevrolet Camaro with a 59.15. with only a small test day on Friday he showed he was still very fast even with the little seat time he has had in the last 5months.
See list below for Qualifying times of our members.
1.Ron Moller – Chevrolet Camaro 59.159
2.Grant Hill – Ford BF Falcon 1.00.00
3.Brett Niall – Ford Focus 1.01.36
4.Tony Roskell Ford BA Falcon 1.01.90
5.Neville Stewart – Porsche 997 GT3 1.03.17
6.Shaun Mulquiney - Nissan Skyline GTR - 1.05.71
7.Glenn Petersen – Holden VL Commodore – 1.07.95
Race 1 provided pure racing entertainment, with Grant Hill bolting at the start to lead Ron Moller in the early stages with Ron gaining on him up until lap 6 until Ron ended up in the sand at Turn 6 with a Mechanical failure and out for the weekend. It was very unfortunate to see that happen in only his first meeting back. Hopefully he can get that car repaired and tested before he heads off to Tailem Bend for round 1 of the National Sports Sedan series in a months time. But while Ron was stranded in the sand, a jubilant Tony Roskell in his first meeting in his new car he has come through to get the points for second place, rounding out the top three was Brett Niall in his first race at barbagallo in his car, and also for our club. Towards the end Brett and Tony Roskell were having a great battle for second and third towards the end. Glenn Petersen coming fourth in race one. Glenn has flown all the way from Darwin just to race this weekend, and for that we say thank you for coming out and racing with us. Shaun Mulquiney who also runs his Nissan Skyline in the Streetcar division finishing a close 5th to Glenn.
There were 2 DNF’s in race one, Ron Moller as mentioned above, and Neville Stewart who ended up in the sand trap at turn 1.
Race 2 was now under lights as the night progressed into the evening with Grant starting from pole. He got a good start to lead the field into turn one, but the race was red flagged before a lap could be completed. Glenn Petersen had unfortunately gone into the sand at turn 6 and put his car on its side. After a short delay we were back racing, with the race being shortened to 6 laps. Once again Grant stormed away to take a largely unchallenged win in race 2, while behind him Brett Niall was running largely uncontested also. With Tony Roskell and Neville Stewart having a great battle for third, Tony was up the inside of Neville at Turn seven, before ending up in the sand at Turn 1, unfortunately ending his race 2, Neville ended up finishing third in the Porsche after that battle with Tony and Shaun Mullquinney coming in 4th.
Race 3 we only had three starters, with the night dragging on and the races getting shorter due to delays, Neville Stewart decided not to enter Race three, along with Glenn Petersen who put his car on its side in race 2 and Ron Moller who had mechanical drama in race 1. Grant Hill ran away with the win for race 3 and taking another perfect three from three weekend. Brett Niall finishing second and Tony Roskell third, being caught up in lap traffic was the only drama for race three. Shaun Mullquinney again picking up 4th place.
We would just like to thank Our Sponsors for their continued support Earth Plus, RockHard Stone Construction, Diamond Capital finance, ADH Golf and utility vehicles, AMS Racing, Racing Dynamics and Okey Dokey Produce. Please support them, when possible as without them, we would not be able to grow our racing category.
We would also like to thank the officials for their volunteering their evening once again, without them, none of the cars can take to the track. Thank you to the drivers and crew for bringing these beautifully presented cars out to race, without them there is no racing. We would also like to thank the fans for staying to the end and watching all evening.
Round 3 is Sunday the 15th of April, we would love to see you all out there again racing, or supporting our club.
Many Thanks
WASSSCA Committee