08/03/2020
Here’s a quick rap-up on what’s been an epic couple of weeks for the MSTaLR team with events at Barbagallo, Albany and Perth Motorplex.
It all started on Sat 22nd with the WA Sporting Car Club Tarmac Sportz Hillclimb at Jack’s Hill, where a field of 33 vehicles had 5 attempts at the hill. As well as the elapsed times for each run, there were 3 split times and a speed trap. For those interested the extra data is available on the MSTaLR results page in the Extra link.
Thursday saw us heading south for our annual March trip to Albany for the Racewars weekend and the inaugural Targa West Albany Sprint.
After a delayed set up due to aircraft issues, Racewars Saturday went off largely without a hitch. With start lights, remotely controlled track safety lights, up to 20 sets of beams providing 5 speed traps plus start times and several on-track cameras, it was a huge operation. Quarter and half mile roll-on racing were the focus for the day and in total we saw around 120 Cars and timed over 750 runs! Special thanks must be given to Scott and Sharon and Lachlan and Allison who stuck at it for what was a very long day. Additional sector times and speeds for the half mile can be found on the MSTaLR results page as well.
Racewars Sunday… well that didn’t quite go to plan. Near horizontal rain, standing water and gale force winds greeted us on the runway when we arrived just after 6am. We were attempting to setup but with barriers blowing over and concern over how the timing beams were going to remain upright, it was with a measure of relief that they called the day off. Safety for competitors and officials was the priority and it was a good call.
Great work by the Racewars team – each year gets better than the last!
Having packed up and dried out the gear (and maybe an afternoon nap) we prepared for the next event - the Targa West Events Albany Sprint.
Monday was a perfect day for a Sprint up Marine Drive, although just a little windy. The setup only had start lights, track safety lights and start and finish beams for timing but with 88 cars running at 20 second intervals the Sprint is always interesting. With Smithy making the car door plate numbers smaller each year and our eyesight getting older, we will be requesting braille for next year!!
With a just few delays throughout the day to clear the course, all the competitors had the opportunity for 5 goes at the hill. We only noticed back in Perth that 3rd place was a tie and looking back through the raw data it was a tie to 1000th of a second!
A fantastic event that was really well received by competitors and spectators alike.
Back to Perth again in time for the Wednesday night Summer Autocross Series - WA Car Club which is always lots of fun for all involved.
What a week!! So, in summary in the last week or so we saw about 280 cars and timed over 1500 runs. Phew time for a rest!!!!
