BMW Calder Day/Night

Report by The Bavarian Barbarian

The first round of the season saw some serious day/night action on the short track at Calder – two firsts for most competitors, and a depleted field with Phil and Rowdy competing in Rally Tasmania. Have I mentioned yet that Rowdy (and navigator Will) won their class down there? I’m sorry, there isn’t enough space to mention that! Qualifying was an eventful affair with many of the Improved Production front-runners ending up on trailers after qualifying! David (Sleepy) Knight gave Graeme Bell a wake-up call with a qualifying time only one hundredth of a second (or seven thousandths of a second as Bruce put it) behind Belly’s BMW pole time of 48.783. David Coull qualified third, followed by Joe Ballato, Geoff Bowles, and Manny Mezzasalma, who may be top banana in Team Yellow, but had trouble staying on the track in the qualifying session.

The first race started promisingly with Sleepy not seeing the right turn sign half-way down the straight and dropping back to last place on the first lap. The congestion at Turns 1 and 2 caused some interesting moments and Belly got a good break on the rest of the field. Coullio started well and didn’t put a foot wrong until lap 3 when he misunderstood the sign at the end of the back straight. When the sign says “No Standing”, it doesn’t mean you should park on your roof! EBC apparently stands for Expect Better Cohesion between pad and backing plate! And BMW stands for Before My Wheels left the ground, or Be Mighty Wary of sliding sideways through the kitty-litter!

At first it wasn’t clear who had rolled, but luckily we had our in-car reporter on the spot and David was able to report via the radio that it was indeed him (either that or it was everyone else and he was the only one who was still upright!). Following the red flag, the race was declared as at the end of Lap 2 which gave Belly the win (and 6^th place outright!), Coullio second place with Manny in third, followed by Bowlesy, Sleepy “One more lap” Knight and JB.

Race 2 was a little less eventful – Coullio had tidied up the damage from Race 1, but was still waiting for Windscreens O’Bell for a bit of restorative glass work before hitting the track again. Sleepy overcame a slow start to get back on Belly’s tail by the finish. Bowlesy finished third followed by Joe, with Manny bringing up the rear after using a little-known shortcut on lap 3 via what used to be known as the long circuit!

Race 3 was awesome (although some would say “The lights were on but no one was home!”). Coullio was back in action with a “new” windscreen, lots of race tape on the sunroof, and a cloud of blue smoke as his secret weapon. The “under lights” experience was great, even if you were never quite sure who was right behind you! There were thrills and spills at turn 1 again with tragedy striking the immaculate McKay XU1! Belly made it a clean sweep with three first places for the meeting and Sleepy wrapped up second place. Manny finished a strong third followed by Bowlesy, Joe and David. A very exciting days action and both the short track and the lights seemed to get the thumbs-up from most people as an interesting change. And did I mention that Rowdy won his class in Tasmania?