Weekend Away at Winton

Report by Sleepy & Co.

What a weekend it was, full of joys, dramas and disappointments.  First of all the Bowles’s motel room was left empty on Friday night due to a wayward car that was reluctant to leave Sandy alone on her birthday.  Initially Ms. Bowles was the chief suspect, but after a check that the rotor-button was still in place, the big-guns were called in.  Unfortunately the Big-Guns had already driven the truck all the way to Wangaratta.  This saw Phil 'qualifying' for the best time between Wangaratta and Melbourne on Saturday morning.  However, this result failed to show in the final points tally [DNS => Decidedly Nothappy Showers].

Meanwhile, back at the track, everything was shaping up for a lively contest.  The weather was perfect [at least for the spectators].  The unofficial photographer brought his new u-beaut digital camera to capture some great action shots.  But alas, he didn't get many – great excuse though, “Forgot the Filum” [more likely he got caught up in the excitement of the racing and forgot].

Qualifying was marred for both Manny and Sleepy with fuel related problems.  Manny sat on the fence watching everyone going past after parking by the wall with a broken fuel pump.  As for Sleepy, he received a Meat-Ball flag on the first lap due to fuel escaping from an ill-fitting fuel-cap.  After coming in to fix the problem [nothing a few pieces of race tape couldn’t fix], Sleepy was back out there with 10 minutes to spare.  Meantime it was on in earnest between Belly, Fuller, and Gordon, fighting for position.  With a clear track, it turned out to be Sleepy’s turn to shine.  With a time of 1.41.5307 he grabbed pole by just under a second from Belly.

Back in Melbourne, Mr. Bowles car problem had been diagnosed as a fault in the ECU.  The other race was now on!  Could Phil and Geoff to make it back in time for race 1?  Unfortunately they ended up missing out by a few minutes, but at least they were both in good shape for the two races next day.

Race 1 was a close one with Sleepy and Belly battling for the front position.  After slipping down the inside of Sleepy into turn 2 just after the start, Belly drove a very defensive race giving Sleepy very limited passing opportunities resulting in a race 1 win for Graeme.

Race 2 saw Belly off to a good start, putting a car between himself and Sleepy, holding only a slender lead until tragedy struck Sleepy on lap 4.  The fuel pump relay popped out of its socket resulting in the car ending the race on the side of the track and a DNF on the score-card.

Race 3 saw Sleepy start at the rear of the grid due to his earlier DNF.  But he was able to move through the field to finish about 5 seconds behind Belly who took a clean sweep of 1^st places for the weekend.  Meanwhile Geoff, Phil Ernie and Joe contested for the minor places whilst Manny and Andrew battled all the way to the last corner for 3^rd  and 4^th placings, with Manny just coming out on top.

All in all, an enjoyable weekend for everyone and leaving us very much looking forward to the next round at Sandown on 5/6 of April.  Well done Graeme, Manny and Andrew.