BMW Drivers Cup 2005: Round 2

Winton 9 th & 10 th April 2005

Report by the Spin Doctor

Practice on Friday was well attended, although Kylie had to leave by lunchtime perhaps due to the illness that befell her and her family. She just had time to do a few runs, before having a few more at the outhouse, the affliction affecting her throughout Saturday, and perhaps explaining her excellent lap times. Had to finish quickly, dontcha know! Neil Anderson was there in his beautiful Blue Bullet as were Gary and Maree Pearce, and Sleepy Knight with Bruce Allen. Oliver Lindsaar bought out his newly acquired Blue Blaze for the first time. Aneeta Abzatz and Julie Showers were driving their respective Black Beauties, garaged in Pit Lane along with Gary, Oliver and Sleepy, while Ando and Geoff Bowles, joined after lunch by Dr Spin, occupied the breezy carport spots near the Pregrid. The Stillwell entourage arrived later, the transporter disgorging both Michael’s overweight Red Rambler and Nick’s Steel-grey Steed, still with pizza stripe. Kylie Patten’s pink and black E30 was parked in the lower carports, joined later by Marc Lawrence’s (also blue) E30, and Paul Kertes’ Oriflamme. We all put in some laps, although times seemed a little slow with only rare 1:43s . Sleepy was not saying much, but appeared quietly confident, and Ando, with some initial trepidation, was testing some recent fine-tuning of both his suspension and engine. He need not have worried – he and his car were on song throughout the weekend. Dr Spin was more concerned about how everyone else’s car would be going, what with all those tuned and refreshed engines that had made their appearance last Round, and with Bowlesy’s newly done over White Whiz. In fact Geoff’s car ran very well the whole weekend, except for some oil leakage onto his clutch giving him the slurring gear change sensation of an automatic! But the changes to his car were certainly reflected in his excellent results over the weekend.

Saturday morning dawned breezy and very sunny, presaging a hot day. Saturday also was notable for the unfurling of the official banners that looked magnificent stretched above the carports. Well done, Bruce, on a magnificent job, and thank you Stillwell family. The cars in the carports with the banners above certainly attracted a lot of interest throughout the weekend, and we just may have picked up a couple of new members. Official Practice yielded best times for Ando and Sleepy in the 1:42s , Dr Spin leading the rest of the pack with disappointing 1:44s , nearly everyone else within a second or so. Qualifying shuffled the pack a little though; Ando, unable to get a decent full run due to some recalcitrant traffic, was displaced by 0.07 of a second for pole by Sleepy with a 1:42.4871, followed by Dr Spin, Bowlesy, Paul, Julie, Nick, Marc and Aneeta. Gary (again plagued by mechanical problems throughout the weekend), Michael and Oliver (with a commendable 1:46 in his very first drive at an unfamiliar track) filled out the rest of the grid. Following qualifying, and prior to race one, we gathered for our photo shoot, each driver posing with car beneath the banner, Nick doing the photography with aplomb. Larry, our Facilitator and Liaison Officer, did a fine job of organising things, although we did need to cut the photo session a bit short due to the imminent start of the race. All up, there was a total of thirteen cars competing in our second round.

Gentlemen and Ladies, start your engines for Race One in the Second Round of the BMW Drivers Cup, an eight lapper. Ando won the drag to the first corner, and led Bowlesy, who outmanoeuvred Dr Spin and passed Sleepy, to lead that formation for the first five laps, followed for the first four by Dr Spin, Paul for three laps, then Nick. For the first four laps, Dr Spin had a good view of the battle being fought for second position between Bowlesy and Sleepy. During the latter part of the altercation, with much bumping and sideways action, Sleepy came off second best and fell back to finish eighth. Nick cunningly slipped through to take second position, which he defended brilliantly against Bowlesy to the end of the race to take second place. On lap five, Julie and Nick took advantage of a slight indiscretion by Dr Spin, who took a cross-country jaunt before resuming the track in hot pursuit, being harried by Paul. But on the very next lap, disaster struck the Red Rocket, when it received an almighty wallop in the rear side followed by a grinding noise and billowing tyre smoke. With the tyre rapidly shredding, and the expectation it could come off the rim at any time, Paul could no longer be held off and on lap seven he took the lead into fourth position to the flag, Dr Spin limping in with a flat tyre at fifth. Kylie fought her way gallantly from the back of the grid (she missed qualifying) to take sixth, followed by Marc, Sleepy, Michael, Julie, Oliver and Aneeta, Gary failing to finish. And what of Ando? Well, he just cruised to the finish line to take the chequered flag, never being really challenged due to the dicing for second and third positions.

Back at the pits, Julie was having her right front examined and realigned (the car, that is!) following some panel and steering arm damage, while Dr Spin was dejectedly surveying the distorted wheel arch and wondering if there was any suspension damage. With much cussing and grunting, the wheel arch was hammered out. Amazing what you can do with a good hammer and a strong right arm. A new tyre later and things were as good as, well as good as they were going to get. Meanwhile, Sleepy and Bowlesy were discussing the finer points of racing, each submitting their in car video footage (shouldn’t that be wheelage?) as evidence. Both cars had sustained panel damage, but not severe enough to impede a rematch in the next race. Gary spent the rest of the day on his back, not relaxing as he would have preferred, but working on his car. It’s always something, isn’t it?

Sunday was another scorcher, but with the threat of rain later in the day. Race Two began well again for Ando, starting from pole and leading from start to finish. Bowlesy, starting behind Neil, stole second from Nick who started beside Neil on the grid, and held to the chequered flag. Sleepy, starting in eighth, worked his way through the field, overtaking first Dr Spin at the esses, then Nick, to come in third. Dr Spin took out fourth, followed by Nick. Paul fell back early from fourth to eighth, but regained much ground to come in sixth behind Nick, with Kylie, Marc, Michael, Oliver, Aneeta and Gary bringing up the rear, with Julie having dropped out after four of the eight laps, with a flat tyre. Race Three, a 10 lapper, was supposed to be the reverse grid race, but there was an organisational glitch and it did not happen until Race Four. Ando was on pole (again), Bowlesy beside and Sleepy behind, beside Dr Spin, then Nick, Kylie, Marc and Michael, et cetera. Neil led (again) from start to finish, while on lap one Sleepy slipped past Geoff. Seemed to be a nice clean race, the first six positions being set by lap three and held to the finish: Ando, Sleepy, Bowlesy, Dr Spin, Paul, and Nick followed by Marc, Michael, Kylie, Aneeta, Oliver, Julie, and Gary still having major mechanical problems.

Race Four was the Reverse Grid race, and what a blast it turned out to be. And the star of the show? No, not Neil this time, though he did come from the back of the grid to take third. It was Kylie Patten, taking the chequered flag for the first time in her short career. Man, was she pumped! Winners sure are grinners. She was flashing those pearly whites all over. Starting in fifth, she steadily worked her way through the field, with Paul following a little way back, starting in ninth to come in second behind her. But he couldn’t catch her – great drive, Kylie. Sleepy was making great headway from second last on the grid to be challenging for a podium, when he lost it and ended up in the grass facing back whence he came, graciously accepting the goodwill waves of those passing by. Julie led for the first four laps, but dropped off disastrously thanks to a fuel surge that made the car cut out on left turns, thereafter to come in last, while second placed Aneeta fell away half way through the race and failed to finish. Kylie leap-frogged to the front on lap five and held to the end, while Paul must have been looking nervously in his rear vision mirror as Ando’s Blue Bullet worked its way through the field and loomed ominously. Bowlesy steadily progressed to finish fourth, in front of the Red Rocket having put the frighteners on Nick on the second last corner on the last lap, Nick running off and letting Dr Spin through. Nick managed to hang on for sixth, followed by Michael, Marc, Sleepy, Gary , Oliver and Julie. Race Five, the final race, was shortened to a five lapper, in order to fit all the races in before nightfall, and it was a good thing too, as threatening black rain clouds were gathering fast. Ando was on pole, with Bowlesy, Paul, Dr Spin and Sleepy at the head of the grid. Dr Spin slotted into third early behind Ando and Bowlesy, until the very last lap, when Sleepy stole third place and beat the Red Rocket into fourth place, followed by Paul, Nick, Kylie, Michael, Marc, Gary, Julie, Oliver and last but not least, Aneeta. Gary would have been chuffed that he managed to get through the race and with a sub 1:45 time at last. Bowlesy ran a great race coming in second, managing to harass Ando for much of the race, and touching him up at some stage, judging from his displaced BMW kidney grille and some white paint on Ando’s rear!

What a great weekend’s racing, and what a successful round of the BMW Drivers Cup. The Hero of the Meet? Neil Anderson, with a scintillating performance from both driver and car. Everybody wanted to look under Ando’s hood to see what kind of jet engine he had in there, he so comprehensively blitzed the field. A great drive and a great performance, Neil. Overall results for the meeting were: Neil Anderson first, including the race lap record of 1:42.8359, Geoff Bowles second, and Dr Spin and Paul Kertes tied for third. And congratulations to rookie Oliver Lindsaar, who managed a tenth on his first outing. The next Round is at Calder Raceway on 4 th and 5 th June – come along and watch the action; thrills and spills guaranteed.