Winter
Invitation – Festival of Sporting Cars
14-15 June 2008, Oran Park Grand Prix circuit
Those who attended
the Shannons Winter Invitation of the Festival of Sports Cars series
at Oran Park Raceway on 14 & 15 June witnessed the closest sports
and touring car duels seen in some time.
A capacity field
of 250 entries spread over 7 race categories had 5 races each to race
in. Weather conditions all weekend were quite overcast with some sunny
periods, but very windy.
The battles race
after race was close and fierce. There seem to be more and more Mazda
MX-5’s making their way on to the race track, but still it was
David Radditz who dominated all races he competed in throughout the
weekend, particularly in the Marque Production & Improved Production
‘phase 1’ races.
In the phase two
events the start line duel went to Tillett on every race in his Alfetta
GT with blistering starts, but others like the Hagerty Commodore,
or the MG Midgets of McIntosh or Dodds, or event the MX-5 of Gough
had more power and better cornering speeds to come out in front race
after race.
The Mixed Sport
Special Sprint – that title soon became a tongue tqister for
the announcers! Provided perhaps the best racing for the weekend.
Geoff Williams made his presence felt in the Morgan Plus 8 after mechanical
problems at Bathurst by smoking the tyres on all race starts in both
first and second gear. Don’t know whether it was for the crowd,
or that the red mist came down! Spud Spruyt kept Williams honest during
their battles while Trevor Booth watched on from a distance. The two
had a ding dong battle with the power of the Morgan passing the MGB
on the main straight, but the cornering speed around the circuit,
particularly in Robin Orlando corner proved useful for Spruyt where
he carried so much more speed. He came out victor in all races, but
only by less than a length of a car.
The Group S cars,
as witnessed in the above piece were split up with the Sc cars featuring
in the GSRA Challenge races. There were two distinct battles in these
races – Germany and Japan. The Porsche domination continued
with some hard fought battles between friendly rivals Bill Pye, Geoff
Morgan, Terry Lawlor, Brad Tilley (driving Bob Fraser’s car)
and David Withers. While the Datsun battle for the Japan crown was
on between Don McKay, Peter Hall, Chris Gray, James Flett and Russell
Stafford. Both these battles were a pleasure to watch with the positions
changing quicker than words could come out of one’s mouth!
Another true festival
of the sporting car was had for all who attended – more coming
our way at Wakefield Park later in the year.
