Spring
Wakefield Park All Historic Meeting report
9
& 10 September 2006, Wakefield Park NSW
Wet,
windy and Wild Wakefield Park hosted the HSRCA September historic
race meeting, which for some acted as a lead-up event to the upcoming
Tasman Revival.
A
small, but quality entry of 170 of sports, sports-racing and racing
cars was divided into eight categories thus providing more racing
for all the competitors with 10, 12, and 14 lap races. It was the
final round of the Australian Formula Junior Championship series,
which is run each year over seven rounds. This year the series was
dominated by Murray Bryden (Lotus MRC 22) who clearly took 2 of the
3 weekend races to secure the Leo Geogheghan Perpetual Trophy. Englishman
Jonathon Williamson (Lotus 22) won the final race after Bryden retired.
Although
the weekend’s Formula Ford racing was completely dominated by
a faultless Tom Tweedie (Elwyn 002) they provided for some exciting
racing for the minor places on the podium all weekend. Doug Matley
(Reynard), Don Holland (Reynard), John Pymble (Van Diemen) & Rob
Tweedie (Elwyn 004) fought hard all weekend for these places on the
track with Holland at one stage having a major pants-splitting 360
spin entering the main straight in what must have been a slight lapse
of concerntration.
The
Group Sb & Sc entertained the enthusiastic crowd with great battles
between Porsche’s, Dato’s and Lotus’, not to mention
all the other great sports cars of the 60’s & 70’s.
The battle of the iconic German manufacturer raged at the front with
the brace of Porsche’s, particularly between Bill Pye, John
Smith (driving the injured Wayne Cooper’s Porsche 911 Carrera)
and Geoff Morgan. These three diced all race on Sunday afternoon,
at some points swapping paint. The early favourite Smith fought hard
with Morgan and Pye, but was relegated to third by race end. The afternoon’s
dry conditions suited some competitors with David Withers and Phil
Verwoert filling the top 5 placings, but not easily thanks to Michael
Bryne (Lotus Super 7 S4)
For
many the meeting was used as a lead-up event to the upcoming Tasman
Revival race meeting, which is to be held at Eastern Creek in December.
As at Wakefield Park they already have over 200 race entries and strong
ticket sales through ticketing agency ticketmaster. Some 20 Tasman
era cars will come from the UK, USA & NZ, which include the Cooper
T79 (dubbed the first McLaren).
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