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Back to June 2012 Motorsports News Archive
| 12-06-2012 at 10:00: Wet and Wild Weekend | |
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Drivers from all over Australia came to the MG Car Club of Queensland run Mt Cotton event with expectations of victory over the locals. Saturday was wet and there was not much that could be done besides getting out on track and having a go. Not many drivers took this opportunity to slip and slide on the running water tarmac surface, but the few who did gave the spectators a good show. The slide show saw a number of cars end up in all sorts of locations they should not have been. One unlucky driver was Piers Harrex in an E30 BMW who under steered off the road at the second loop. A more spectacular spin was Brad Johns in his JFR Suzuki Cappuccino. Coming out of the first loop it all went wrong from there and round and round he went on the very wet infield. Lucky for Johns the car stayed the shinny side up and he was able to continue for the rest of the weekend. Day two of the event did not see the heavens stop; as competitors arrived they knew it was going to be a long wet day ahead. Danny Mischok driving the always fast Mk2 Escort put on a show of his own. As very much in Danny style, the car was sideways but the times were fast. The class consisted of four drivers but no one could come close to him as he powered his way to yet another class victory and a solid 14th outright. A rather interesting car t Homer battled all day with Darren Holland and his fast Subaru WRX STi. From their first run they were neck and neck with times, with Homer holding off Holland. But it was not to be Homer’s day as in their last run in the drying conditions, Holland set a time of 46.87 seconds to pip Homer by just a tenth of a second. This put Holland and Homer 11th and 12th outright respectively. In the battle for outright honours, there was some rather fierce competition going on. Out of state drivers Brett Hayward and Greg Ackland decided they wanted to steal the limelight away from Queensland regulars Alan McConnell and Warwick Hutchinson. The conditions in the morning were not ideal for open wheel race cars on slick tyres, but the drivers have a lot of skill and in their first competitive run McConnell ran a 47.19 second pass but to be beaten by both Hayward and Ackland with a 46.15 and 46.41 respectively. As the day went on so did the battle for top spot and it showed it was a two horse race for first place between the two out of towners, while the battle for third was hard fought between the local drivers. McConnell set the early pace and left Hutchinson to do all the hard work of playing catch up. However on run five it was Hutchinson who showed he had pace with a time of 42.48 seconds, this was 0.36 seconds faster than McConnell’s fastest time so far. Going in to the last The tension was building as we sat and waited for Hutchinson to line up to have his last dig for glory. Pushing the limit on every turn, Hutchinson battled with under steer and lack of grip to post a time of 42.28 seconds. This meant that McConnell had done enough to hold onto third outright for the weekend. As third place was wrapped up it left the gates open for the battle for fastest time of the day. Hayward and Ackland pushed each other on every run. Hayward was able to maintain his lead on every pass but by only tenths of seconds. By the fifth run of the day the track was showing a dry line. Ackland took the most of this and posted the fasted time of the weekend, a 40.81 second pass. Not holding onto the lead for long as Hayward lined up for his fifth run. Using the same dry line and pushing that little bit harder, Hayward crossed the line with a 40.08 second run to hold his lead. After all of the day’s action, the winning run would come down to the last pass of the day for these two fast chargers. Ackland took the start line knowing he would need something special to beat Hayward. Pushing from the second the light turned green, Ackland did everything he could to better not only his time but to have enough of a gap to take the win.
Pushing his Hayward 09 special all the way from go to woe, the time set was faster again and surprised a few as he broke the 40 second barrier. 39.93 seconds on a semi wet track was fantastic to see as the amount of commitment needed for the pass was impressive. The next hillclimb at Mt Cotton is round three of the Tighe Cams Hillclimb Series on July 7 and 8. For more information and a full list of results head to http://www.mgccq.org.au |
The first weekend in June played host to a very wet Eureka Landscaping Queensland Hillclimb Championship. This two day event consisted of an all day practice session on Saturday in preparation of Sunday’s full on competition.
o take to the hill was David Homer’s Suzuki Swift. Not content with it being standard, Homer has done some rather major modifications to this Swift. Running Evo engine and drive gear, this 2.2 litre AWD Swift really punches hard.
run saw McConnell on the back foot. As the track was drying it was a now or never drive to move up the order. The Camers4Sport Van Dieman was pushed to its limit in the conditions, and although not getting the line right out of turn one McConnell pushed on crossing the line with a 41.74 second pass.
Posting a time of 40.48 seconds proved to himself that he had more in the car but could not catch Hayward in these conditions. It was now Hayward’s turn to see if he could better his time. Not knowing that his main rival had posted a slower time then his fastest, Hayward hit the Mt Cotton track like a man possessed.^ Back to top ^
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