Phillip Island

[roverboy]

Highlights of 50K plate now on line.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xR3BXsYBHSQ&feature=sub

[FalconEL]

Sounds like a weekend to forget Loser trackwise. Congrats on your 4th Blindman and hope your finger is recovering well Chris J. Also Congrats to Shane on his finish in the 50K plate in the Camaro.

How did your weekend go Falcon EL?

A bit of a character building weekend for me mate!

I spent Friday chasing a faulty regulator on the alternator and a couple of flat batteries that were causing an electrical miss. I only got 2.5 laps in on Friday when I really needed some more track time because I'd never raced at the Island before. We got it sorted for Saturday morning thanks to the efforts of the crew and a few of the QLD IPRA boys that jumped in to assist.

Saturday, qualifying was in the semi-damp and I was on green slicks, so I was a bit further down the order than I would have liked but glad to finally get a few laps in. Grooved tyres were probably the better option, but the weather was changing all the time.

Race 1 on Saturday was dry, I had a good run through the field and had a good dice with Ricey, Bryson and was catching McGuinness when the Safety Car came out after Loser had his unfortunate failure at Lukey Heights. Happy to get into the 39's on my first couple of dry laps all weekend, but I know the car was at least 2 seconds faster than that with some more wide open throttle work and more laps to familiarise myself with the place.

Race 2 on Sunday in the drizzle/rain, on grooved slicks. I tried too hard on lap 2 trying to hang in with the guys on full wets and spun coming over Lukey Heights, bogged it on the wet grass and couldn't get it going again.

50K Plate, started at the back, made up a few spots on the opening lap when Tamasi and Randle had their coming together at the first corner. On the restart after the Safety Car, I got driven off the road on the straight run from Southern Loop to Turn 3 and had an accident on my own instead of taking another car out with me. In hindsight, I was probably asking too much to expect a bit of racing room and respect but at least I now know where we stand.... I didn't hit anything or anyone, but in firing across the road sideways and backwards still managed to tear the radiator, front floor and front spoiler out of it and bent a few of the body supports but the panels are mainly intact. Hopefully there is not too much suspension damage. I was on a set of grooved slicks again like Shane in the Camaro and was probably on for a decent result, so it was a disappointing end to the weekend for me.

Thanks to 99.9% of the Victorian guys for some good clean racing and a fun and friendly weekend, even though the weather was pretty awful. Really good to put some faces to internet names :) Great to see fellow interstaters Scott Butler and Lawrie Williams have good runs in their cars also. Thanks to Shane Bradford, JD, Porky, Big Dave, Gaz, Baz and Noela for making the weekend possible for me, I had a ball despite the few dramas I suffered.

Congratulations to Des Wall with his well deserved Kerrick Series win, a top effort that!! Many thanks also to Mark Nelson for his co-ordination of the series this year - it's a thankless task and he did a great job!

[petrolhead]

By all accounts, the PI meeting was a great success, congrats to all who were involved. What a great shame that such a meeting with a new champion (well done again Des) new cars and all the action etc, yet does not rate a bit of comment on the website (apart from the forum) :thinking: I would love to have seen a report on the meeting with a few pictures. Next year eh?

[loser]

Photos from Island Magic.....

http://www.sdpics.com/cgi-bin/store/imageFolio.cgi?direct=8000~Motor_Sport/9000~Cars/02~Island_Magic/23~21-22_November_2009_ISLAND_MAGIC/3~Sports_Sedans

and more...

http://www.chrisnoyes.com.au/index.php?option=com_jfusion&Itemid=53&g2_itemId=24395