Cagney gets the job done

AS for the previous round the weather gods had the upper hand for the race surface that greeted the competitors at SEAC Park for the last round of the 2025 Series at the end of last month.

Track conditions on arrival had a tidy race track surface that had dust rising from the first round of competition mid Saturday afternoon, but a couple of showers soon changed that to a ‘No Grip’ surface that made for quite a challenge to those that made the choice to ‘go hard’.

Teresa Becker drew the coveted Number 1 for this day’s activity and took it on board, racing the family BF Falcon in her usual quick style.

No surprise to find that the 4-wheel drivers of Dale Cagney and Sam Thomas were still quick all day, even with the track deteriorating as darkness approached.

Heat 1 went the way of Dale Cagney (1:45.60), closely followed by Luke Winterfield (1:47.43) 2nd, Sam Thomas (1:48.41) 3rd, Jayden Edwards (1:51.18) 4th, Jason Sims (1:53.57) 5th, Barry Edwards (1:55.40) 6th, Henry Sims (1:56.03) 7th, John Whitehead (1:56.43) 8th, Kyle Johnson (1:56.63) 9th and Damien Wilson (1:56.97) 10th. Times for these reflect a dry and dusty track, good to drive on and a full-on attack.

Heat 2 and the moisture from above made for a bit of caution on a couple of spots around the tricky SEAC Park course, always ready to ‘Bite. anyone that makes a small mistake.

Dale Cagney, having done many, many laps of SEAC Park made it two from two and set the pace to beat at 1:46.28, similar to his first run. Sam Thomas did his best and had to settle for second spot with a 1:50.68 seconds run.

Damien Brand, looking to get it all correct on his second run in the Can-Am Maverick Buggy, found a good line for his 1:52.82 seconds and 3rd spot, John Whitehead (Phoenix Buggy) pruned a second off his first run and took 4th spot (1:55.27), Jayden Edwards a good deal slower on this run (1:55.32) 5th, Jason Sims, also down a couple of seconds (1:55.54) 6th, Kyle Johnson (1:56.28) a similar time to his first go on a similar race surface, 7th, Barry Edwards also on a good race track, (1:56.29) 8th, Gary Brown, always a big slide, sometimes not in the correct direction, made up for his first run this time (1:58.11) 9th, Luke Winterfield, not one of his usual ‘tidy’ attacking drives, dropped to (1:58.95 + 2 flags) 10th.

Heat 3 and another one for Cagney (1:50.75) from Luke Winterfield (1:51.65) 2nd, Sam Thomas (1:54.55) 3rd, Kyle Johnson, driving the ‘1600 Datto’ just like Dad, Ian used to, (1:57.73) 4th, Whitehead (1:58.10) 5th, Damien Brand (1:58.12) 6th, Jason Sims (2:00.38) running at the back of the list and finding a little moisture 7th, as did Barry Edwards (2:02.08) 8th, Jayden Edwards (2:02.41) 9th and Henry Sims (2:04.10) 10th, learning what a front wheel drive car does when the track gets sloppy.

Heat 4 and a now quite wet surface, John Whitehead was the only vehicle under the two minute mark, setting the benchmark at 1:59.46 in his lightweight Buggy.

Damien Brand’s Can-Am Buggy is a handful when driven hard in the dry, but like a ‘light switch’ power system, when the Turbo comes on, it wants to kill everyone. ‘Shorty’ rises to the challenge when it is dry, but chooses not to argue with this beast when the track is sloppy.

This round he rode it to second spot with a tidy 2:01.65 seconds of reasonably terrifying action in the wet conditions.

Dale Cagney did what he could with his Turbo powered Evo and made (2:03.16) 3rd spot. Kyle Johnson, enjoying the day in challenging conditions, kept it pointing where it needed to be for a (2:03.60) well earned 4th, Sam Thomas, having a go (2:03.83) and keeping it off the walls 5th, Jason Sims, rally experience being applied (2:07.30) 6th, Luke Winterfield not enjoying the lack of grip, (2:08.16) 7th, Jayden Edwards, another struggling for any sort of grip (2:13.42) made 8th, Henry Sims doing a good job in his Celica front wheel drive (2:13.54) 9th and Damien Wilson (2:17.30) struggling for momentum in the S13 Nissan 10th.

Heat 5, now in the dark, with a wet track best of the attendees after the tea break, John Whitehead used his Buggy to advantage and posted a 1:59.60, again the only driver under that magic two minutes, to set the pace to beat.

Sam Thomas got close (2:00.21) for 2nd, Damien Brand could only make (2:01.82) 3rd, Dale Cagney, erring on the safe side in sloppy conditions (2:02.71) for his 4th spot. Kyle Johnson, still enjoying the Datto’s ability in the wet, (2:06.30) made 5th, Jason Sims just behind (2:06.78) 6th, Henry Sims next (2:12.23) 7th, Jayden Edwards (2:13.14) 8th, Barry Edwards always on the charge, could not get a good lap together in the sloppy going (2:16.07) 9th and 10th on this outing, Connor Telford found some traction in his Magna (2:22.87) and had his best run for the day.

Heat 6, last run for the final outing of Autocross 2025 and a track showing some improvement, Sam Thomas made it to the top spot with a good run of 1:57.45 to put it on the trailer.

John Whitehead picked up 2nd spot with another quick run (1:59.18), Dale Cagney settled for a safe drive home (2:01.41) for 3rd. Jason Sims pulled out all stops and his (2:02.12) drive home made it to 4th.

Kyle Johnson also had a good run in the muddy conditions through the day, finishing with (2:05.13) a 5th spot. Henry Sims, still a junior and not able to do any driving on public roads, showed that he is definitely ‘a chip off the old block’, getting quicker every time he tackles a racetrack somewhere in his Celica.

Jayden Edwards, driving his Commodore at the last outing swept all before him, including the 4-wheel drives to finish the day at the top of the list. Same Driver, same car, similar track surface, Jayden just could not find that rhythm again and his last run for 2025 (2:07.83) gave him 7th spot for the last heat. Dad, Barry Edwards pulled a (2:12.99) good line and got 8th spot.

Connor Telford, driving his Magna well in the dark, put in a (2:17.00) good run for 9th, followed by Gary Brown in his Falcon rounding out the Top 10 with a 2:19.26 slide around the Park.

PHOTO COURTESY OF DARREN ARCHIBALD (TURN8 PHOTOGRAPHY)