Two day event for SEAC season

The South Eastern Automobile Club (SEAC) conducted a double header event over the weekend of 11th & 12th, Round 2 of the SEAC series and Round 1 of the State Autocross Series being run over Saturday afternoon and evening, then Sunday morning, until lunch time.

Running the event this way gave competitors from away the ability to travel on Saturday morning and return home Sunday afternoon.

Paul Height put the director’s hat on “again” to setup a challenging weekend’s activities, ably assisted by Alison doing the secretarial work so necessary to get these events up and running.

After scrutineering had been completed, action commenced about 2.30pm in perfect weather conditions with a good track surface presented to the eager 36 entrants for the day’s competition for both series.

Three runs took place before dark and a tussle at the top took place between local “gun” Luke Winterfield in his Subaru WRX and away competitor Oscar Farnden (pictured) driving a very similar vehicle. Both these blokes are developing drivers, Luke having competed at SEAC for some years as a Junior, pedalling a Hyundai Rally prepped Exell with good success and Oscar still listed as a Junior, from Southern Districts Car Club (SDCC) and blitzing the competition at his home track.

Round 1, Oscar set the pace with a 1:49.39 seconds lap of a “new” track layout, Luke having his shake down lap next with a 1:52.80 seconds, closely followed by Jayden Edwards driving the wheels off his 2-wheel drive Commodore, 1:52.83 seconds for 3rd points.

Another “away” competitor, Matt Kirby from Warrnambool driving a Ford Laser also found a quick line for 4th (1:55.57), John Whitehead 5th (1:55.84) in his Phoenix Buggy, Damien Wilson 6th (1:56.07), Dion Becker 7th (1:56.08), Jason Sims 8th (1:56.13), Chris Simmons 9th (1:56.28) and Barry Edwards 10th (1:57.36).

Round 2, Farnden again at the top (1:49.76) from Luke (1:49.81), J Edwards 3rd (1:51.55), Dion Becker finding a good line for 4th (1:52.34), Nick White finding his way home and using every inch of the available track in his trusty Commodore 5th (1:52.62), Guy Tyler next (1:53.12) followed by Chris Simmons 7th (1:55.06), John Whitehead and Steven Leo equal 8th (1:55.18) and Jason Sims 10th (1:55.77).

Track conditions remained good, with a couple of areas opening up and a lot of loose material thrown out to catch the driver that went a little bit off the race line, bogging the car down.

Heat 3 and Luke Winterfield got the top spot with an excellent drive (1:49.01) from Oscar Farnden (1:49.34) Jayden Edwards again pushing the top pair, (1:50.28), Dion Becker 4th (1:51.61), Nick White 5th (1:51.85), Tyler again 6th (1:52.77), Damien Wilson 7th (1:53.63), Matt Kirby (1:53.83) 8th, Chris Simmons 9th (1:54.56) and John Whitehead 10th (1:54.75).

After a short break for tea, Round 4 commenced in the dark, with Farnden 1st (1:50.78), Winterfield 2nd (1:50.93), Becker moving up to 3rd with a good run (1:50.42), Jayden Edwards 4th (1:52.17), Tyler 5th (1:53.05), D Wilson 6th (1:53.21), Nick White 7th (1:54.25), Jason Sims 8th (1:55.05), Barry Edwards 9th (1:55.19) and Chris Simmons 10th (1:55.40).

Round 5, second run in the darkness, with a little fog and dust to contend with, Luke Winterfield made the top of the sheet with a 1:48.43 seconds run, Farnden next (1:49.07), Tyler 3rd (1:50.89), J Edwards 4th (1:51.31), D Becker 5th (1:52.57), Nick White 6th (1:52.82), J Sims 7th (1:52.95), B Edwards 8th (1:53.49), Chris Simmons 9th (1:54.06) and Kyle Johnson 10th (1:54.29).

Round 6, final run for Saturday’s competition, Farnden (1:47.79) from Winterfield (1:47.86) the gap 7/100ths of a second, 1 and 2. Jayden Edwards 3rd (1:50.42) again using all the available track with his “speedway style” throw it in sideways effort. Tyler again did well in the all-black Magna for 4th points (1:50.67), Dion Becker another good drive in the Big Bird, 5th (1:51.26), Nick White also a very sideways driver in the Commodore 6th (1:51.31), Simmons 7th (1:51.99), Kyle Johnson (1:52.60) 8th, Jason Sims 9th (1:52.64) and Oliver Pohlner making it to the 10th spot with a good run in the dark (1:53.79). Being one of the up-and-coming Juniors, like the other Juniors, they do not get a lot of practice in night driving, so a good achievement for Ollie to do that well at night.

Timing was just right as the completion of the night runs beat the fog rolling in.

Sunday, action resumed after a short briefing in the morning and the track had a bit of a touch-up from the club grader.

Farnden slept well apparently, returning to competition again at the top (1:42.31) of the time sheets for the reverse direction, from Luke Winterfield (1:42.94), Jayden Edwards 3rd (1:45.67), Jason Sims 4th (1:46.78), Simmons 5th (1:47.07), Nick White 6th (1:47.24), Dion Becker 7th (1:47.38), Barry Edwards 8th (1:48.31), Damien Wilson 9th (1:48.46) and Matt Kirby 10th (1:49.24).

Sunday’s second run, Farnden continued at the Top (1:41.00) with Winterfield chasing (1:42.01), Simmons 3rd (1:43.97), J Sims 4th (1:44.62), D Becker 5th (1:45.21), Jayden Edwards 6th (1:45.37), Nick White 7th (1:46.46), D Wilson 8th (1:46.63), Daniel Oldaker 9th (1:47.61) and Kyle Johnson 10th (1:47.87).

Third run for the morning, Farnden again fastest, with an excellent run of 1:40.58 seconds for the Suby Pilot. Nick White made the 2nd spot on this run, 1:44.08 his best for the day. Jason Sims missed by 1/100th of a second and had to be content with 3rd (1:44.09). Winterfield tried a bit too hard and lost time (1:44.67) to be back in 4th spot. Dion Becker had a good go in the Falcon and got 5th spot (1:44.90), Simmons 6th (1:45.00), Jayden Edwards 7th (1:45.51), D Wilson 8th (1:46.14), B Edwards 9th (1:47.05) and Kyle Johnson 10th (1:47.53).

Penultimate run and Farnden continued at the top with a 1:42.21 seconds run just enough to hold off a charge by Luke Winterfield (1:42.51) in 2nd spot, J Sims 3rd (1:43.77), Nick White 4th (1:44.16), Simmons 5th (1:44.65), Damien Wilson 6th (1:44.94), Jayden Edwards 7th (1:45.94), Kyle Johnson 8th (1:45.98), Daniel Oldaker 9th (1:46.71) and Matt Kirby 10th (1:47.18).

Last run-in excellent weather with a roughening track, Oscar Farnden ended the weekend with another quick run (1:41.38) with Luke Winterfield 2nd (1:43.13) with another good drive. Jason Sims made 3rd again (1:43.24), Simmons 4th (1:44.33), Nick White 5th (1:44.91), Kyle Johnson 6th (1:45.09), Matt Kirby 7th (1:45.65), Damien Wilson 8th (1:45.76), Dion Becker 9th (1:47.20) and Barry Edwards 10th with his final run time of 1:47.29 seconds.

As can be seen from the times through the weekend one second can cover 5 drivers.

Results are yet to be finalized and separated into the SEAC and State Competitions.

As always SEAC has a shortage of officials to help run the many events through the year. If you wish to be involved in Motorsport, but not compete, you can be one of the many officials needed to help on the day or leading up to the event.

Contact the club, or one of the members and ask about how to be involved. It only costs you some of your time and you are very close to the action.

PHOTO COURTESY OF TURN8 PHOTOGRAPHY (DARREN ARCHIBALD)