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The Adelaide Grand Prix 2015 didn't go quite to plan. The ebb and flow of things meant we had a number of people who couldn't make it. The most notable was Rob Richardson, who passed away from a heart attack far too young. Rob first attended the Adelaide Grand Prix in 2014 and was super keen to attend the 2015 event. His immediate affection for the event reminded me of my first event back in 2003. The magic of building and racing vintage slot cars with like minded others, in a very creative space such as Adelaide Model Raceway, is a great experience that I aim not to miss. Rob was a wonderful fit for our group. He was very friendly and also creative with his slot cars. He was and is still sadly missed. Now many others also couldn't make it, Lew, Kym, Harry, Kevin and Ged were all cancellations for various reasons. With Kym not running meant that the racing at the pointy end wasn't going to be as intense. We still had many good races however. For many of the races we had a mixed number of marshals (between 2 and 5 during the race meet, where 3 to 4 are the required number). Thanks goes to Jim, Yoshi, Dennis and Graham for various marshalling duties over the weekend. Without these guys the event would have been compromised altogether. Racing was kicked off with the Pan-Americanas. With only 7 runners we decided to run 3 min brackets. Cars were a little faster this year, breaking into the 5 secs. Michael and I had a tight battle at the front with John not far behind. POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE 1 Wade 227 5.897 6.32 2 Michael 224 5.961 6.384 3 JohnC 220 6.04 6.478 4 Charlie 215 6.102 6.653 5 Alby 211 6.264 6.77 6 BillH 187 6.254 8.117 7 Bert 183 6.48 7.912 The 55 to 60 stockers were next. I ended up with loads of trouble. I thought my car was faulty but it ended up being my controller (broken wire) and I lost lots of laps. Although having the faster car (my car has always been a rocket) the race was in the end extremely tight with John and myself on the same lap. I only just managed to take the win by a couple of seconds, will BillD only 1 lap down to take 3rd. POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE 1 Wade 226 5.592 6.33 2 JohnC 226 5.404 6.348 3 BillD 225 5.876 6.374 4 Alby 222 5.691 6.289 5 Charlie 215 6.025 6.623 6 Michael 208 5.639 6.841 7 BillH 206 5.884 6.887 The 61 to 66 stocker class. My AMT Ford Galaxie has been the car to beat for some time and it dominated again this year. For 2nd and 3rd, the two Bills had a very close race. Bill H was using Jim's old stocker to great effect, just pipping Bill D for second. Both Charlie and Bert had failures which killed their races. POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE 1 Wade 249 5.344 5.757 2 BillH 238 5.622 5.988 3 BillD 238 5.614 5.935 4 Alby 235 5.616 6.097 5 JohnC 231 5.745 6.185 6 Bert 111 5.744 6.537 7 Charlie 34 6.183 6.876 On the Saturday, Alan H joined us and we had the highest number of entrants (9) for the weekend. The Australian Touring Class is a fast class where we run a Mini for 2 brackets and any Touring car for the other 6 brackets. It was a tight race between Michael and myself. I took the win with my Porsche 911, with Michael just 1 lap down in his Mustang. Time to build a new Mini to take on Kym next year, as he is usually the one to beat in this class. POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE 1 Wade 245 5.359 5.825 2 Michael 244 5.426 5.869 3 BillH 233 5.375 6.072 4 Alby 232 5.592 6.168 5 Charlie 219 5.704 6.491 6 BillD 218 5.704 6.551 7 JohnC 214 5.802 6.702 8 Alan 211 6.066 6.708 9 Bert 190 5.747 7.792 For the FX/FJ race we managed to have the perfect number of 8 runners. The race was increased to 3 mins for this year given the reduced number. My car ran well and was well out in front. It was a good race for 2nd though with Alby beating the two Bills by a narrow margin. POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE 1 Wade 237 5.562 6.054 2 Alby 218 5.873 6.664 3 BillD 215 5.814 6.202 4 BillH 213 5.99 6.724 5 Michael 200 5.947 7.112 6 Charlie 199 6.273 7.132 7 Bert 161 6.225 9.562 8 JohnC 16 6.576 8.265 With only 4 runners for the Tamiya race, we decided to run on 4 lanes of the 8 lane track (3 min per lane). My car was a joy to drive and a little quicker than the rest of the field. Michael struck trouble early and missed out on the podium, with BillH 2nd and Charlie 3rd. POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE 1 Wade 128 5.283 5.554 2 BillH 121 5.472 5.88 3 Charlie 112 5.584 6.427 4 Michael 106 5.597 6.897 With 6 runners for the Vintage can-am race and only 2 marshals, we decided to run on 6 lanes (3 min per lane). With only 2 marshals, drivers had to marshal two spots close to their station. My car was running on its front tyres too much and deslotted a few times near the bridge on a bump. On the last bracket I had to make up 4 laps on Michael. He was on the lane 7 and I was on lane 2. I just caught up with 10 secs to go but one more marshal event in the closing seconds meant second place. Well done to Michael for taking the win and Alby for a solid 3rd. POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE 1 Michael 186 5.206 5.787 2 Wade 185 5.170 5.803 3 Alby 180 5.597 5.94 4 JohnC 171 5.764 6.216 5 Bert 160 5.444 6.68 6 Charlie 24 5.861 15.73 Onto the Sunday and for the first time we had 3 open wheeler classes on the one day. This was because of the introduction of the pre-34 class, primarily due to Rob's enthusiasm for the event. This class allows both grand prix cars and also American stock cars, as long as they are open wheelers. The rules specify narrow AMR tyres, single magnet motor and front steering. The reason for pre-34, is that after 34 the body styles changed with the influx of the Auto Union and Mercedes cars. The pre-34 cars appear to all have a verticle or near-verticle front grill. With the grand prix bodies very scarce, it is a real scratchbuilders class. Also given the huge variety of body styles of that period, you can effectively design your own car (the car doesn't have to be a replica). I had grandiose plans of building a balsa wood body but ran out of time during the chassis building stage, given I was also building the steering out of brass (like some of the others). So we had 6 entrants for the race with a nice variety. Notibly, Michael made actual wire wheels for his car (check out the photos). In not racing, it was great to be a spectator. It ended up being a very entertaining race to watch. Charlie had the quicker car but wasn't a consistant as John. It all came down to the last bracket, both on the same lap John was catching Charlie but uncharacteristically he pushed too hard at the end of the donut and came off. The car actually left the track but will still operable. However this incident left Charlie to take the win by 1 lap. POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE 1 Charlie 109 5.72 6.536 2 JohnC 108 6.165 6.544 3 BillD 102 6.491 6.906 4 Alby 97 6.569 7.324 5 Michael 93 6.103 6.937 6 Bert 90 4.71 7.007 The 60's GP cars were next. This proved to be a very close race between myself and BillD. I took the early lead but had a couple of bad incidents in the 6th bracket which gave BillD the lead but only just. I then managed to just claw back the lead. We were together on the lead lap in the last bracket and I only just took the win. John started well (on the same pace as BillD) but had mechanical issues which dropped him down to 4th. POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE 1 Wade 248 5.333 5.750 2 BillD 248 5.367 5.740 3 Michael 241 5.468 5.926 4 JohnC 236 5.527 6.014 5 Charlie 228 5.431 6.238 6 Alby 227 5.515 6.237 7 Bert 214 6.024 6.636 8 BillH 199 6.369 7.087 Onto the big race and with reduced numbers (7 entrants) meant there was no need for a qualifying race. This year saw a change in tyres given the 24004's are no longer available. Unfortunately some cars were still running the older tyres but with so few runners I wasn't going to omit anyone. My main car didn't make the starting grid as it just violated the 1/8" chassis clearance (thanks Dennis) given the difficulty in running the new tyres with a chassis built for the old tyres and also after some spirited practice wore the tyres lower. So I got to run my just finished Maserati 4CLT (a John Bacon copy of the Merit body I've had for many years but decided to build it this year). Onto the race and Alby was quick to start with, running on the fast lanes, he took the lead and kept it for 3 brackets. However he struck mechanical trouble in the 4th bracket and never recovered. This meant I took the win reasonably confortably in the end (although it never feels comfortable with these cars). Charlie who took 2nd would have been a lot closer but had a shocker on the last bracket on the slow lane 7. John had a relatively clean run to take the final podium spot from Alby. Given Alby's fastest lap, if he didn't have trouble it would have been a close race between himself and myself. POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE 1 Wade 241 5.421 5.941 2 Charlie 234 5.657 6.158 3 JohnC 229 5.643 6.214 4 Alby 227 5.407 6.569 5 Michael 217 5.846 6.651 6 BillD 217 5.504 6.866 7 BillH 216 5.813 6.487 At the end of the racing we held a concourse for 3 classes. Everyone voted once for each class. For two of the classes we ended up with joint winners Sports Cars: BillD and Wade Sedans: Charlie and Michael Open wheeler: Michael So for being the 20th year running it was a bit of an "off" year, we had a smaller weekend than normal however the race is still going strong and the numbers should be stronger in 2016. It was still a fun weekend with lots of humour as always, especially when Charlie is in the room. I look forward to seeing everyone again next year and hopefully any new-comers. For more photos, see: https://picasaweb.google.com/108763121651542889768/AdelaideGrandPrix2015