2016 Adelaide Grand Prix

[ForestRaceway]

Just a reminder that the 21st running of the Adelaide Grand Prix is on the 11th/12th/13th November 2016. It's a full program of ten races spread over 3 days, for 1/24th vintage and scratch-built slot cars.

 

Race program

 

Friday Night

Event 1 : Pan-Americana, '48 to '54

Event 2 : Vintage Stocker Race, ’55 to ‘60

Event 3 : Vintage Stocker Race, ’61 to ‘66

 

Saturday Day, through to Night

Event 4 : Historic Australian Touring Car Championship + Mini

Event 5 : Sunset Racing Shells FX/FJ Sedan Challenge

Event 6 : Tamiya Sports Car Race

Event 7 : Vintage Can-am Race

 

Sunday Day

Event 8 : Pre-1934 Open-wheelers

Event 9 : Tasman Series Race

Event 10 : 2016 Adelaide Grand Prix

Event 11 : Concourse

 

Message me if you want further details.

 

Wade

[ForestRaceway]

FRIDAY NIGHT

 

Pan-Americana

 

 

Racing kicked off with the Pan-Americana cars running the Strombecker Devastator motors. These are always a good way to start the race weekend, being slower than most classes.

Racing was close given the speed of these cars are closely matched and the racing was pretty clean. John and Kym was consistently quick, however I managed to get a 2 lap buffer going into the last bracket. Unfortunately at the start of the last brack a car came off and it knocked mine onto another lane. My sight of the track was then obscured and I lost sight of my car. When I could see the track again I couldn't find my car. I eventually spotted it and could start driving again. However John had caught up the two laps and we were at exactly the same point. We were only together for 1 lap though as he came off pushing a little too hard, giving me a small buffer until the end of the race. Kym drove a very clean race and was 3rd, 1 lap down. Kevin from Victoria took the fastest lap, ending up 4th.

 

POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE

1 Wade 150 6.067 6.297

2 John 150 6.053 6.363

3 Kym 149 6.096 6.378

4 Kevin 146 5.952 6.491

5 Michael 146 6.112 6.476

6 Lew 141 6.162 6.682

7 Alby 141 6.145 6.733

8 Charlie 139 6.253 6.89

9 Paul 139 6.416 6.842

10 BillH 137 6.468 6.949

11 Bert 124 6.393 7.643

 

 

55-60 Stocker

 

 

 

 

In this race my car started off lightningly quick on a slow lane. However unfortunately for me, Paul's car came off on the straight and I cleaned it up (see photo). The car drove but only just as it deslotted on most corners with the chassis locked up against the body so I managed to get my spare and ran that. With Kym just out in front, it was going to be a very close battle for 2nd place with Alby, until my spare too smashed into a stationary car, braking the front mount and ending my race. Although reviewing the plot Alby looked to have had 2nd place wrapped up anyway. Kevin drove a clean race to take out 3rd.

 

 

POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE

1 Kym 237 5.570 6.008

2 Alby 236 5.527 6.081

3 Kevin 234 5.755 6.097

4 Wade 224 5.563 6.181

5 John 222 5.789 6.463

6 Charlie 221 5.910 6.449

7 Lew 212 5.996 6.737

8 BillH 205 5.999 7.019

9 Michael 202 5.767 7.026

10 Paul 202 5.859 7.148

 

 

61-66 Stocker

 

 

 

I nearly missed this race due to family commitments but in the end could race it. I once again drove my freakishly good AMT Ford Galaxie, which took a solid win. Kym had a close battle with Michael to take out third.

 

POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE

1 Wade 253 5.328 5.675

2 Kym 245 5.393 5.818

3 Michael 243 5.533 5.886

4 Alby 240 5.537 5.961

5 Kevin 237 5.535 6.04

6 Lew 230 5.737 6.21

7 Bert 214 5.785 6.728

8 Charlie 211 5.78 6.755

9 John 208 5.265 7.099

10 Paul 201 5.922 6.601

11 BillH 181 6.091 8.282

12 BillD 86 5.799 6.593

 

SATURDAY

 

After a quick swapmeet at 1pm where there was plenty of parts and cars to buy, we had four classes to get through for the Saturday.

 

 

Aus Touring Cars

 

 

 

In this class you need two cars to compete; a pre-73 Australian touring car for 6 brackets and a mini for 2.

This is a class that Kym has dominated over the years. I've tended to go with my Porsche running a Plafit chassis which has great cornering ability however this year the tyres were so grippy they started to ball up. As a result I decided to use my Plafit 1300 1970 Mustang - a car that in the past has never run well but bizarrely ended up being quite competitive. I also upgraded the motor in my mini from a Cheetah to a mini-brute and this improved the overall lap time. Kym ended up having issues with his main car and dropped back a little. BillH ended up driving really well with a car prep'ed by Kym (an AMT '70 Camaro) and he took out 2nd. Unfortunately no plots for this race.

 

POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE

1 Wade 248 5.371 5.790

2 BillH 242 5.334 5.928

3 Kym 241 5.350 5.940

4 Lew 239 5.427 5.978

5 Michael 235 5.292 6.094

6 Kevin 229 5.602 6.244

7 Alby 228 5.167 6.256

8 Charlie 226 5.485 6.410

9 John 226 5.619 6.153

10 BillD 222 5.785 6.431

11 Paul 215 - 6.637

12 Bert 207 5.648 7.013

 

 

FX/FJ Sunset Challenge

 

 

The FX/FJ class is quite a builder's chassis class. With the car limited to 103 grams, narrow tyres and the small (but powerful) Mabuchi S motors it is a challenge to get a car to go well. I seem to have a car that is now well sorted and it won with some ease, with Kym 2nd and John just pipping Alby for 3rd. Notably John's car actually runs a wooden chassis.

 

POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE

1 Wade 244 5.514 5.868

2 Kym 232 5.523 6.193

3 John 224 5.711 6.419

4 Alby 224 5.822 6.41

5 Lew 223 5.909 6.388

6 Kevin 223 5.906 6.459

7 BillH 219 5.663 6.58

8 Bert 212 5.973 6.742

9 Paul 211 5.912 6.781

10 BillD 210 5.887 6.891

11 Charlie 202 6.017 7.087

12 Michael 189 6.395 7.381

 

 

Tamiya

 

 

The Tamiya cars generally drive really well at AMR, however they are always a challenge to get the tyres just right. There is not much margin before the diameter reduces and the gear touches the track. Unfortunately this is what happened to my car. It started off really well, admittingly on the fast lanes however when it got to the slow lanes it was having issues and deslotting. Kym drove a much cleaner race to take the win. Lew also drove a very clean race to take out 3rd, with Bill not too far behind.

 

POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE

1 Kym 249 5.410 5.739

2 Wade 244 5.242 5.893

3 Lew 241 5.466 5.929

4 BillH 239 5.452 5.99

5 Michael 237 5.396 6.052

6 Alby 234 5.519 6.179

7 Kevin 232 5.458 6.175

8 Paul 230 5.704 6.231

9 Charlie 221 5.480 6.538

10 Alan 166 5.922 7.331

 

 

Can-am

 

 

The Can-am cars rounded out the Saturday's racing. We all had Russkits except for Paul, however he ended up changing the car to a four wheel drive Russkit for the race. Kym has always had fast Russkits and this year was no exception. He took an easy win with his Chaparral 2. In fact he took out the most laps for the race, of all of the classes for the weekend. Michael drove well to take 2nd and Kevin third. I had a shocker but was never really in the hunt. My car used a 26D which I think just doesn't cut it in a Russkit chassis. Time to soup up a Russkit motor or go with an old 16D (as the motor cans and endbells must be vintage).

 

POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE

1 Kym 259 5.106 5.506

2 Michael 248 5.176 5.606

3 Kevin 243 5.346 5.916

4 Wade 238 5.281 5.947

5 Bert 232 5.579 6.141

6 Charlie 226 5.493 6.348

7 Paul 224 5.503 6.218

8 BilJon 224 5.677 6.479

9 Alan 221 5.455 6.537

10 Lew 147 5.042 6.619

 

Pre-34

 

 

 

 

The Pre-34 class is becoming the pinnacle of scratchbuilding for the Adelaide Grand Prix weekend. Many cars with hand-built front steering and some with hand made balsa bodies, they all represent significant hours of work. Unfortunately mine wasn't ready (same state as last year) but I was more than happy to watch the race - they are a great sight on the track.

It was clear early on that Charlie, last year's winner, wasn't driving clean enough to be out in front. Michael, who didn't drive well for the first couple of brackets, got it together and managed to put in some very fast and consistent laps. Kym, who missed last year's race but was probably the favourite going into the race, had some big offs/slow marshalling but in the end didn't quite have Michael's pace. John would have been able to vy for second but had a mechanical issue which brought him back to 4th. Lew had a clean race and took 3rd.

 

POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE

1 Michael 151 5.805 6.261

2 Kym 148 5.936 6.444

3 Lew 146 6.073 6.490

4 John 146 6.106 6.393

5 Max 142 6.043 6.731

6 Alby 140 6.310 6.745

7 Charlie 138 6.066 6.889

8 BillH 138 6.406 6.903

9 Bert 137 6.286 6.851

 

 

 

Tasman Cup (60's GP)

 

 

This year I replaced the 26D in my Russkit GP car with a slightly better 26D and the car felt strong. However I hadn't setup the rear axle well and in the 2nd bracket the car chewed up the pink parma gear (something I didn't think was possible given how strong they are) and I had to run my spare for a short period. Luckily I had the next 3 brackets off where I could replace the gear in between marshalling and the car was back. The car was quick however I came off a couple of times and the car was difficult to marshall so it would lose quite some time each time. Going into the last bracket, Kym was ahead by half a lap and on a slower lane and I managed to take the lead and keep it (having the slight advantage by being able to read the computer whilst racing). Kevin who wasn't far behind took out third. You'll notice in the photo this year that John Ward's Brabham was included. This was for a mark of respect given John passed away 3 years ago (thanks to Kevin for bringing it). John loved both 60's and 50's GP races.

 

POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE

1 Wade 246 5.306 5.828

2 Kym 246 5.341 5.817

3 Kevin 240 5.329 5.966

4 John 239 5.430 5.958

5 Lew 237 5.328 6.015

6 Alby 236 5.594 6.065

7 Charlie 229 5.720 6.243

8 Bert 227 5.802 6.297

9 Paul 219 5.779 6.576

10 BillH 191 5.448 6.399

11 Michael 184 5.460 6.523

 

 

Adelaide Grand Prix Heat (1 min brackets)

 

 

 

On to the 21st running of the Adelaide Grand Prix. Eleven entrants presented cars the 50's front end steering GP cars and we ran a tense 1 min x 8 bracket heat in order to obtain 8 entrants for the final. Alby showed his car was quick this year taking out the heat. I wasn't far behind and John third. Unfortunately Paul and Max just missed the cut, with Bill having a mechanical failure to also put him out.

 

POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE

1 Alby 82 5.369 5.737

2 Wade 81 5.410 5.865

3 John 78 5.577 6.081

4 Michael 76 5.715 6.176

5 Kevin 75 5.621 6.445

6 Charlie 74 5.882 6.401

7 Lew 73 5.762 6.429

8 Kym 71 5.582 6.621

9 Paul 70 5.824 6.593

10 Max 69 5.792 6.679

11 BillH 8 6.312 6.312

 

 

Adelaide Grand Prix Final

 

 

On to the final, and I managed to get an early lead with Alby having a few offs to start with. Kevin starting out very cleanly to not be too far behind with Charlie in third place, starting on the fast lanes. Then in the 2nd bracket Alby lost a wheel however Bert managed to get it back on in good time, only losing 20 secs in the process. This gave me a buffer to the top qualifier, with an aim of staying out of trouble, although Kevin wasn't far behind and Kym was always a threat. Given the bumpiness of the track this year for lanes 7 and 8 I took it a little easier on those lanes. Kym, who would normally be vying for the win had loads of issues, losing many laps with a car that was difficult to marshall. Alby showed during the 15min mark whilst on lane 4 that he was fast enough but with too many offs/incidents he ended up having a very tight battle for 2nd place with Kevin who drove very cleanly except for his stint on the slower lanes. In the end Alby was only a couple of metres ahead of Kevin, for the 2nd place. John who is normally a very consistent driver was fast enough to be vying for the 2nd place, also had too many incidents and dropped back to 4th.

 

POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE EFFICIENCY CRASHES

1 Wade 252 5.347 5.688 6.383 1

2 Alby 243 5.316 5.888 10.751 9

3 Kevin 243 5.479 5.903 7.736 6

4 John 234 5.457 6.091 11.622 9

5 Kym 232 5.335 6.084 14.047 9

6 Michael 228 5.646 6.301 11.599 11

7 Lew 226 5.673 6.302 11.096 3

8 Charlie 224 5.782 6.396 57.181 8

 

 

 

AGP History

 

Here's the complete known history of the race. Still some results lost over time. Note the first race was done using laps per bracket. We changed over to timed brackets around 2006.

 

 

Concourse

 

 

The race weekend ended with Brian (who marshalled all weekend) to vote concourse. He picked cars that he identified as desirable from his youth (Brian raced real cars when he was young). He picked the Mercedes 300SLR, Brabham GP, Jag e-type.

Thanks to everyone who attended, we really want to keep this yearly event going for as long as possible and it only happens because people are enthused enough to join us. Special thanks to Kevin, Charlie and Paul for coming over from Victoria. It makes for a much more special event when it is also a good chance to catch up with friends you see once a year. It was Paul's first AGP event and I could tell he was excited and captivated by the event like I was the first time I joined in. Please contact me if you want to join us for 2017 as we definitely welcome new faces.

[I Am The Walrus]

Great read and awesome pics.

As good a collection in one place as i ever expect to see.

And what a track!

[jphanna]

spectacluar pics, track, organisation (Wade). great bunch of guys and awsome man cave. Well done. if i wasnt up to my elbows in 1/32 plastic, i would love to do real old school 1/24 metal cars. the heart and soul of slot car racing.

[pmdaniels]

Thanks for the report Wade . Very interesting .