We’re back home and almost fully dry after a wet, quiet, but most of all enjoyable 2021 Autumn Festival. It’s time to take a few minutes to relax, wrap-up the meeting and enjoy the photos of everyone splashing around in the rain.
It may seem counter-intuitive, but I spent the Autumn Festival being a lot drier than I thought I would. After a week of dire weather predictions and with Sydney experiencing consistent torrential rain and flooding, the weather in Goulburn was relatively mild. It was wet, of course, but we didn’t receive the never-ending drenching that Sydney did.
There was even the odd break in the weather that hung around long enough for an almost-dry line to develop here and there.
While we lost a lot of entries to the weather in the days leading up to the event, the meeting still saw some good fields – particularly in Group N, Group S, Regularity and Super Sprint. Formula Ford and Formula Vee also put together good groups, braving the weather in their open cars and trusting tyres that must have felt very skinny in the conditions.
Understandably, the big bangers in Groups Q & R weren’t in a hurry to try and get the grunt down in such conditions, with similar sentiments in M & O and J, K and L, but a few brave souls came out for a run and enjoyed the opportunity to work on their craft and cars.
Conditions on track were challenging to say the least, and while we saw more excursions from the straight and narrow than usual, competitors did a good job of keeping things on the black stuff and pointed in (mostly) the right direction.
For the most part, drivers seemed to enjoy the challenge, and the conditions produced some interesting races. The lighter and more nimble cars were able to flex their handling muscle and more experienced drivers could take their talents to the limit to shuffle up the order.
With most people taking shelter under cover in the pits and garages, the paddock was a little quieter than usual, but still a relaxed and friendly place to be. Friends caught up after the summer break, sausages sizzled and cars were pulled apart and put together again in the hopes of finding tenths or quashing gremlins.
Thanks to everyone who braved the weather and made the road trip to Goulburn to put on an enjoyable meeting! No matter how much work and planning goes on behind the scenes, our race meetings ultimately rely on your support to make them great, so we appreciate you sticking with us and coming along to have some fun.
A very special thank you to the officials who support our meetings, rain, hail or shine. Without you, none of this would work, and from our 40-degree weekend at Sydney Motorsport Park last year to this cold and wet one, you always take care of us. Thank you!
Thank you from Rod, Wayne, Richard, Mark and the HSRCA committee for your support of the Autumn Festival. Put the Sydney Classic in your diaries for June 12 – 13 and join us for a big one celebrating the life of Ron Tauranac, the HSRCA 40th anniversary and more at Sydney Motorsport Park. Here’s hoping we can enjoy a meeting without some extreme weather for a change!
With that, let’s move on to the photos. Click through the following galleries, and enjoy.
2021 HSRCA Autumn Festival: Seth Reinhardt
2021 HSRCA Autumn Festival: Wayne Jones
2021 HSRCA Autumn Festival: David Jenkins
2021 HSRCA Autumn Festival: Riccardo Benevenuti
Thanks to Riccardo Benvenuti, David Jenkins, Wayne Jones and Seth Reinhardt (seth@hsrca.com) for sharing their images and persisting through the weather to create them.
a BIG well done to everyone, especially the drivers, your efforts make my attempts all that much more rewarding. thanks again for the opportunity to get out trackside to take photos, cheers