On Friday the 5th of November, 2021, we took a road trip down to Goulburn to hold a one-day ‘Return to Racing’ meeting at Wakefield Park. Scroll along, and enjoy a few photos from the day.
After both our spring and summer meetings were cancelled due to Sydney’s lockdown and the resulting pinch on track availability, this one-day meeting was an opportunity to celebrate our newfound freedom and get the cars out for one more run before they go into hibernation for the summer break. More importantly, it was a good opportunity to catch up with mates after several challenging months apart.
Kicking off unofficially on Thursday with historic sessions in a Wakefield Park-organised track day, we were pleased to host a good turnout, with some 95 entrants taking the Friday off to go racing.
As has become somewhat of a tradition, the weather was less cooperative and drivers braved fairly dire wet and cold conditions. This encouraged the odd well-lubricated excursion, but events progressed smoothly and we were able to enjoy a full day of motorsport and some great races, particularly in the busy Group N, Group S and Formula Ford fields.
The Group N field remained strong throughout, with David Noakes, Brad Tilley and John Harrison occupying the podium for most of the day. Noakes qualified fastest and won race one, with Brad Tilley getting the better of him in races two and three. John Harrison claimed third until race three, when Quentin Bland was able to bump him to fourth.
In Supersprint, Wayne Seabrook was quick out the gates, setting the fastest time in practice. In run one, Col Robinson and Jac Cousin had a good run in the 1972 Torana and 1969 E-Type Jaguar and were closely matched. Run two saw them swap the order before Cousin knocked more than a second off their times in the depleted third run, followed by Terry Lawlor in the 1974 Porsche 911 RSR.
Six M & O cars started qualifying, led by Paul Hamilton, Wayne Wilson and Richard Carter. Race one saw the order unchanged before Richard Carter got the better of both drivers in race two, followed by Wilson and then Hamilton.
Group S was hotly contested, with Doug Barbour ultimately claiming pole position ahead of Richard Watts and Colin Wilson-Brown. Barbour went on to a clean sweep of the day’s competition, with Richard Watts, Colin Wilson-Brown, Kent Brown and Brian Weston all closely matched and running within a few hundredths of each other.
In Formula Ford, Andrew Taite went out fastest, followed by Harrison Cooper and Travis Clark. Race one saw Cooper move up to the lead after Taite fell back to sixth. Travis Clark claimed second with Nigel Hook moving up to third.
Cooper held on to the lead in race two, with Taite working his way back to second ahead of Clark. Taite completed his recovery for the final race of the day, winning ahead of Cooper, with Peter Grant moving up onto the podium in third.
Dick Willis, Les Wright and David McKenzie made up a small JKL and Invited SA field on Friday morning, before joining Regularity for the afternoon events.
Bruce Melville, Aaron Lewis and Richard Cardew topped the combined Regularity and JKL field for the first run. Second time out David Ellis moved to the top, followed by Aaron Lewis and Dave Durie. Heading out at 4pm to complete the event, Bruce Melville was back on top for run three, followed by Durie and Ellis.
Our thanks to everyone who came out to support the meeting! It was something different for the club, running in a single day format at a smaller scale, but we thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to get out in the cars and catch up with everyone after such a long break.
Thanks as well to Dean Chapman, Robyn Ryan and everyone at Wakefield Park for your support and hosting!
And most importantly, thank you to all the volunteers who continue to support the club, the sport and the community at large. We will do our best to organise some pleasant weather for you next time!
With that, enjoy the galleries from Campbell Armstrong Rider, Jeremy Dale, Wayne Jones, Steve Koen, Seth Reinhardt, Stuart Row and Mark Walsh below. Make sure to click their names to head to their websites for prints and more images. If you’d like to reach out to Jeremy, Steve, Mark or Seth just send Seth an email at web@hsrca.com and he’ll put you in touch.
We’ll see you at Wakefield Park in early 2022!
2021 HSRCA Return to Racing: Campbell Armstrong Rider
2021 HSRCA Return to Racing: Jeremy Dale
2021 HSRCA Return to Racing: Wayne Jones
2021 HSRCA Return to Racing: Steve Koen
2021 HSRCA Return to Racing: Seth Reinhardt
2021 HSRCA Return to Racing: Stuart Row
2021 HSRCA Return to Racing: Mark Walsh
