Sean's Race Reviews

Strange Sightings at Brands Hatch Sees Dan Win!!!!

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 00:06:00 GMT

Round 4 of Season 28 in the 1967 F2 Series brought us to Brands Hatch, where surprisingly the weather was fine with the sun shining, considering it is England. Qualifying saw Craig Leech to pole position for the 3^rd time in a row with a blistering time of 1.32.4, with Mike Holland 1.3 seconds behind making brides Maid on the grid. From there it was close with 6 drivers within 1 second of each other.

AT the Drop of the green flag, All cars left the grid in an orderly fashion, with Goran bogging down off the start allowing Jon and Dan slip by before T1 until he could get up to speed. Rolf and Peter also had a coming together at the back of the grid whilst trying to get past Shawn just after the start line,

By Turn 3 on the first lap, the field had already formed the expected snake with some very cautious and considerate driving whilst the waiting for the tires to warm up. At the start of Lap 2, Dan sniffed is nose on the insode of Ron at T1 before backing out, but this action disrupted Ron’s usual clear thinking causing him to miss the turn in point, spinning wildly into the barriers, and then bouncing back out onto the track to collect Matt. Whilst Ron was still trying to stop his eyes from rolling around in his head, Leon was exiting from T1 to find Ron there, with no where to go, and slamming in to him. Leon retired from this accident as his BRM had been shortened too much from shunting.

The race settled down from then, with Craig Leech, Mike and Dan running in the top pack. At Lap 8, Craig Leech had an impressive 4 second lead, when suddenly he disappeared from the track. Spectators were heard to be saying a disk type object hovered over the car and sucked the car from the track and then flew off. I hope they return him “unprobed” before the next weekend.

This strange event left Mike and Dan to head the rest of the race with Mike having a wild slide on Lap 15 allowing Dan to take the lead and keep Mike at bay until the wave of the chequered flag. Third Place with his first Podium finish with Ausgpl.com was John LeMasurier.

Next week the group are off the Watkins Glen in the US where more close racing is expected.

Season 27 Announced!!!!!

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 02:49:00 GMT

It's Official - Season 27 will start Sunday 15th 2012 - First track will be Levin. Check out the Season 27 Race regulations as some restriction have been put in place for the 66 Carset Mod.

As always, Practice will be held Thursday nights from approx 8pm (EADT +11 GMT)

Note - due to recent upgrade of the Web Server, The calendar service is currently out of order. Hope to have this fixed real soon.

David French Takes Chequered Flag At Brands

Mon, 24 May 2010 00:15:00 GMT

Round 2 saw us at Brands Hatch where Daniel Judson put in a mighty effort to put his Repco Brabham on pole with Uwe only .01 of sec behind in second.

The race start was another incident free event with all drivers getting away smoothly and through the tricky off camber T1, with Dan Judson leading the way. Mid way through Lap one, and Dan suddenly spears right as the Repco's belly is compressed into the track allowing Joe Wild and half the field the pass before the end of Lap 1.

The next few laps saw Joe, Uwe and David in a close battle for the lead with only 1.5 seconds seperating the 3 of them before a a touching of wheels between Joe and Uwe saw them both spinning from the track on Lap 4 allowing David French to take the lead with Craig burns only 3 seconds behind in second. Uwe and and rejoined the circuit to create a new group of 4 drivers including Mike and Craig B with only 2 seconds sepearating all 4.

Craig B showed some great skill and control in keeping second place for 7 laps holding out a very fast Uwe, Mike and Joe before Uwe made the passing move down the back staight on lap 11. This allowed Uwe to drive off to chase down David F still in First place leaving Craig B to be put under more continuing pressure from Mike.

At the Start of Lap 16 into T1, David made a mistake allowing Uwe to slip through which then seemed to have a flow on and Mike Holland made an inside pass on Craig B into T2.

Lap 19 saw Uwe run wide and onto the grass allowing a 4.3 sec lead disappear, allowing David French and Mike Holland race past and Finish the last 2 laps in there respective postions witha gap of only .2 sec sepearating 1st & 2nd.

A well done must go to Robin Jeffery to bring home the first of the non Brabham chassis, a cooper in a respectable 5th place in this high calibur field.

Next round is sure to be action packed as AusGPL has been invited to Taladega Raceway to compete on an Oval track for the first time.... "Shake and Bake Baby"

Joe Wild Wins Round 1 at Crystal Palace

Mon, 17 May 2010 07:38:00 GMT

With no Handicaps imposed this season, it still shows the fields quality with the first 8 grid positions less than 1 second apart. Sean Mahon took honours to lead the field into the first corner for Season 20 at AusGPL with a time of 52.240s. David French placing second on grid, only 0.033 seconds behind.

This track has shown in the past to be quite slippery and dangerous in the first few turns, but the entire field made it through the first lap with no incidents and forming a freight train that created some great close racing throughout the entire field for the entire length of the race.

Almost all drivers at one stage were caught by the track grip causing a time loosing spin. Eventually, Joe Wild crossed the line in 1st Place, with Uwe Jacobsen and Mike Holland completing the podium showing that consistancy pays off in the end.

Congratulation to Uwe Jacobsen also , as he was the highest climber this race.

Next week sees us at Brand Hatch in another twisty circuit, and if it is based on Crystal, should make for some more close racing..

Lance Perkins First Win At Solitude !

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 08:41:00 GMT

After 11 Laps and a controversial Race restart, Lance Perkins takes his first ever checkered flag at Solitude, followed by Carg Larkin and Göran Jonsson. Commiserations go to Leigh Stokes and Sean Mahon, who surely would have had podiums except for disco's/ screen freezes 3 laps from the end. More drivers suffered this fate through out the race also.

Robin Jeffery took pole with an exceptional time of 3.16.5 putting him on pole for the first race (AKA Race 1.0) and with 16 other drivers on the grid, the start into T1 was always going to be interesting. Warnings went out the cockpit as the flag dropped, and it was Sean Mahon that started the carnageby missing the breaking point, putting his car into the outer haybails of T1 and with everyone coming through, the predicted happened, and atleast 14 cars were involved in the ensuring pile up. Panel beaters were seen to running to the bank manager as if they had found gold..... From this, the controversy started with the Race Director declaring a race Restart

Race 2 (AKA Race1.1) started with no qualifing allowed, but it was then found that grid positions were based on first in, 1st position, second in 2nd posi, etc.destroyings Robin's great efforts relegating him way back in the field. Thankfully everyone got through T1, T2 but on exit of T3 a spin cuased another accident. From all counts some of the race incidents in Race 1.0 and 1.1 were pretty sub standard to AUSGPL and these driver/s have taken a penalty for the next Round at Nurburgring.

Round 7 is going to be even more challenging than Solitude with even narrower, more undulating roads so all drivers are encouraged to exercise extreme caution next week to try and keep those panel beaters at bay and the team managers happy. Further discussions on improving driving standards during starts and race restarts can be foudn in the forums and all drivers are encouraged to participate.

Leon Gritter Becomes First Enduro Champion

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 23:07:00 GMT

After a torturous season with some of the most unforgivable tracks seen, Leon Gritter takes the final round win and places himself into history being the first Enduro Champion here at newly formed AusGPL. Taking Second place in the championship is the newest member, Göran Jonsson, who also put in a solid effort to complete the 6 of 7 races. Tim Butler completes the championship podium to 3rd by one point from Simon Brookman.

The race was lead from start to finish by Leon who, as always, put in a consistent drive over the 12 lap race, only getting into trouble once on the long and undulating track at Sachsenring but recovering still retaining the lead by 10 seconds from Tim whom after getting tangled up with Göran (which forced Göran to retire) on the first lap, drove an outstanding race to finish in second place. Simon Brookman took 3rd with a steady race placing him 50 secs behind the leader at the checkered flag.

David 's race ended abruptly, after coming over one of the steep crests, finding himself airborne and had no chance to make the turn at high speed before crashing into trees. Spectators say they could hear him syaing " MIGHT GET ME ONE OF THEM PINE TREES" before spearing into the forest.

Sean's 2.7 Brab could not handle the fast pace and on Lap 2, his engine gave up in a firery cloud thus ending his abissmal season of not finishing any of the 7 races. Sean was seen to be toasting marshmallows over his engine for the rest of the race.

Final decisions on next season format have not been finalised yet, so get into the forums and put your suggestions in to make this event even more special.

Crowds Riot as Round 7 canceled

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:27:00 GMT

With one of the largest fields turning up for Round 7 this week, it was not surprising that a Riot erupted when the organisers forgot to pay the power bill and the track was shut down.

The Round has been re-organised to be completed at the end of the season and it will be confirmed that the cheque has cleared.

Championship Tightens at Zeltweg

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 02:03:00 GMT

A large field was on the grid for the start of Round 5 at Zeltweg. Tim was the man with the pace, taking pole (1′49.44) and fastest lap (1′ 49.22) and he led the first five laps with Craig Leech hot on his tailpipes. An error halfway through the 6th lap let Craig through and he kept it too fast and steady for Tim to get him back. There were a number of good battles going on down the field but many were interrupted as no less than 5 drivers suffered screen freeze/discoes. Leon was one of the unfortunates, departing from an exciting battle with Mike at the halfway point and handing over third place. A shame that such a fun track will have to join the black list along with Brands. The championship leader failed to make it to the meeting at all after his train took the wrong siding at the border, and so the championship is very tight at the halfway point with only three points separating the top three and Craig’s win vaulting him up the ladder to be within one point of Leigh for fourth place.

Wayne is bound to be on fire next week at one of his favourite tracks, but he is sure to have some stiff competition from his fellow contenders as well as other drivers who enjoy the fast flowing curves and undulations of Road Atlanta.

Season 17 Tracks Continue to Thrill

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 12:29:00 GMT

The selection of tracks for Season 17 are continuing to be fun to drive and provide close racing. Wayne had a bit of a lonely run at Hilltop in round 4 to lead the whole race and take the win from Craig L and Tim but the rest of the pack enjoyed some exciting battles. Wayne now has a good lead in the championship after a second at Urbanya and a third at Brands Hatch but Tim and Mike are showing good speed in the BT11’s and will be trying hard to close the gap. Practice sessions at next weeks venue, Zeltweg, have already indicated an exciting and intense battle will be fought again.

Make sure you bookmark Sean’s new site which is under development as the new MelbourneGPL.com for all the latest results, replays, reports and standings. Any comments or suggestions posted in the forum will be appreciated. A big thanks to Sean for all his efforts with the new site and for his excellent server duties.

HillTop Practice Sessions Replays

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 06:40:00 GMT

I have added the Practice session replays from wed night for those that like to use replays to tune the cars on a comparison

Practice Session 1

Practice Session 2