Mr. Sun shone brightly on the 21st of October, setting the stage beautifully for the final round of 2018’s CSCA sprints, hosted kindly by the Triumph Sports Owners Association. Read on and catch up on all the action with thanks to Craig Sheppard and the Motorsport Committee.
CSCA Round 7: The Triumph Round
21st October 2018, Wakefield Park
By Craig Sheppard, photos thanks to Mel & Gino Valdes
‘It’s full, it’s full, it’s full’… not the dams in Goulburn, but the TSOA final round of the 2018 CSCA series. It was a welcome notification that the event was indeed full with a waiting list.
The majority of the CLA crew travelled down to Wakefield on Saturday afternoon and for some it was a real ‘Noah’ moment as the heavens opened and the storm unleashed its payload – lightning, hail and 45mm of water in about 45 minutes. Besides the usual array of excuses, a major topic of discussion at the Astor over dinner was – would it be dry?
Sunday dawned cool, bright, sunny and gorgeous – Lotus weather!
Group 1 is mostly a Lotus affair. Ten of the twelve runners in fact. The Lotii looked resplendent in their greens, yellows, blues, oranges and reds, sitting on the dummy grid during the drivers’ briefing. At 9am they were off!
Early reports of the track losing its early edge were confirmed as tales of drifting and sliding permeated the discussion – times were a second or two off the pace. This was soon to change as the day progressed.
On the results!
Duncan Andrews (DM4) led the charge with his usual flair and set a 1:04:06 – fastest marque car of the day and second overall. Well done Duncan.
3rd, 4th and 5th fastest of the day were separated by less than 0.3 of second. Martin Duursma (1.:05:69), Leigh Fuller (1:05:94) and Tim Mackie (1:05:96) put on a great display and awesome driving. A viewing pleasure!
Dave Mackie (1:06:8) was close behind in the S1 Exige followed by Richard Woodhams (1:07:68), Liam Sheppard (1:08:08) and Barry Mather (1:08:27), who completed the top 10! Great work Lotii Drivers.
It was great to see Richard back on the track after some ‘mechanical misadventures’ and Liam continuing to improve – setting his PB by 0.7 second. Great work guys.
Len Goodwin continues to dazzle us in the 1964 Elan and on Sunday set a stunning time of 1:08:45, closely followed by Brendan James with a 1:08:92.
Brett Stevens got “Larry 444” into 14th position overall with a 1:09:2, followed by Gino Valdes with a 1:09:4. The shared Commodore of Peter Deller (1:09:8) and John Deller (1:09:9) continues to mix it with the fastest cars of the round.
Greg Baker in the Pulsar clocked a very respectable 1:10:3 followed by Steve Madden in the Exige TVS with a 1:10:5. Colin Rudd continues to get a handle on the 2018 Elise with a great time of 1:11:2, followed by Stephen Alcorn 1:11:3 and Craig Sheppard 1:11:4 (Ok – start the heckling – comparing Liam’s time in the same car J!).
The Lotus Europa of Terry Waugh continues to impress on and off the track with a 1:12:0. Keith Edwards piloted the RS3 to a 1:12:9 and John Culvenor a very respectable 1:14:9.
And onto another PB, Mel Valdes was very happy with a 1:15:4 – a personal best by some two seconds we believe! Great to see Mel – watch out Gino!
First timer, Tim Kierath – set a brilliant 1:16:1 in the new Elise Sport 220 – fantastic result and welcome to the CLA team. Looking forward to seeing this time improve in the years to come.
Overall we had 23 members competing with 20 doing it in Lotus cars – an awesome rollup!
Additionally, no cars failed to proceed during the day – a first for a while – except for one well known participant who drives to the track in a yellow Exige. A split brake braided hose in the last run of the day and so it ended up on the back of one M. Duursma’s trailer. Martin, Duncan and Leigh made their way back to SSC for what is hopefully an easy fix.
SO, that rounds out the CSCA competition for the year. Great camaraderie, great teamwork, great friends and great cars, why wouldn’t you own one?
On behalf of the CLA Motorsport Committee, we look forward to welcoming more members and their cars to the track in 2019 and becoming part of the track family.
Until next time.
The CLA Motorsport Committee
