At last the Group N season has started with the first round held on 17th & 18th March at Lakeside. What a sight and a fantastic effort from all members who turned up in their Minis to cheer on the Group N minis racing. Well done to all, it’s appreciated.
Loved the bronx cheers under Dunlop to car 89 ( the Don) . Some very unorthodox racing hand signals used for the other drivers or was that at the crowd Don? and why wasn’t your helmet on at those speeds Don. Clerk of Course hearing pending I hear. Whilst on the subject of our mate Don, I must congratulate him on his new class record at Tamworth in March. A great reward for the time and effort he has put into the car over the last twelve months.
Lakeside was celebrating their 40th Anniversary and provided some good classes of motor racing for the weekend. A good entry of 26 Group N cars turned up with 8 minis in the field, the most seen for some time, and there are at least another 4 or 5 that should be competiting this year. All looks great from a mini point of view.
At the conclusion of practice it was king of the Qld minis Ken Nelson on grid position 6 with a 1.04, Bill Westerman extracting a 1.06 on 10, Mr quiet achiever John Stratton 1.073 on 12, electrifying Darren Borg 1.074, Luke (stretch) Spark 1.078 on 15, (the best looking mini driver on the day)Rhonda Burrowes 1.089 on 17, newcomers Bob Sundall 1.10 on 21 and Rob Watson 1.14 on 23, welcome guys and great to see Rhonda back in her mini.
Three Group N races were on the program. One on Saturday and two on the Sunday.
Race 1 on the Saturday was over 10 Laps with fine dry conditions. Steve Emson in his extremely fast Falcon GT was very quick to grad the lead and was never in danger over the 10 laps. Ken Nelson was mixing it with some fast XU1 Toranas and was the lead mini in the field of 26. It was bumper to bumper between Westerman and Borg in the black minis with Darren Borg not only trying to pass Bill Westerman but also trying to keep a looming red Datsun 1600 from overtaking him. The only way to sometimes distinguish between Bill & Darrens cars is by the distinctive note Darren’s car has. Next mini was the weekends quiet achiever John Stratton, only 2.6 secs behind Darren Borg. A close battle between John and the red Datto of David Patterson, close enough to swap a little red with yellow paint at one stage. Looks like the Stratton team have done their homework during the break. A second mini for the Stratton team is nearing completion. Should see it on the track very soon. Luke Spark was having his own battle with another Dato 1600 of Max Davies with only .1 sec at flag fall between them. Bob Sundall was settling in with the track in his first event and was the next mini driver to cross the line and Rob Watson having mechanical problems to unfortunately DNF in his first event. Rob was to unfortunately be a non starter on the Sunday with what appeared to be valve problems. Rhonda Burrowes was a non starter having a frightening moment under Dunlop Bridge when her engine made a large bang with a resulting loss of power, narrowly missing the armco fence.
So it was Nelson 5th, Westerman 9th, Borg 10th, Stratton 12th, Spark 15th, Sundall 18th , Watson DNF & Rhona Burrows DNS.
Race 2 on Sunday again saw Steve Emson lead the field in another 10 lapper. Ken Nelson again was surrounded by the generals cars just finishing in front of Brett Emsons XU1 by .7 of sec to take 4th. A close battle between Darren Borg’s mini, the Dato 1600 and John Stratton with under 1 sec between the three over the line. Bill Westerman was in a surprising 12 position and giving Luke Spark some contested hot laps filling his mirrors until he took his opportunity to pass onto the main straight giving Luke the chance to fill Bills mirrors to the flag with .4 sec between them. Who said the young generation have no respect for their elders these days. Bob Sundall completed 6 laps before pulling in with fuel starvation problems.
Race 3 was a wet one to say the least . With a delayed start from the race preceeding after a re start from an accident, the skys didn’t look too promising at all. A few large rain drops started to descend on the track, the type you know by now here in Qld all hell is about to break loose. Waiting in the dummy grid with Luke anxious to get out, my instructions to him were to prepare for a wet race, (excellent team instructions) watch the first corner and keep an eye out on the larger rear wheel cars. Out they went on their warm up lap and again another warm up lap with wipers on, sky looking bloody terrible and bolts of lightening around, things looking very unsuitable for racing. Ken Nelson was all smiles as he lined up on the grid with an equally big smile from John Stratton.
While waiting for the green light for a start the heavens opened up, the cars were away, crew ran for dryer cover of the scrutineering bay while the drivers battled the worst conditions I have seen for a long time. It pelted down so say the least. The minis taking advantage of the conditions with John Stratton almost taking the lead. The mini boys were right up there for the two laps until the red flag was shown if you could see it through the rain. It’s times like this you admire the flaggies for their devoted effort.
The cars paddled their way back to pit lane through large amounts of water flowing across the track and pit entry. The drivers couldn’t do much more than sit in their cars and wait for the rain to stop. Once the rain stopped it was a mad flurry to clean the misting up windows, fix wipers on those that weren’t working and lift the bonnett on the minis and use some of Fred Sayers magic dissy spray. Miserable conditions still prevaled.
The race got under way reduced to 6 laps after the cars completed some 3 or 4 warm up and observation laps in very wet conditions. Naturally the race was completed in very cautious conditions for all including the minis with some hairy moments for many,testing the skills of one and all. Amongst all that spray there were cars jostling for positions. John (ducky) Stratton was making the most of it as he made his move through the field with Ken Nelson in his sights, Luke Spark and Darren Borg also having fun passing the rear wheel drive cars. An anxious moment for Luke under Dunlop with an equally anxious moment for the following Cortina of Graham Lax. Bill Westerman wanted to go right but his mini had other ideas and decided to park up against the armco, fortunately not a lot of damage. Under extreme conditions the drivers put on some good racing (skating). Steve Emson again putting on a masterfull display. Minis in order of finish were Nelson 5th, Stratton 6th, Spark 9th, Sundall 15th replacing the fuel pump from the last race, with Westerman and Borg non finishers. Darren loosing his clutch and Bill off the track.
No sooner had the race finished when the heavens opened up again for another drenching with conditions almost cyclonic. Naturally the rest of the meeting was cancelled not only due to the conditions but time was against the circuit for its cut off time of 5.00 PM.
With all the gear soaked, we packed up, had a quick beer and headed off home with car 33 in one piece after competing in such adverse conditions. An experience Luke will remember for a long time.
Some great news for all Mini racers. The HRCC has allocated a Mini only feature race at this years all Historic meeting July 28th & 29th at Lakeside to be held on the Sunday in addition to the other four Group N races on the program. This may very well be the last of the all historic Mini races to be held and one not to be missed. See details in this months mag.
April 2001
