Competitors in the WA Sporting Car Club’s (WASCC) latest round at Wanneroo Raceway experienced unfamiliar racing conditions over the weekend, with heavy rain and brutal winds playing havoc for drivers.
With torrential rainfall in the lead up to the one-day event, event organisers remained hopeful it would ease on Sunday. But outside some brief moments on Sunday morning, the harsh conditions stayed for the whole meeting, spicing up the results.
Despite the difficult weather conditions, it didn’t dampen the spirits of the 120 entrants taking part in the event, with very few withdrawing and those that did brave the cold, putting on an entertaining display of racing.
On show during the club’s August Meeting were most of its regular nine categories, but some of the categories enjoyed the added notoriety of special trophies across the weekend.
Headlining the action-packed schedule was the Street Cars’ annual Torque Trophy with reigning champion Andy Stevens once again proving too strong for the impressive field, as he cruised to a comfortable victory in all three of the category’s races.
Sharing the grid with the Improved Production cars, Stevens form was in such good form, he managed to lap every car during the final race except runner-up Paul Klukk.
"It is fantastic to win today, especially after all the hard work the boys had done during the week to get the car back up and running. It is huge,” Stevens said post-race.
“In the first and second race, I was nowhere and while it was wet, the wheels were spinning up everywhere. The front wheel drivers kept pulling away from me. I knew I wouldn’t catch them in the wet but luckily it slowly dried up over the course of the race.”
In the weekend’s other feature trophy round, early dominance from Adam Lisle was enough to secure him the F1000 Kostera Cup despite a late charge from Stewart Burns.
Lisle had set himself up nicely with victory in the round’s opening two races before Burns struck back with a win in the final race, but it meant little as Lisle’s runner-up had confirmed the win.
"I’m really proud to bring this one home. The mechanics worked really hard on the setup in challenging conditions. It wasn’t easy with the car moving underneath me," Lisle said.
“The car held up well, especially in the last race where it was wet dry around the track.
“Stewart Burns did a great job today, he drove really well and consistently. In that last race he made me work for it.”
Sharing the grid with the F1000 Series were Sports Racers and it was Porsche PAYCE Carrera Cup Australia driver Aaron Love who claimed a clean sweep of victories over Jordan Oon and Max McRae.
Love wasn’t the only driver to secure a perfect set of results during the day, with Time Challenge winner Gary Conway, Ron Moller in the joint Sports Sedans/Sports Cars category and David Caisley in the Formula Vee 1600 class all securing three wins from three races.
Taking place behind Caisley was the battle for the Formula Vee 1200s, with Robert McAfee comfortably winning the class against Andrew Lockett, but it was a side story within the category that drew the most attention.
For the first time in Formula Vee history, three members from the same family went head-to-head during a round and it was April Welsh, who not only gained family bragging rights over brother Connor and father Bruce, but came agonisingly close of an outright runner-up placing, finishing just one point behind Lockett in the standings.
Other notable results from the weekend included Mick Woodbridge beating Michael Howlett and Stuart Kenny in the Holden HQs and Joshua Matthews taking out Formula Ford honours over Mark Pickett.