Caisley takes championship lead from Lisson, El Hafidoun maintains third spot in another series of epic battles for top spots. DC solves his Wakefield Park Nationals gremlins just in time to claim another victory and to take the State 1600 Championship. DC’s advice, simple lesson here, change your $2 fuel filter every couple of races or it may cost you dearly.

Unusually for the Formula Vee circus, this month’s round of races was scheduled on a Saturday due to the number of events already programmed for the Perth International Historic Challenge on the Sunday. The weekend was to be a very busy one for the 1200’s as they were graciously invited to participate in the Formula Junior races on the Sunday to beef up the grid. 

In qualifying, Dave Caisley benefitted from a refreshed engine and took 1200 pole with an excellent 1.11.2 lap, while Rod Lisson got second spot, followed by #1, Derek Bromlewe. DC topped the sheet by over a second a lap in the 1600s with Bruce Welsh in a ‘loaner’ for the weekend taking second. Campbell Gow had borrowed the Scarey Racing stable Ajay but found it very unforgiving and Jordan Cvetanoski did not manage to finish qualifying but was allowed to enter the ballot by the CofC. The balloted grid, a major item on the 2012 FVAWA AGM agenda, was to scramble everyone again for the first two races.

Race 1 saw El Hafidoun quickly take the lead of the 1200 battle, closely followed by Lisson and Bromlewe. On lap 3, while slowing down to let two 1600 cars go by on turn 7 (why?), El Hafidoun received a nudge from Bromlewe who attempted a new on-road wheel alignment system. After landing, #1 could only continue straight on and miraculously save his car from beaching in front of thousands of spectators. The hit knocked off El Hafidoun’s exhaust collector (which seemed to give him some extra speed!!) and allowed Caisley to catch up and pass on the pit straight. From there, the battle for first was over as Caisley ran alone in front while El Hafidoun and Lisson battled for 2^nd spot. At the finish line, Caisley was first, El Hafidoun second and Lisson third. James McDonald brought his historic Vee to the historic meeting and was going well whilst Allan Yeo had towed his car to Goulburn and back in the past few weeks for the Vee Nationals but unfortunately did not finish race 1. In the 1600s, DC quickly gained control of the race despite starting at the back of the grid and went on to win. Despite a fierce battle with neil McLay in the early laps, Bruce Welsh in Jacob Parson’s 2011 State Championship winning Jacer finished second ahead of the rapidly improving 14 year old Jordan Cvetanoski in his new ScooVee. 

Neville Bettridge was the last of the late brakers into Cat on lap 2 but ended up in the kitty litter (picture)and Peter Dyball had a tough weekend with an ailing engine.

In race 2, another good start from Caisley had him keep the lead of the 1200s while El Hafidoun and Lisson followed closely, unusually battling with Neville Bettridge’s 1600. On lap 5, Robert Lambe decided his 1200 looked better presented in the sand in the Kolb corner, forgetting spectators have no access to admire his vintage beach cruiser. The safety car was brought in for 3 laps while the iron was pulled out of Kolb beach. After the restart for a one lap dash to the finish, Bettridge was separating Caisley and El Hafidoun, while Lisson was waiting to pounce.  At the end of the lap, Lisson managed Kolb corner better than El Hafidoun and they found themselves side by side going into in turn 7 in front of the WASCC members in McCracken House. With only a few metres to go to the finish line, Lisson pulled off the win by 0.004 second, about half a nose cone. In the 1600s, DC got an easy second win as he got a great jump when the Safety Car left the circuit, followed by the rapid Scorpion of Shaydan Penniment and Ajay of Campbell Gow.

In Race 3, the grid positions were decided by the finishing results of races 1 and 2, and apart from a few

passes between Lisson and El Hafidoun, the 1200 Vees showed one of the most boring races of the season, with a procession seen between first, second and third.  Caisley and Brett Scarey showed what every 1200 should do to get good lap times, use the slipstream behind a dueling Campbell Gow and Neil McLay, and Dave recorded an impressive 1.10.76  for his best lap, still over a second off the 1200 lap record. His two main rivals were 1 to 2 seconds a lap behind. DC achieved a hat-trick of wins for the weekend in the 1600s with an unchallenged run after lap 1, followed by Steve Williams who finally cleared a carburetor accelerator pump issue that slowed him down in the previous two races.

Shaydan Penniment finished an excellent third; Jordan was fourth whilst Bruce Welsh finished in the gravel of turn 1 after attempting to tap dance on the pedals to maintain proper fuel mixture.  Peter Jojart abandoned his car after going wide in turn 1 and failing to restart his machine. Dan Linehan did well to keep going with electrical roblems and scored three finishes for the day.

With this day over, the 1600 State championship seems concluded before the end of the year with David Campbell seeing no close competitor in the points. The FVAWA championship is still to be decided as you can drop your 6 worst scores and there are three races still to be fought in December. Steve Williams stands in third position while Cameron Edwards is in second despite not being available this weekend. The other DC, David Caisley pushes to the top of the 1200 championship after what looks to be an excellent home made engine top end rebuild and some

impressive slipstreaming of faster 1600 cars. Caisley looked strong all weekend and few see his car beaten by 1200s in the next race, challenging most of the back 1600s for positions. Lisson loses his first spot by 11 points and although still on pace, he has a major challenge in trying to regain top spot before moving on to the 1600 class next year. If Caisley fails to finish in one race the championship could still go to Rod. El Hafidoun completes the podium for the championship, with a slim hope to jump to second or first, before he returns to native USA and races at Laguna Seca. 

Results

                        1200                                                    1600

1                      Dave Caisley                                       David Campbell

2                      Rod Lisson                                          Steve Williams

3                      Nordine el Hafidoun                           Shaydan Penniment