Interclub Round 3
THE LEAD UP
Well the past couple of weeks have been fairly exciting for me as I have made the step up from Stock to Modified. Having only dabbled in Mod on a few occasions over the past 7 years, I haven’t been fully focused on putting in 100% and giving Mod a real go. The time has come.

I purchased a Novak Brushless 3.5R System and bolted it into my car. Knowing the awesome power of these brushless motors, and the need for myself to get my head around driving a much faster car, I decided to start off with 4 cells at Brendale 2 weeks ago and slowly work my way up. Well that didn’t last long and the past 2 meetings (Gold Coast & Sunshine Coast) I have been running 6 cells purely because the speed difference between the 2 is a little dangerous when competing with the much faster 6 cell cars.
The transition from Stock to Mod is a big step and requires a totally different mindset on how you approach driving these things. The most difficult thing to get used to is throttle control. Stock requires very little throttle control as the cars have plenty of grip for the power available. It’s pretty much an on/off trigger motion. Mod requires, as I am finding out a much more delicate finger on the throttle and a much smoother driving style. You throw these cars around to much and you overheat the tyres. It’s all about being smooth. In order to learn from this weekend I approached it with the emphasis on “FUN” first racing second. I think it actually worked…
SATURDAY
19T Touring Car

No Mod today but the next best thing…19T. Today was one of the hotter if not hottest days racing I have ever been to. At one stage during the day it was 36 degrees on Anthony’s pit table. Track temp was at 62 degrees. As we all found out keeping the motors cool was as important as finding the right gear ratio. It took me all day until the last final to find the right ratio. It was motor rebuild for me after every run. On the 2 occasions I thought I could get away without a rebuild the following races resulted in hung brushes. With the Stock and Mod drivers combining for 19T it was going to be interesting to see who would come out on top.
The early pace was set by Anthony Atack and Keith Mackrill followed by Damian Barnier, myself and John Perkins with Graham Lloyd-Jones, Jason Wakefield and Bob Vardy not that far behind. The same trend continued through qualifying with the grid being set in that order. Wandering around the pits it was interesting to see the different motors being used. The top 2 were using the Team Orion V2 Element with the rest of the field using Trinity based motors, C2 or Komodo.
The finals were fierce with some of the cleanest driving I have seen for some time. In fact very few incidents all weekend across all classes.
The finals went this way…
A1: 1st Anthony Atack 2nd Keith Mackrill 3rd Adrian Beggs
A2: 1st Anthony Atack 2nd Damian Barnier 3rd Keith Mackrill
A3: 1st Anthony Atack 2nd Adrian Beggs 3rd Keith Mackrill
Final results
1^st Anthony Atack (2 points)
2^nd Keith Mackrill (5 points)
3^rd Adrian Beggs (5 points)
SUNDAY

Modified Touring Car
Thankfully the heat was gone and the sun spent most of the day behind the clouds. Tyres today were going to be an important part of going fast. After yesterday in the heat, a new set of Sorex 36’s only lasted 6 runs in total. So I decided to take Anthony’s advice (which I called upon quite a lot during the day…Thanks Anthony) to run my new tyres in the first run and then put them away for the finals. They were also Sorex 36R/C-Med inserts/Proline rims, the same combo as being used at this year’s Nationals at Brendale. This proved to be a good decision as after 4 runs the tyres were totally gone. The track at the Sunshine Coast is an awesome layout but a little abrasive on tyres. Today’s racing for me was all about learning as much as possible in a short amount of time to ready myself for the Nat’s.
Qualifying was a display of smooth/fast driving from Anthony. As the day before Anthony was the man to beat. John Perkins put on a great display of speed to finish up 2^nd on the grid followed by Martin Nichols, myself and the fast local youngster Drew Crawley. Second to fifth only separated by 5 seconds after qualifying. The finals were going to be tight. Anthony dominated winning all 3 finals with John having a good run finishing all finals in 2^nd. Third place wound up being a battle between myself and Drew for the final spot on the podium. Going into the last final we were both tied on points so a good result was important. In the end Drew came out on top finishing the day in third overall after a race long battle with Anthony and John with myself back in 4^th.
The final results…
A1: 1st Anthony Atack 2nd John Perkins 3rd Adrian Beggs
A2: 1st Anthony Atack 2nd John Perkins 3rd Drew Crawley
A3: 1st Anthony Atack 2nd John Perkins 3rd Drew Crawley
Final results
1^st Anthony Atack (2 points)
2^nd John Perkins (4 points)
3^rd Drew Crawley (6 points)
All in all, another great weekend of racing and one that I have come away from with a lot of helpful information. Until next time…enjoy your racing and most of all have fun.
Adrian