Well after months of anticipation, and four great days of action, the 2006 AARCMCC EP Nationals is over.  Simon Nicholson (1/12), Damien Barnier (Stock Touring) and Peter Jovanovic (Mod Touring) were the winners on a day filled with action….

1/12th continued to be a battle to see who could generate grip on the surface that strangely just wouldn’t give up traction to the foam tyre shod machines.  Simon Nicholson was the man who stood tallest, but not before our very own great mate Grant Macdonald served it right up to him by winning the first final and leading the opening minutes of the second. In the end Nicholson got there, but Big Mac gave the new Corally SP12x a great introduction and in the process delivered a great measured driving performance in difficult conditions.  Greg Fisher slipped and slithered to third ahead of Jay Dixon, Rodney Maslovsky and Chris Peet. Our favourite “old bloke” Steve Drummond was next ahead of Kenny Nham.  Both Steve and Kenny I think enjoyed their nats experience and certainly entertained the crowd!
Stock Touring was a great battle. This morning the fight was over qualifying with first Keith Mackrill and then Damien Barnier setting track records. Barnier took TQ from Mackrill and Andrew Shapland. The rest of the field closed up some, but were still struggling to run with the front three. In the finals Damien simply outdrove and outlasted his opponents – getting to the front and driving mistake free under great pressure. It was definitely a worthly National win and unquestionably the finest performance of Damien’s career. Shapland was perhaps the unlucky man – suffering a radio glitch at a crucial moment in the first Leg of the finals, but then locking up second with a strong win in the third leg. Mackrill was awesome in qualifying and strong in the finals – but just couldn’t find a way past Barnier and finished a fine third.    Michael JOnes (NZ) was fourth from Darren Matthews, James Mandy (WA), Damien Zarb (Sydney), Aidan Kelly (Vic), Chris Shevelling (Bundy) and Ivan Ho (NZ).  Chris Shevelling (“Shev”) is worth a second mention.  His was a wonderful performance to put himself  into a National A final at his first attempt. Chris can be rightly delighted to have done so and knocked off many of the pre-race favourites.
Modified was awesome. Peter Jovanovic (fresh from finishing 3rd in the pro-tourer worlds) simply demolished a quality field. Peter ran away to win the first two finals from Jake Zarb to lock up the title – with Zarb also impressive in second. Simon Nicholson had all kinds of speed but not quite the consistency to finish 3rd with veteran Darrin Campbell 4th after a mixed finals series. Victorian Andrew Abbot finished 5th.  Anthony Atack was 6th and doing a fair impression of a punching bag after copping it from all quarters during the finals, while I managed to sneak home 7th.  Steven Jovanovic was 8th from Andy Cooke and  Josh Pain.
So that’s it. All over for another year.  Later I’ll post some scattered thoughts and observations, and perhaps a little of my own “nationals story”.  Hopefully Heavy, Anthony and Adrian will likewise pop up sometime later this week to share their thoughts on the event.
Full results are posted here:  http://web.aanet.com.au/myfttc4/