Hobbystation saw the return of the Qld Indoor Championships – an event with a long history that had previously been run mostly on carpet. It was great to be back at Hobbystation for a busy day that saw new winners, and exciting racing across the classes. Read on for our (epic) race report or see the full results here.

540
With “recognised” drivers asked to enter other classes, the possibility was there for new faces to emerge in this class. In the end that’s exactly what happened. While Sonny Pearce and Tristian Hyde have been doing the rounds in this class for quite a while, they were challenged today by Bayside’s Nigel Brokenshire. Jacinta Pearson was also close in qualifying followed by Gary and Chris Sturdy, Mark Judd and Robert Tyler.
Come finals time and Brokenshire was the man for the job. He lead almost throughout race one, only to suffer a mechanical with just a couple of laps to go – gifting the win to Pearce – before coming back to drive two great races in leg 2 and 3 to lock up his first big win. Well done Nigel – and may it be the first of many. After some tight finals Sonny Pearce cornered second from Tristian, with Gary Sturdy a good fourth. Jacinta, Mark, Chris and Robert rounded out the field. It was excellent to see some fresh faces contesting a 540 final, and in my view there should be more of it.
Clubman
The renamed “Stock” class this weekend saw the inclusion of the Novak 13.5 brushless motors alongside the normal rebuildable brushed stock motors. Interest was high, and the class as competitive as ever. In the end there was very little to pick between the two motor types – with the winner running brushed, but plenty of competitive runners choosing brushless. The first step of the experiment to include these motors in “Stock” appears to have been successful.
On track qualifying was fought out between Andrew Shapland and Karl Yeung. Yeung had local knowledge on his side, but in the end the class of Shapland was too much to resist – and he set some stunning times on his way to TQ. Yeung grabbed the second grid spot ahead of our very own Heavy D (revitalised with a return to the Mi2-EC and the injection of the 13.5) and Coral Coast’s Chris Shevelling in a good fourth on his first (?) visit to HS. Good efforts further back to make A final appearances with Brad Hall 5th, from Toowoomba’s David Groves (newcomer to big races and one to watch in 2007), Matthew Belton (also Coral Coast I think?) and the legend Shayne Pearce. Bob Vardy’s “challenging” day was rewarded with the BQ spot in a competitive 16 car field.
Shapland was simply too strong in the finals – running away to win each one comfortably. Behind him the story was more complex. In leg one Yeung and Guyatt fought an intense battle almost to the end before one mistake from Heavy eased the pressure with Groves getting home fourth. In leg two it was Shevelling who served it up to Yeung before a second straight mechanical failure put the Coral Coast driver out for the day, and Groves took up the running – this time finishing third. Into the last leg and with Shapland and Yeung secure the battle was for third between Guyatt and the young David Groves. Heavy held the spot almost throughout before getting tangled up as race leader Shapland was lapping traffic – and Groves accepted the opportunity with both hands to take third in the race and the final podium spot. Look out for him next year if he makes it down to the interclub races. Not much experience, but plenty of pace. Heavy finished fourth from Brad Hall (well done!), Matthew Belten, Shayne Pearce and the broken down Shevelling.
In the B finals Vardy was too strong to (just) win from Tim Weier and Andrew Clough (another Coral Coaster? or am I totally wrong?), Joel Imeson, Jacinta Pearson (two classes – the only one?), Joel Dotta, Paul Selimovic and the non-starting Kurt Bertrand.
1/12th
After the disappointing conditions for these cars at the nats, it was great to see them go on what must be considered one of the best 1/12 scale circuits in Australia. So good is HS for these rockets that Tony Parreiro flew in from Melbourne just for the chance to run his 1/12 here.
Damien Barnier was deservedly favoured for the win, and through qualifying nothing looked like stopping that – Damien banging in three fast times to grab the front row spot from the rapid (and rapidly improving) Grant McDonald. Leonard Lai showed glimpses of speed in his borrowed machine – and was perhaps the one to watch come finals time. Schoenfisch was fourth before demolishing his new car on the HS wall with Parreiro struggling and not finishing any of the qualifiers.
First A final and we were treated to what is becoming a familiar sight. The legend Grant McDonald jumped to the lead on Lap 3 and resisted all attempts to run him down. Not only that but Big Mac just kept opening his lead eventually driving the Corally SP12x away to a near 8 second win over Barnier. The consistency score of 0.18 says it all about Big Mac’s run. Lai was third from Parreiro, with both fast at times.
Let two and Barnier restored the perceived order with an all the way 12-second win over McDonald who had to fight hard to see off first Lai, then Parreiro before consolidating the spot in the last minute.
Into the last leg and with everything on the line, McDonald put the sword to Barnier, getting by and then driving into the distance – winning by 7 seconds and securing the (first ever?) Qld Indoor Championship for 1/12. Barnier came back to pass the resistant Lai (enjoying his first 1/12 outing) and Parreiro (fastest lap of this race and the finals series) – and the foursome finished in that order overall.
Despite a small field, the 1/12 cars were spectacular. If there is anywhere that gives this class a chance to shine it is the high grip, smooth, twisty Hobbystation layout. We can only hope that the next club races in early 2007 are well supported and give the class a chance to grow.
Modified
Reflecting on this day, I realise that mod tourers are very hard to drive fast around HS. The tight confines just make life in a highly powered mod tourer difficult – and for that reason some of the performances in Mod today are all the more impressive.
Peter Dooley returned from his world tour to lay down the challenge and dominate qualifying. Dooley was fastest in all three rounds and went to the finals with a car and driving advantage. Scott Guyatt chased setup all morning to manage second on the grid ahead of the mighty impressive return of “Mr Tamiya” Steve Wenzell. Steve’s car was last at HS in the hands of Anthony Atack who dominated the HS Invitational this year – but Steve’s performance was more than just having a good car. He was fast and solid. Michael Redmond has appeared in mod tourer two weeks running in a borrowed Mi2-EC and is instandly competitive – grabbing fourth on the grid ahead of Kane Fellowes, new mod-runner Adrian Beggs, Terry Langham and Peter Scott. Peter was probably the unlucky man today – with plenty of speed but a few reliability issues. It all came to a sad end when Peter’s car was demolished in a high speed accident at the end of the front straight. Pete will be back…
The first final was tight for three minutes as Guyatt demonstrated improved pace to shadow Dooley. Peter was too strong however and went away in the closing laps to strike first. Mr T fought out a tight duel with Redmond to grab third, with Beggs fifth from Fellowes – both Terry and Peter failing to start after earlier breakages.
Highlight of the second final (for me at least!) was the Surikarn-esque start from Guyatt – jumping past Dooley in the first series of corners. From there it got ugly with Dooley, Mr T and Redmond tangling in the first turn. The result was Guyatt clear from Dooley and Wenzel. Guyatt slowly moved clear with Dooley struggling with rear diff issues, and Mr T lost his third spot to Michael Redmond – and Fellowes 5th from the non-starting Beggs.
Third final saw an untidy start with first Guyatt, then Dooley being buried back in the pack. Mr T was out front and going fast to make the job for Guyatt and Dooley even harder. Guyatt found his way back to the front after 6 laps and then continued strongly to a race and event win. For everybody else it was not so simple. Mr T fought a tight battle with both Redmond and Beggs but Redmond was too strong as he rapidly grew in confidence with each race. His second place in this race secured third overall from Mr T (4th), Beggs and Fellowes. Dooley eventually finished 5th this run, but had already secured the second overall spot.
It was excellent to see guys like Redmond, Mr T, Beggs, and Fellowes running mod and enjoying it. These four have a variety of experience, but all have the potential to be fast and competitive in 2007. Redmond in particular has adapted to EP racing very quickly (all the more of interest to us because he is wheeling Shane’s spare Mi2-EC), and it’s to be hoped we can see him on-track regularly next year. Mod racing is lots of fun (if a little hairy at times around HS) and I think the more, the merrier!
My Race
I struggled with setup during the morning heats – the car being easy to drive, but a little lazy and understeery. I definitely pull the wrong change for round three and made the car nearly undrivable. For finals I managed to get the setup just right and the car was easily at its fastest all day. In leg one I chased Peter hard until a wheel-nut came loose (or the nut behind the wheel came loose – one or the other), but in leg’s 2 and 3 the car was excellent – easy to drive, very consistent and very safe. I’ll upload the setup later.
I think perhaps 4-cell (or 5-cell) is potentially faster around Hobbystation, but laziness (and time) got the better of me, and I opted to run 6-cells. I ran a Novak 4.5, and used our older battery packs to make power delivery a little softer (compared to the packs I ran at the Nats). Practicing earlier with a 3.5 and new cells, the car just simply had too much power to be of any use at HS. The power combo I had on Sunday was quite fine. On such a small track heat was never going to be a big issue with the motors not working very hard. It took me a while, but I’m finally getting used to my new (old) radio – the KO Mars/Spectrum combo starting to feel “natural” now after a couple of race meetings. It’s still a novelty to me (and very nice) not to have to worry at all about frequency related issues!
Tyre wise, I (and I think others) ran the Nats tyres – so Sorex 36/C-Medium and Proline Disc wheels. There was plenty of traction today – perhaps the best it has been for quite a while.
On the whole it was a really fun, low key way to wrap up a busy racing season. I enjoyed hanging out in the “Den” (and particularly as I was upwind from bugle-butt McDonald) and seeing faces old and new.