A big crowd at Brendale for Gas Tourer/19t racing last night say a late finish (after midnight) and some great racing….
For us it was a night of mixed experiences. Heavy was on fire in the Schumacher R12 and qualified fifth in a big field before a near faultless drive and risky fuel strategy paid off with a great second place in a big field.  Heavy ran  the 15 minute final on just one pit stop – and was on fumes when pitting at the 7 1/2 minute mark, and again at the finish. The car ran beautifully all night. John Taynton was too tough to catch and won the final by just over half a lap.
In 19T the objective was to test the Novak 4300 brushless motor for performance equivalence.  Despite an ill handling car (with an as yet undiagnosed issue) and a very rusty and mistake-prone driver, we managed to run alongside quite a few of the brushed motor cars in the races.  The 4300 was usually  about even at all parts of the track. Sometimes just a little slower, and sometimes just a little faster depending on the  point in the race, the quality of the brushed motor  we ran against, and so on.  I kept on gearing up until we got close to the point of thermalling – and the last ratio increase did nothing for motor performance – just added heat.  The “right” ratio for that track, my car, my batteries was around 5.5:1 (a little lower than most of the 19T brushed motors were running last night.  For the record Anthony won, from Peter and Leonard.  I was well back clutching at excuses… 🙂
My own feeling (and not anything official from the interclub committee) is that the 4300 would be fine to run in the 19T class. There are a couple of reasons I say this. Firstly, performance seems very close to equivalent to a good, well tuned 19T brushed motor (and that experience backs the findings of other clubs around the world).  Secondly (and perhaps more importantly), the 19T class is struggling to gain a foot-hold in South-East Queensland. Brendale run it on Friday nights to generally small fields, I believe the Sunshine Coast are running some 19T races with ute bodies, and it runs at the Interclub series as an “intermediate” class attracting both modified and stock regulars on a day where stock/mod are not offered.  It’s highly unlikely that allowing the 4300 motor will do any damage an already struggling class, but with the volume of drivers now running brushless in modified and stock – and often no longer having either the capacity or the desire to run brushed motors, allowing the 4300 might just be the saviour of the class.
As a very simple case study, neither Dad or I would be likely at all to run 19T if the 4300 isn’t allowed. That’s simply because we have no 19T motors, no lathe, no regular speedo etc. We are geared up to run brushless in both modified and stock.  If the 4300 is legalised for 19T, we can easily add one motor and enter the class. If not, then we won’t be running it.  That of course is our choice, but the feeling I have is that there will be others making the same choice – and the interclub could well see much reduced numbers in 19T if the 4300 doesn’t get across the line.
None of these arguments are definitive of course – just my views. Well worth thinking about though….