The first day of the two-day Gold Coast Challenge is in the books (the history books that is) with some excellent racing.  Jake Zarb (Modified), Keith Mackrill (Stock) and Stephen Halliday (540) the winners on a small but very enjoyable day’s racing.  Read on for more..
The Track
Excuse me while I rave for a moment. The track at Gilston is fantastic.  Smooth, good traction, great berms that punish mistakes with lost time not broken cars, and corners that challenge a driver to take a risk.  I think it’s one of the best tracks in the country and I hope they get to run a big race there sometime in the next year or two.  The club can take a bow for building such an excellent race track.  Organisationally GCMR did well to run a tidy day – although there was an unfortunate tendency to be a little “strong” with the rules at times.  Still, it’s early days for the club, and as the club members participate in interclub series and events at different tracks, I’m sure that the capacity to run bigger national events will emerge.
540
Some good racing at times in a small field of (mostly) relatively new faces to 540 racing around South-East Queensland.  Stephen Halliday was the quickest during qualifying and duly took a good win in the finals. I gather Stephen is very much a new racer and on today’s evidence will be one to watch.  Bayside’s Michael Murnane took second to follow on from his pacey performance at Bayside last week, with Scott Perkins and Paul Taborek fighting out third (and some uncertainty about which order they finished in).
Stock
The lineup today was classy – and delivered on it’s promise. With Keith Mackrill, Jeff Hamon, Damien Zarb, Andrew Shapland and Darren Matthews going at it at the front of the field, anything was possible. Mackrill drew first blood with the TQ after a hard fought qualifying battle, before Shapland struck back with a win in the action packed first A final.  He got the best of an early battle with Zarb before resisting the challenge of Mackrill.  Race two was a great front running drive from Keith with Hamon holding on until about mid-race when his tyres seemed to fade just a little.  Mackrill again was strong in the 3rd final with Hamon again chasing and this time exerting real and sustained pressure. Keith however, was too strong. Hamon finished second overall from Shapland (Hamon getting the nod on a countback to qualifying) and Zarb with the old stager Bob Vardy sliding his Mi2 EC into 5th position.
Modified
Again some strong southern visitors made things a little more interesting. Jake Zarb finished second in the 2006 nationals, and more recently was a B finalist at the TITC race in Bangkok (which is an extremely impressive result). Simon Fiegl made the journey from Melbourne – he’s one of Vic’s fast guys and is well known to the locals after finishing 4th in the 2006 Qld Titles.  Their arrival made up for the missing fast SEQ guys like John Perkins, Martin Nichols and Drew Crawley
Zarb got the fast run in early in qualifying and that time stood throughout the day as the track seemed to slow just a fraction.  Anthony went close to the time to be second while I managed third.  Simon was fourth from Peter Dooley, Leonard Lai, Addam Smith and Shane Mostyn.
In leg one Jake ran away and hid. I searched and searched, but could not find him anywhere. Eventually I gave up looking and finished second.  Anthony finished 3rd after recovering from a first corner nudge by some incompetent has-been (I confess, it was me).  Leg two and Jake did it again – although this time he had to fight for it before a small mistake dropped Anthony back. Behind those two it was chaos with lots of breakages and failures but Peter D survived for a deserved third.  Leg three was a little more of the same. Anthony challenged Jake early before mistakes dropped him back. Leonard Lai had his best run of the day to finish 2nd while I tried and failed to run him down.  Overall, Jake was clearly dominant from Anthony and myself, with Dooley fourth (I think?), Addam Smith a PB in fifth, Lai, Mostyn and an unfortunate Simon Fiegl after “one of those days”.
My Day
Today I was reminded of two things. Firstly why I like racing, and secondly why it’s time for me to take a break.  I enjoyed the day and the rare treat of racing on a new track (and the even rarer treat of racing on such a good track) with good friends. At times I got the car to do what I wanted it to, and finished about as high as I can realistically expect to finish.
The bit that reminded me of why it’s “break-time” was mostly to do with my own inability to complete a clean 5-minute run.  I really need regular track time to drive consistently and fast. My last race was quite poor with lots of little mistakes and kerb jumping costing a potentially better result. I enjoy racing, but I don’t enjoy making so many mistakes. I’m sure I’ll be back at some stage, but for now it’s just too hard to fit everything in.
My second last word is to say “thanks” to the guys I race with. I really enjoy the company, and the racing, and I love the fact that we can race hard and desperately want to beat each other, but then enjoy the day together as well. I reckon that’s rare, and something we should work hard to preserve.
My last word is to again acknowledge Dad and all the hard work and support he provides that lets me go racing. I could not, and definitely would not do it without him. Thanks Dad. You rock.