With the interclub event cancelled because the Sunshine Coast is still reeling from an unimaginable amount of rain falling, quite a few racers who had the weekend free arrived at the Bayside club for an enjoyable days racing.  The club are currently working hard on a new surface, meaning that today might be one of the last opportunities to run on the famed concrete surface….
Stock:  Martin Nichol set TQ and won the first two finals in a strong performance.  He was shadowed throughout (and actually pushed hard) by our very own Heavy D who went I think faster than he ever has before at the Bayside track.  Martin sat out the third final and Jason Wakefield had his best run of the day to pick up the win.
Mod:  John Perkins was strong in qualifying to take TQ before Anthony got going to win three straight finals (multi-A finals today) from John and myself.  Aaron Fryer made his first tentative steps into mod racing, while Andy Gibson  and Martin also ran a few races with 19T motors proving quick enough on the slippery, bumpy circuit.  Interestingly the top three all ran 5-cell today – with the swing to 5-cell for modified racing now well underway.
Nitro: Good fields in both pullstart and open, but my apologies, I have no idea who ended up on top.
5-Cell Modified: I had my first runs today in 5-cell modified.  My batts are 12 months old now and decidedly second hand, but still worth playing the 5-cell game for a trial.  I found that the car was only fractionally slower than with 6-cells, but much easier to drive in terms of smooth power delivery.  I ended up gear a fair bit higher than you might normally run with 6 cells (around 9.0:1 for a Novak 3.5 for reference sake).  The car definitely felt more direct, and I was turning lap times as quick as I ever have around Bayside – with little tuning of the car, and not much driving for the last 6 months. I think I’m happy to commit to running 5-cell from here on in.  Just as quick, easier on gear, a little easier to drive.  All good!