Magical Island Magic
Great meeting, great racing. Just magic.
Report by Darren Knight. Pics by Phil Wisewould
An almost-40 field from all over Australia capped the racing year with brilliant racing. Six Camaros, eight Mustangs, six Toranas and four Chargers and much more proved this meeting is a must for Historic Touring Car followers.
Race 1, Saturday – one of the best ever
Chev Camaros filled the first two rows of the grid with pole winner Dean Neville in his ’69 model smoking the tyres off the line, allowing Darren Pearce’s ’68 version to slip into an early lead. Neville was soon on his tail as was Historic Sandown race winner Aldo de Paoli and Darren Collins in ’69 Camaros. John Mann made it five Camaros in the top six until a clash with the Mustang of Darryl Hansen during a heated scrap for fifth saw the veteran park his Chev.
The top three ran in very close company, while behind Hansen a monumental battle broke out for sixth between at least six drivers all fighting for the same piece of track. Les Walmsley (Charger), Michael Miceli (Boss Mustang), Andy Clempson (’69 Mustang) and the Toranas of Andrew Girvan and Peter McNiven put on one of the greatest displays of hard fought racing ever seen in the category. Added into the mix was the Torana of Craig Allan who was climbing the order after a tough qualifying session.
Positions changed constantly with the Honda hairpin sometimes seeing cars three wide as the flaggies stationed there got a front row seat of the fantastic action. There was action of the unwelcome kind at the head of the field when a front tyre exploded on the Pearce Camaro at full noise at the bottom of the front straight. The Tasmanian careened across the gravel trap and eventually slowed thankfully without further damage. Walmsley lost a few spots after inadvertently tapping Miceli who had missed a gear exiting a slow corner. Brent Trengrove (Camaro) closed in on that warring pack ahead while his Dad Bill led the pre ’65 Group Nb class in his Falcon Sprint previously raced for many years by West Australian Bill Meeke.
At the front de Paoli hounded Neville until squeezing past to take a very hard fought win, with Collins a clear third but still getting to grips with a change to Hoosier rubber. Hansen was the first Ford home in fourth followed by Miceli and Allan with Clempson, Daniel Van Stokrom (Torana) and Walmsley almost crossing the line three abreast in the fight for seventh at the flag.
Race 2, Camaros conquer
De Paoli leapt off the line to grab an early lead but it wasn’t long before Neville powered past and built a handy buffer, as de Paoli found his Chev lacking front grip. Another big battle brewed within the lower half of the top ten as Charger pilot Glenn Miles joined the fun, fending off Clempson’s Moffat Ford Dealers-liveried Mustang. Further back the Cortinas of Simon Browning, Mick Stupka and Johnny Luxmoore were having their own ding dong punch on as the unique X2 spec HD Holden of Shane Cowham (winner of the Sidchrome Best Presented award) chased the Datsun 1600 of debutant Tom Christensen (Danish ancestry yes, seven Le Mans wins no).
Allan was a non-starter after discovering his diff housing was bent out of shape after race one whilst fellow Torana punter Andrew Williams was charging through the field having missed Saturdays action due to slipping over on wet concrete and doing the splits a few days prior. As expected sympathy from some fellow competitors was rather patchy in places and the ribbing downright rude in others!
Mann was out early with gearbox issues while Alex Bland (Capri) missed his braking point and cannoned into Bill Trengrove, the Sprint continuing but with front bumper askew. Jervis Ward (Falcon Sprint) was making progress after alternator and battery issues in race one as Pearce made unbelievably quick progress from way down the starting order, closing in on Collins in the battle for third as the last lap commenced. Suddenly Collins slowed and lost several places within sight of the flag, fuel surge later found to be the culprit.
Neville showed impressive pace and took an untroubled win from de Paoli and Pearce, followed by Hansen and Miceli who just beat Walmsley and van Stokrom to the line. Queenslander Ian Mewett (Mustang) beat Clempson (another suffering fuel surge) by the smallest of margins to squeeze into the top ten after a race one DNF.
Race 3 – drama at the front
The rapid Torana of van Stokrom developed a bad misfire on the warm up lap and was parked; no such concerns for Neville who jumped to an early lead as Pearce snuck past de Paoli to move into second. West Aussie Shane Atwell (’64 Mustang) had a spirited dice with Joe Calleja (’69 Mustang) and John Bourke (Charger), as did Tony Gilfuis (Capri) and Stephen Pillekers (Torana). Clempson fell out of the top ten after a half spin at the hairpin while long-time Capri stalwart Steve Land also lost a few spots.
Pulling away from the field and setting a 1.48.1 lap time, Neville looked set to take out the A Maze‘N’Things Historic Touring Car Trophy for Island Magic 2018. But with just two laps to go he suddenly coasted into the rear paddock entry road, the Camaro stuck in third gear.
Fired up, De Paoli applied big pressure to race leader Pearce and by the 9th lap had found a way past, holding on to take the win. After crossing the line in second, poor Darren Pearce rocked up to the podium only to be told of a 5-second penalty for jumping the start, which relegated him to fourth, and of Hansen’s Mustang.
This lifted Collins into second in front of Walmsley who had closed right up as the laps wore down. Williams was an impressive fifth as the bigger cars started to struggle on worn tyres (supply had run out), the ten-lap journey playing to the Torana’s strengths of looking after brakes and tyres better than some V8 opposition.