2015 State Round 1 – Phillip Island

Small field but good paired racing

As you will read elsewhere, the paucity of entry to State Rounds in 2015 has led to a complete rethink on our championship structure next year. This year’s first round at Phillip Island yielded but 11 cars for qualifying, the three large V8s of Darren Collins, Camaro, Darren Smith, XY GT, and Leo Tobin, Mustang, promising a decent punch up at the front end to make up for the small field.

But something was amiss with Leo’s luckless Mustang and it pulled off after three laps, leaving a front row of Darrens to face Race 1, with the Camaro at 1.50.1 and the XY on 1.51.4. A full three seconds back was Mark Brewster in the Torana, returning to his favourite track, and .4 sec behind him – on an amazing 1.54.8 – was Club Champion David Brown in his extraordinarily fast Datsun 1600, fresh from a top result at Bathurst and sporting a rather innovative cold air box intake between the brakes scoops.

Glenn Miles (no relation to the other Charger driver Craig Miles) was next on 1.55.2, .2 sec in front of the first of the two Team Termites Nb Mustangs, Bill Trengrove. Son Brent was a second behind, the pair split by Daniel van Stokrom’s Holden who was just two hundredths behind Bill. Then there was a considerable gap to the two Nb cars competing, with perennial Fast Johnny Luxmoore in the Cortina ahead of Phil Pearmain’s Mark 1 Jaguar.

Race 1 saw the Darrens finish in the order and times they qualified, with The Old Bill hauling into third 26 seconds adrift, with a very respectable fastest lap of 1.53.6. The Torana battle of Mark Brewster and Daniel van Stokrom clambered over the line eight seconds later, just over one second apart. Tony Gilfuis had not qualified and brought the new Capri up from the back row into 6th, ahead of David Brown and Brent Trengrove. The Nb pair had a great dice, reversing the qualifying order and cutting their times in the battle, Phil Pearmain’s Jag crossing the line less than a second in front of the Cortina. Glenn Miles’ Charger found a problem and retired on Lap 2.

Race 2 again saw D. Collins and D. Smith streak away from the field, this time the Camaro getting serious and chopping a second off its lap time at 1.49.0. Again, Bill Trengrove filled third, showing that the laptime was no fluke, Mark Brewster was next, ahead of the tight battle between Brent Trengrove’s Mustang and Daniel van Stokrom’s Torana. Twenty seconds to the rear another tight result saw Tony Gilfuis’ Capri scraping to the line ahead of the Brown Datsun by .3 of a second, while a lap down saw the fighting Nb cars of Pearmain and Luxmoore finish in that order, just two seconds apart. Again, poor Glenn Miles had a gremlin and did not complete a lap.

Race 3 and this time to amuse himself Darren Collins carved another second off his lap time to post a 1.47.9, and come home six seconds in front of Darren Smith’s XY. With no Bill Trengrove running, the two Toranas finished third and fourth, just four seconds apart, while Brent battled with the Gilfuis Capri, finishing in that order less than a tenth of a second apart and with near identical lap times. The Jaguar of Phil Pearmain was the sole Nb finisher of the seven cars on the last lap, after Fast Johnny’s Cortina broke a crank; David Brown was also a retirement.

Many thanks to Becky Thompson who filled in for Phil Wisewould with these excellent photos, please email her at rebeccaphotography@bigpond.com for these and others.