MRA Opener at Wakefield Park.

The Mini Racing Association’s 2006 season started with lap records broken in qualifying & the first two races. Even the third race had four cars under the existing lap record set by Warwick Agustin last year. The final fun race also had three cars under the existing lap record even though it was a fun event.

We had nineteen Mini’s on the grid which totalled more that the other two categories combined so fellows well done once again.

Race one was a hard charge by Charlie & Tim until Charlie ran into a suspension problem which caused him to slow up. Chris Adlam was second outright and 1st in Class C & boy has that car got some get up & go for a ten inch wheeled iron head. Greg Hewson was third outright & as a new comer to the series but an old hand at Mini racing, Greg did very well for someone still learning the track. John Walker was fourth & Allan Ross ran fifth.

Race two was a Charlie affair but Tim kept him honest for the five laps with Greg coming third & getting faster as he was coming to grips with the track. Chris wasn’t going to let Greg get it all his own way and kept the pressure on to claim 4th. John Walker was fifth (2nd in Class), Robert Bell sixth & Warwick seventh after starting last on the grid due to head gasket blowing in Qualifying.

Race three saw Charlie get a comfortable lead till the last two laps before his brakes went off & on the last corner of the last lap Greg had a lunge under brakes but Charlie wasn’t going to give in easily & out braked himself. Greg went through but was too busy watching Charlie go off & went of as well before following Chris Adlam to the line who won the trophy race outright in his Class C mini. Third went to Warwick & Charlie regathered to finish Fourth. John Walker was again 2nd in class but fifth outright, with Allan Ross sixth followed by Dennis Walker after finally overcoming brake problems that kept him out of the first two races.

Race four was the reverse grid handicap race (yes I know racing a Mini is a handicap but this was a timed handicap). Charlie & Warwick charged from the rear of the grid with Greg hounding them all the way for third & Allan Ross fourth & his best result with Wade Thomas finishing fifth. Wade was by far the most consistent competitor all weekend & a well done effort on his part. The hard luck story of the weekend goes to John Mallam & Sir Peter Wilson. John developed a severe oil leak in qualifying to sideline him all weekend & Sir Peter had a fuel starvation problem that developed also in qualifying & even though he started the three point score races he never finished them. The biggest smile award for the weekend must once again go to Rocky Canto, even though he had clutch problems he still managed to finish every race for maximum points in his class.

Winton Raceway approached me on Friday to resurrect the Doug Byrne Memorial. The meeting will be on the 2nd & 3rd of December and is now a definite on our calendar. It will not be a MRA pointscore round. I have thirteen confirmed starters from NSW & I expect around ten from VIC & two more from QLD. We are looking for more so anyone that wasn’t at the race meeting that wants to go please contact me & I’ll put you on the list. For any of you who doesn’t know who Doug Byrne was, well he was a Mini hard charger from Victoria who loved racing at Winton & died at the track from a heart attack in 1984. Winton started the perpetual race that year, won by Steve Evans, and it was run every year up till around 1994.

Our next round is at Wakefield Park on the 25th of June so see you all there.