well, I didn't get in this year after finishing 2nd in class last year. And 2nd in category - pre72 touring cars/non logged booked. But I won't get started on that. They had an over-subscribed feild this year and over 50 entries were knocked back! There were no 1200's in the event, but there were some fantastic cars that some guys may be interested in.
one of the more notable entrants was Peter Kyriakidis in his 1800 BDA engined Escort RS1600, a previous Classic Adelaide winner. These pics are not from the event - I didn't have a camera with me.
pic 1pic 2From the times I saw, he was just over 1 second ahead of my time up there last year, and I have made alot of changes this year which
should have made the car a bit faster at Noosa, especialy the close ratio box. Then again it doesn't always work out that you go faster when you expect to. But anyway, I'm rapt to have been so close to his times, but very dissapointed that I didn't get a crack at him this year. It would have been a pretty good yardstick, not to mention alot of fun nipping at his heels - I very much doubt I could have actually equalled his times.
There was also a rare outing for a locally owned RS1600 BDA as well. Anyone who doesn't like Escorts has never heard a BDA at full noise. These things are awesome, and they were both very aggressively driven as well - in typical rally style.
A regular at this event is John Siddons who won Targa Tasmania Classic section this year in Graham Copelands 1600. He entered in his own car - an outrageously fast 260Z. He was fastest tin-top and 3rd outright with a 62.6 - more than 3 full seconds ahead of Kyriakidis and it looked it from the vantage point I had. He was also 3rd outright and fastest tin-top, which included a turbo porsche, and the ex Mark King GTP EVO V or whatever it was.
I thought I'd hate watching this from the sidelines, but with those guys and a few lesser known locals really punting hard up there it was definitely worth watching. I really only went up to help a mate - my normall sparring partner at these events - with his 1600. Unfortunately he ended up rolling the car chasing the extra fraction of a second to the Escorts... He was unhurt thanks to the good cage (a thousand dollars or two seems very very cheap when the worst happens) and other saftey gear - harness, seat, helmet etc. Unfortunately the car isn't in very good shape though. If the panel shop says it's needs reshelling, I'll be trying to convert him to a 1200