As is often the case on a Saturday night in Summer (well, it’s really Autumn, but) I spent the night at the speedway. One of the “perks” of being the course announcer is that I get access to all areas and am able to find out stuff that others can’t (more later)
Last Saturday night was the NSW Title for the compact speedcars. As the name implies, these are speedcars (open wheel with a roll cage) but are smaller and less powerful than the open cars that I have discussed here on previous occasions. However, their size should not be seen as a limiting factor in terms of power and speed. By their technical specifications, the cars are limited to two different capacities. If the car is running an engine derived from a car (Mazda, Datsun, etc) the cubic capacity is limited to 1300cc. Time was that all compacts had car engines but the rule makers decided some years ago that the category could drag itself into the current century and allow motorcycle engines as well. However, since most existing motorcycle engines produce way more horsepower than even a modified car engine, they limited the capacity of motorcycle engines to 1000cc. Each capacity is nominal and a first size overbore is allowed for both types of engine.
The opening up of the rules to allow motorcycle engines is seeing the death of the car engine. It costs markedly less to buy a motorcycle engine from a wrecker and have an instant 160-170bhp than it does to try and extract the same power figures (reliably) from a Datsun 1200 engine. The motorcycle engine is markedly lighter than its automotive equivalent and is deigned to rev harder and sustain higher revs for longer periods of time. The motorcycle engine has a much more instant power delivery as well. And, by allowing freedom in the drive train area, the rule-makers have allowed a complete motorcycle drive train to be used complete with chain drive. This, of course, is much lighter than a tailshaft and live axle. Even allowing for the ability to use a quick-change differential in the live axle set up, final drive ratios are nearly as easily juggled by the use of different sprockets in the chain drive configuration. About the only disadvantage of the chain drive arrangement is the length of chain required and the need for a fairly sophisticated chain tensioning arrangement.
The car-engined compacts are still hanging on but the change, once started, is gathering momentum. 14 of the 19 entrants last Saturday night were driving a bike-engined car and the top three positions in the title race were all bike-powered cars.
Just a few figures to put this in perspective. A speedcar with a 2.8 litre engine, weighs about 500kg including driver and the engine produces around 280bhp. A compact speedcar with a 1000cc engine weighs about 400kg including the driver and defending champion, Queensland’s Gary Hudson, was driving the #69 car fitted with a ZX10 Kawasaki engine that had been dynoed during the week at 190bhp.
The heat races were frenetic as they always are at a title meeting with every driver riding the fine line between going as hard as they could to ensure a good grid position for the 35 lap feature race but not going so hard that they ran the risk of binning the car or blowing up the engine (both scenarios did, of course, play out). One who fell victim to the slippery conditions early was Victoria’s Robbie Gordon who tripped and fell in between T1 & T2 when he strayed up track into the greasy stuff and hit the wall.
Amazingly, the car was not seriously damaged and, as the track dried and the racing line improved, Gordon suddenly emerged as the hot favourite, even shading Hudson in the eyes of some of the pundits. Certainly his storming drive from the rear in Race 17 was one of the best I have ever seen in the whole time I have been attending Nowra.
His DNF in the early heat race penalised him to a lowly starting position in the feature and, with Hudson being on the podium in every heat, he ended up starting off pole. Trying for his third successive title at this track in three years, Hudson was right where he needed to be. As soon as the race started, Hudson set about establishing his lead and Gordon started carving through the field. Inside or outside, it didn’t seem to matter; Gordon was dancing on the edge of disaster and looking more menacing by the moment. As with many title races, there were a number of stoppages in the early going as jockeying for positions while trying to make sure the leader didn’t get too far away caused some errors.
One who fell victim to the ever-present risk of open-wheel racing was Brisbane’s Emma Harris who ended up on her side after a tangle with local driver, Tony Auselbrook.
As the race neared its conclusion the number of stoppages ensured that, at each restart, Hudson’s carefully grafted lead was trimmed. Lurking in the minors was fellow Queenslander, Wayne Corbett and the NSW pair of Alan Day and Craig Hickey.
But there was always going to be fireworks as Gordon came storming through the pack into 2nd. Hudson and Gordon then engaged in a war on wheels for several laps with the lead changing constantly. It was exciting to watch, but scary, too as the two hard chargers turned the race into a contact sport.
It couldn’t last; we all knew that, and a brutal inside pass by Gordon on Hudson in T3 saw them both tangle and grind to a halt, the two cars locked together. The stewards who had been watching with increasing degrees of concern what had been happening on the track did what they had to do. At the restart both Gordon AND Hudson were sent rear of field for their multitude of indiscretions. This left Corbett in the box seat but not entirely safe. Day, who has already scored a number of feature race wins this season, was glued to the tail of the Q10 car and looking for a chance to pass as the laps quickly dwindled away. But it wasn’t to be. A piece of debris had damaged Day’s right rear tyre (the most important one) and he had so slow and preserve the tyre. Afterwards in the pits, the amount of damage was evident and the fact that the tyre only had 2psi left in it indicated just how close Day had come to disaster. Another couple of laps would surely have seen him on the infield and out of the race. But the experienced Day kept his cool and collected 2nd ahead of Hickey who had driven quickly and sensibly all night to be in the box seat when it mattered.
It had all the drama that you would expect of a title race but an unfortunate aftermath. After the final restart, neither Gordon nor Hudson showed any inclination to try and race back through the pack but spent the last few laps banging into each other and swerving towards each other at the back of the pack. And, after the race was over, Hudson continued the war, shifting right on the back straight and carting Gordon up towards the outside wall. Gordon responded in kind, turning down on Hudson and bringing both cars to a halt, locked together again, on the back straight near the pit gate. It was a most unimpressive piece of driving on the part of both drivers and definitely came under the heading of “bringing the sport into disrepute” in this writer’s opinion.
Another night at the races and another amazing memory to tuck away. Thanks to Mark Whitehead of Maximum Action Photography for letting me use his shots for this article.