VSCDA Vintage Grand Prix au Grattan XXXVII at Grattan Raceway – August 9th to 11th Race Report

​The Enhanced Performance, Good Cars Only, Gabo Solutions #77 Formula Mazda Team had an fantastic weekend at the VSCDA Vintage Grand Prix au Grattan XXXVII held at Grattan Raceway. We had registered our #77 Formula Mazda in the VSCDA Formula Classic (Group E). There was a total of 27 cars in our race group including Vintage Formula Fords, Club Fords, Scott Durbin and his lightning-fast Formula Continental, as well as a many other historic open wheel cars.  The weather was beautiful all weekend with temperatures during the weekend ranging from 20°C to 25°C. Over the course of Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we were on track a total of 7 times; 2 on-track practices and the first qualifying session on Friday, followed by the second qualifying session and the Sprint Race and the Heat Race on Saturday and Feature Race on Sunday.

On the Friday test day, the weather was very nice with a sun cloud mix.  Our best lap for the two practice sessions was a P2 1:22.405 – a pretty respectable lap time. The leader, Scott Durbin in a very nice yellow Formula Continental, was P1 at 1:19.342 – so we had some work to do. During our first qualifying session on Friday, we improved our best lap time to P2 1:20.071, while Scott bettered his practice time to 1:19.777 – clearly, we had to improve our on-track performance if we were to challenge for the win.
​
The weather on Saturday was perfect, sunny and 24°C. During our second qualifying session, we did not improve on our initial qualifying session at 1:21.098. With qualifying over, and based on the best qualifying time, Scott qualified P1 and we qualified P2.  During the Sprint Race, we managed to get a good start and gapped Scott down the front straight to turn 1. Scott caught us in the technical portion of the track and passed us during the first lap. Scott finished in P1 with a best lap time of 1:19.401, while our best P2 lap time was 1:20.060. During the Heat Race, once again we managed to beat Scott to the first turn – we battled for the entire race – I was able to use a back marker to my advantage and I beat Scott to the finish with a gap of 0.158 seconds.  I finished in P1 with a best lap time of 1:18.712 – we were definitely making progress.

On Sunday, the weather was once again a beautiful day to be on the track.  During the Feature Race, I managed to get an excellent start, beating Scott to the first corner. He and I battled for the first three laps, and then I developed a problem with shifting between 3rd, 4th and 5th. In the end, Scott finished in P1 with a best lap time of 1:18.881, we finished 30 seconds behind him in P2 with a best lap time of 1:19.813. A fantastic weekend and a great race result!!!!

A very special thank you to our guest crew chief for the weekend, Christina Murdoch.  We would not have been able to accomplish what we did during the weekend without her expert help. And many thanks VSCDA Vintage Grand Prix au Grattan XXXVII for hosting such a fantastic, safe event!!