2016 Victorian 6 Hour Relay
07 August 2016 / Story by Bryan Shedden, Photos by Tammie & Evan Hotz, Bryan Shedden
The Victorian 6 Hour Relay has grown in popularity since the first was held in 2006, and is widely recognised as the best event for L2S licence holders. It is conducted at Australia's premier race track - the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit. Teams of four or more drivers participate in a regularity, taking turns on track to match their nominated time as closely as possible ... for six hours straight! Each driver shares the track with up to 49 other cars at a time, which means there is much more passing than most race events. A complicated formula rewards consistency and heavily punishes those who drive too quickly or disobey flag signals. It is an extremely challenging event that demands strong teamwork.
The 11th 6 Hour was held over the weekend of 30-31 July 2016. Teams representing the MX-5 Club of NSW have competed in the event every year since 2011, earning 2nd places in 2012 and 2015. For the second year running, we fielded five teams of four drivers, with each team supported by an enthusiastic pit crew to manage timing, pit boards and catering for the team. Most of the teams stayed in holiday homes at Cowes for three nights, and shared the household catering. Many also opted for an overnight stop at a halfway point to and from the Island. All this meant that the 6 Hour was a fabulous opportunity to laugh with friends and strengthen camaraderie. And empty a few bottles of red!
Winter at the Island is usually a dreadful proposition with rain, sleet and howling gales off the Southern Ocean. But the weather for the 2016 event could not possibly have been better, even in summer. After light overnight rain, the mornings started with a damp track but the skies were blue and a light northerly breeze rapidly dried the track. Some of our crew wore short sleeves - but they're Blue Mountains folk and used to this sort of thing!
Saturday was practice and gave all drivers the chance to figure out a laptime they would nominate for Sunday's regularity. One of our teams was made up entirely of newbies who had not driven the Island before. They were scheduled to have a 45 minute practice with an experienced driver in the passenger seat to guide them. At least that was the plan! Long delays with scrutineering meant that most didn't get onto the track until the last 10 minutes or so. Thankfully the organisers worked out a solution and another newbies run after lunch was devised. The newbies ended up with more track time than anyone else, which is just the way it needed to be.
Read on for a summary of how the teams fared:
#44 MX-5 Club of NSW
David Lawler’s Saturday was plagued by an excessively noisy exhaust (had to fit a baffle) and a leaky tyre (had to buy a replacement set of tyres), which meant selecting a regularity time was a bit of a mystery. Ed Cory experienced a puncture on Sunday and also had to fit backup tyres to get through the event. Gus Elias and Ian Combes had a trouble-free weekend. The team was 3rd at 12:00 but received 1 Imposed Penalty Lap at 12:30 for doing more than 15 laps in one stint, dropping to 13th. They recovered to 4th at 13:30 but earnt a Penalty Lap for breaking their nominated time, and dropped to 7th at 14:00. Gus drove like a demon, racking up 42 of the team's 60 Bonus Laps in the final hour, and snagged a podium finish in 2nd place!!! It was a superb team effort in testing circumstances. They even found a Pokemon to serve as their grid girl!
141 Actual Laps, 186 Bonus Laps, 1 Penalty Lap, 1 Imposed Penalty
#45 Blue Mountains Mazda
The "Bradbury Strategy" meant a slow start in the bottom third of the field as they struggled to get close to their very conservative nominated times. Warren Hotz was forced to share a drive in Greg Bunn's NC after the engine in his turbo NB blew up on his second lap. The team climbed to 18th at 13:00 after claiming 10 Bonus Laps, 6 of them by Ray Estreich. The team came home with a wet sail with 42 Bonus Laps in the last 1.5hr to be 5th at 15:30. Then heartbreak when Bryan Shedden was called to the tower for a yellow flag infringement from two hours earlier. 5 Penalty Laps were imposed by the Stewards and the team plummeted to 18th place. Subsequent review of in-car video revealed that the pass was legal because it was completed 200m before the first yellow flag point. So it was disappointing to discover that the decision robbed the team of a podium finish in 3rd place. Instead, that podium position was claimed by Team "Shake 'n' Bake" from Car Club RMIT who adopted a similar "Bradbury Strategy".
138 Actual Laps, 54 Bonus Laps, 0 Penalty Laps, 5 Imposed Penalties
#47 Panorama Mountain Men
Our 2nd place team from 2015 started behind the eight ball with 10 Imposed Penalties for a Red Flag infringement on Saturday, which was not reported until Sunday morning. However, Tony King, Stewart Temesvary, Glenn Thomas and Brendan Thomas shrugged off that disappointment and racked up plenty of Bonus Laps. They were in the middle of the field all day, finishing in 25th place.
141 Actual Laps, 186 Bonus Laps, 21 Penalty Laps, 10 Imposed Penalties
#43 PISSers Racing
Phil Ashton, Keith Monaghan, Paul Byers and Guy Coles racked up plenty of Bonus Laps and were in 7th place at 15:00 despite scoring 4 penalty laps. But they scored another 28 penalty laps in the final hour when Phil had a moment of red mist and drove a bit too hard, dropping the team to 26th place.
136 Actual Laps, 171 Bonus Laps, 32 Penalty Laps, 0 Imposed Penalties
#46 Team RPM NB
The team of four rookies - Matt Tarrant, Graham Fletcher, John Karayannis, Dan Szwaj - did very well to be 6th at 11:30. Unfortunately the Penalty Laps followed after lunch as they got a bit faster with familiarity, and they dropped to 38th at 13:00, before recovering to finish in 33rd place. They did go home with a trophy for "Best Presented Team" - Graham Fletcher was delighted to claim it! Special thanks to Blackheath Automotive Services and Blue Mountains Mazda who supported production of the team shirts.
131 Actual Laps, 127 Bonus Laps, 33 Penalty Laps, 1 Imposed Penalty
Overall, the event was won by Team "All BRANds", who achieved the 3rd highest number of Bonus Laps (232) and were in the top 10 for all but the first hour. They had a very consistent performance and won despite receiving 1 Penalty Lap for breaking out. It was the second win for this team from the Austin Healey Sprite Drivers' Club, backing up their first win in 2014. It is notable that two of their drivers were in MX-5s!
And so, that makes three podiums in six attempts for members of the MX-5 Club of NSW. A superb result and hearty congratulations to Gaynor (Team Manager), David, Ed, Ian, Gus (drivers), and Angela, Cathy, Tim (Pit Crew)! Our quest for the top step continues and we'll be back to give it another shot in 2017.
