Battle of Attrition at Barbagallo Raceway

A fleet of ultra fast racing cars, exotic imports and a plethora fresh faces couldn’t stop Dick Ward taking outright honours in the WASCC Long Circuit Sprint, round six of the Allied Metal Recyclers 2006 CAMS WA Speed Event Series at Barbagallo Raceway last weekend.
A near capacity field of 93 entrants took to the Barbagallo long circuit under clear skies for what turned out to be a battle of attrition more than speed with competitors dropping like flies.
Ward was himself a victim of the high attrition rate, but as always the speed of his legendary Fiat Abarth was never in question. Ward set the winning time of 1:03.3115 on just his second timed lap and was never pressed.
Mechanical dramas also struck Richard Catchlove campaigning Kim Ledger’s TRF Le Mans who also set his quickest time of 1:03.9817 during his second lap to secure second overall. Catchlove continued until the lunch break in an attempt to overhaul Ward but a lack of power saw him withdraw before the day was out.
Targa West competitors Paul Summers and Tony Flood were both forced out of the running early with mechanical dramas.
Summers was forced to retire for the day after just one timed run but despite the setback, Summers opening run in his striking orange Porsche GT3 was enough to secure top spot for production sports cars over 3201cc from fellow Porsche drivers Hans de Corti and Kim Ledger.
Meanwhile Flood, a regular speed series competitor and title contender, undertook a mad dash home to retrieve another Subaru WRX from his fleet of rally machines to contest the afternoon session, a move which underlined Flood’s determination to win this years series.
His luck wasn’t as good as Summers though, with Chris Reynolds causing an upset to take 4WD class honours by over 0.5 seconds from Richard Miller whilst Flood was forced to settle for third with fellow series contender Michael Lloyd coming in fourth.
Regular Barbagallo racers Mark Greenham and Barry Liddle used the sprint as a practice session in the lead up to the Pickles Auctions SuperTruck Challenge in August, also the third round of the WA State Championship and reaped the rewards. Greenham piloted his Mazda RX-7 street car to third overall behind Ward and Catchlove, narrowly edging out Liddle in his formula ford.
Russell Sewell also campaigned a newly acquired Formula Atlantic open-wheeled racer, a car which he hopes to race at Barbagallo in the near future.
Series sponsor David Bartlett won the battle of the Ford Escorts in convincing fashion from the perennial pair of Terry Mullan and Rolly Waters whilst Cos Sorgiovanni drove his newly imported Fisher Fury to a narrow victory over Richard Shillington and Ash Price in production clubman.
Other class winners on the day included Kevin Donovan and Lindsay Hamersley for historic groups n under and over 1500cc respectively, Graeme Martin and Andrew Miller for production sports under 2000cc and 2001 – 3200cc whilst Duane Joubert, Paul Kluck and Brad Wheeler topped the road registered classes.
The next round of the AMR Speed Event Series shall be the Meelup Hillclimb in Dunsborough on Sunday 3 September following the recent date swap with the State Hillclimb Championship at Jack’s Hill. The Jack’s Hill event will now be run on Sunday 24 September.