Victorian State Championships-2008
 

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Photos courtesy of John Hallowell; Paul Stein

The 2008 Victorian State Championships were held on Easter Sunday at the Knox field. Weather was fine, if a little breezy. Nine teams fronted for Vintage A and each were given two chances to qualify for the final. This event was run on 46' 8" lines.

After the onion grass fiasco in Albury, Paul Stein had skilfully grafted a new wing to his battleship grey Dimpled Dumpling. It had lost none of its former speed. Rob Fitzgerald’s experienced piloting made sure it was a good chance for a fast time.

Down from Sydney, Andy Kerr and Richard Justic were easily topping the magic 60 laps in practice and in the heats. However, the final was to be a different story.

The Cosmic Rays were pushing their own boundaries with Colin and Jim posting a PB heat time of 3.26.28. The Dream Team of John and Ken Hunting amazed everyone with the super performance their MARS engine was delivering. A 3.29.19 was also a PB for the Dreamers.

Graeme Wilson and Mark Ellins had some really bad luck, totally smashing the wing on Mark’s new DD on landing and demolishing their chances as well. A replacement wing will no doubt bring it back to new again. This State Champs will not be the year that Mark looks back on with pride… With his F2C ‘racing incident’ cut hand and a few other things, it will be one he would rather forget.

Harry Bailey and Peter Roberts were off the pace this day with times in the 3.40’s and Lance Smith and Murray Wilson struggled to get a good setting on the Voodoo 1. More practice needed!

Once the dust settled, and the dry spell meant there was a fair bit around, fastest heat went to Hallowell/Baker with 3.15.97, also a PB, followed by Fitzgerald/Stein on 3.19.5 and Justic/Kerr on 3.20.02.

It was time for the final. At CD Keith Baddock’s signal, all 3 teams were quickly away. The airspeed of the 3 finalists was virtually identical with Andy Kerr using his own modified original Olly and the other two using R250’s. It was a good clean race with very little in it at the end. If Richard and Andy had got their intended 60 laps they probably would have won by a clear margin.

The race was not won in the air, but on the ground with the least amount of time lost. The super close race put pressure on the teams and it showed with too fast landings and missed catches.

Fitzy and Paul Stein were first across the line in 6.54.83 closely followed by John Hallowell and Neil Baker on 6.59.69 and Richard Justic and Andy in 7.07.96.

After a short break for lunch, CD Keith Baddock got Classic B underway in the early afternoon. All teams opted for a few practice flights to check the needle. Six teams had entered and two 3 up heats were drawn.

The Cosmics have won this event before, so they knew what must be done to make the final. Their best heat was 3.21.40 for the 70 laps. The tried and proven combination of OS LA 25 and Crescendo had the speed to match the Brodaks.

With Mark Ellins hand injury relegating him to battery boy, Richard Justic was doing the flicking on Graeme Wilson’s Rocket. The Mk 2 Brodak was on the pace with a PB heat time of 3.12.40.

Neil Baker was pitting the B25R Grassfire and got his team FTD with a 3.11.69 to grab first segment choice for the final.

The Hunting brothers also had Brodak power and managed a 3.40.22. They should be able to chop well over half a minute from that time in the months to come.

Harry Bailey and Peter Roberts were flying the familiar ‘Backtrack’ still with an OS FP 25 up front and will make big improvements when Harry’s new model is finished for his Brodak.

Last year’s winners Lance Smith and Murray Wilson were very disappointed to encounter a strange problem in last minute practice where their engine would cut after 25 laps for no apparent reason. They withdrew, still trying to find out what was wrong. It was another example of Murphy’s Law. If anything can go wrong it most certainly will.

It was Rocket vs. Crescendo vs. Grassfire in the final. It looked like it was to be a close race. It started off that way with Hallowell/Baker and Ray/Ray having good speed and Wilson/Justic having 50 laps range for those essential two stops over 140 laps. That one less stop is worth at least 20 seconds in a final. Have a look at the time margin between 1st & 2nd.

However, at the first stop, disaster struck the NSW State Champs winning Grassfire as the handle was wrenched from the pilot’s hand at the stop causing a DQ. Their race was over far too soon. It’s no fun sitting outside the circle contemplating what might have been.

The Cosmics had the extra stop so they had no chance of winning unless Wilson/Justic had a problem. They didn’t, so the Rocket and B25R went on to a well-deserved win in the very good time of 6.19.87. And yes, it was another PB for the winners! This sport is beginning to sound a lot like swimming…

With only 4 entries and run over two days this event would have gone smoothly had it not been for an unfortunate incident on the second day when a missed model catch during the first pit stop of the race resulted in a model collision and a cut hand for Mark Ellins.

It needed stitching and a subsequent Fitzgerald/Ellins team withdrawal.

Colin Ray had his physical fitness tested during the final but he and Paul Stein took a convincing win.

Eighteen entries in this event indicated that it would take some time to complete. After a 1pm start the father and son Ray’s did a great contest directing job of pushing the event along but it was 6 30 pm before the contest concluded.

The prevalence of JAK 09 engines has moved this event forward since the Taipan/PAW days but the events popularity seems to be increasing.

Congratulations to Robert Owen for winning the contest without incurring a loss.

A troubled event this year with engine blow ups and mid air collisions adding to the woes. The NSW team of Justic /Owen cruised to an easy win in the final.

CLASSIC FAI Speed was the first event on the Saturday, weather was good just a little warm. Only three entries in FAI this year. FAI interest has dropped off a little, whereas a few years ago it attracted more than combined, maybe due to people buying ready to fly FAI’s then finding it is not that easy.

In Victoria combined has always been stronger, and lately even better entries, maybe all my promoting for the last 25 years is paying off. All three entrants used various Profi’s. I was first up with a 12.7 283kph. Richard Justic and Andy Kerr did not record times in round one.

Round 2: A K did a 12.91 and a 12.97 for R J. I did a12.69. In the last round Andy managed his best yet at 12.79 and Richard a 12.93. Good to see all times in the 12's.

Next event was combined Speed. The majority of classes were flown on the concrete circle, and the longer line classes were flown at Knox over grass on Sunday.

As at the last Frankston comp we had 6 entries in Class 1 [2cc] so it becomes a separate class within combined, and as we did not have a trophy organised I supplied one, but so that the experts could not claim it, it was given to someone that has not won speed before. That person was Murray Wilson who won it using his Arrow/OS CZ11PS. We may have to call it the “Arrow” trophy, as most were Arrow models.

Unfortunately, I won Combined Speed again using my old model and new Nova Rossi with a 13.75 262kph, I also placed second with class 5 Nova Rossi .21. In third place was Noel Wake and his Class 5.

4 Protos were flown, Richard Justic had 2 flights using a ST K29 motor and on Sunday he used a piped K&B 29 model. Unfortunately he did not get a time with his X29 piped Class 2 model on monoline. Vern Marquet flew his “Classic B Proto” powered by a stock Enya 30SS, it is not competitive but Vern flies in the “spirit of the event” for the fun as he does with his “Arrow” and ASP 12. David Shackleford flew his class 5 for 88.79%, it is getting quicker each time, stick with it and times will drop. Harry Bailey flew his class 1 Golden Arrow but threw a prop blade and obtained slight model damage.

On Sunday Noel and I flew our .40 class 4’s the only time of the year that we get the opportunity as the Frankston hard surface is to small for over 60 foot lines and we still have no calendar for Knox, can't be that hard to arrange.

The rest of the Proto’s were flown as well. We put a “good” Prop on Harry’s Arrow for his fastest time to date.

A big thanks to Lance Smith for a great job running speed and the lap counters, also to my crewman Vern.

Run for the first time at the Victorian State Champs, Vintage Combat attracted 14 entries on Easter Monday.

Murray Wilson would have been a fierce competitor but took on the CD duties instead. After the first round a repechage was flown for the losers and after that it became 1 loss and your out.

The South Australian contingent of Leon and Semilie Baird and Maris Dislers had to set off for the long drive home before the event concluded.

Best bout of the day was between Graeme Wilson and Ian Amaira which had full air time and plenty of streamer cuts.