HTCAV – 2019 Historic Winton report
Words: Chris Ralph (Mini Dash, Saturday races) and Darren Knight (Sunday races) Photos: Phil Wisewould, Chris Ralph
In positioning itself as the historic meeting dedicated to older cars, this year’s Historic Winton was for Group Na/Nb only, with invited small capacity/slower Nc cars for backfill if the numbers didn’t come flooding in. Which they didn’t. But by the time it became apparent that numbers were down any potential punters had already made other plans.
As such, the smallish crowd was denied the traditionally tight David v Goliath, small car v V8 battles that the meeting has become known for. But having said that, the racing was still very good, featuring several duels throughout the weekend. The weather was superb, too.
The entry list was Mini-heavy, as it always is for Historic Winton, but surprisingly, the 5-lap Mini Dash added to the programme this year didn’t garner any more than the dozen or so Minis usually counted.
All the Minis, with the exception of local Quentin White, filled the first 60 per cent of the placings in each race of the weekend. But that may not have been the case had Peter van Summeren’s rapid Lotus Cortina not been benched with suspect oil pressure on Friday.
Phil Barrow’s ultra fast FJ and Tony Pejkovic’s EH flew the Holden colours against David Forbes’s XK Falcon and Ben Dahlstrom’s ex-Michael Holloway, ex-John Brash S-Series Valiant in the Australian ‘Big Three’ stakes.
European supremacy rested on Ted Perkins’s Lotus Cortina, Andy White’s Volvo 122S and Vince Parisi’s Simca Vedette, which sounded great on Saturday, giving a magnificent performance as the crowd favourite. However, the V8-powered Simca was forced to languish - hurt but stylish - in the pits outside the JUST CARS HTCAV truck on Sunday.
The Mini Dash
Qualifying for the all-Mini event went like this: Jason Armstrong on pole, followed by Jeremy Bennett, Linda Devlin, Rob Ford, Rodney Creed, Adrian Read, Samuel Nenasheff, Ian Pringle, Syd Jenkins, Len Read, Ted Brewste and Quentin White.
Armstrong’s 1m08.1s lap put him more than a second ahead of the next best, but the following nine lap times were covered by a scant two seconds. Danny Read was a non-starter, but his dad’s generosity would let him run into the three scratch races that followed.
Given his clear advantage in qualifying, it was always going to be Armstrong in the race. And so it proved to be, the South Australian winning by four seconds. Behind him, the battle was mighty: young Bennett grabbed the start over Devlin, but in a brave move on Lap 1 she shoved her light blue Mini down the inside at the end of the back straight, then two-wheeled it into the esses. Bennett didn’t give up, though; the Tasmanian teen glueing himself to the back of Devlin’s Henry Draper machine as she flung it around. Incrementally eking out a gap over Bennett that grew to 0.7 seconds at the chequered flag, Devlin also set the best lap for the race of 1m09.0s.
Further back, the trio of Ford, Creed and Adrian Read were having their own tight tussle, while behind them, Len Read was just a tenth ahead of his good customer Pringle. Completing the field were Nenasheff, Jenkins and Brewster, while local White was a DNF.
While the Mini Dash was over in under six minutes, every second would have seemed like a lifetime for Devlin, whose fighting second place would have made Lady Watson, aka Christabel Carlisle the ’60s UK Mini racing queen, claim her for the Swift Sisterhood.
Saturday: Race 1
The meeting’s first race with all the Group N runners in play saw hostilities resume, this time over nine laps, with Armstrong again a clear winner.
Devlin and her dancing partner, teenage terror Bennett, were at it again from the start, but this time Bennett held sway, leading Devlin over the line by the same two tenth margin he’d lost by in the Mini Dash. However, Devlin took pride in setting the faster lap with an excellent 1m08.8s.
Daniel Read’s Mini had broken a gearbox ahead of the race, so Father Len ‘lenned’ him an Austin Cooper S for the rest of the weekend. Starting from the rear of the grid in the maroon and mushroom soup-coloured Cooper S, Daniel hustled to fourth by the flag, pipping Tasmanian Creed by two seconds. Team member Pringle was next, besting Ford’s car, which was running an ailing spare engine.
The magnificent Brewster was at his legendary best, placing seventh, ahead of WA’s Jenkins, while the Minis of Adrian Read and Nenasheff were retirements.
Barrow’s roaring FJ handles the flat circuits like no other Humpy and, fresh from wowing them at Mallala, was in a fun fight with the Forbes Falcon. With a pair of two-barrel downdraught carbies delivering better lowdown power, Forbes held Barrow at bay for six laps before the latter burst through. A few seconds behind this battle, Pejkovic’s newly refurbished EH led White in the Volvo and Perkins in the Lotus Cortina, with an overjoyed Dahlstrom bringing the Valiant home in his very first HTC race.
Sunday: Race 2
Ford – the driver, not the car! - would not grid up after that ailing engine issue in Race 1 was identified as a holed piston.
From the flag, Armstrong led the field into Turn 1, with Bennett right behind, while Daniel Read made a cracker of a jump off the line to get the better of Devlin. Soon after, though, Devlin made a great move around the outside of the “cleavage” to snatch back third place at the same time as an almighty stoush developed between Forbes, Barrow and Jenkins. At the flag, Forbes prevailed over Barrow by a mere five one-thousandths of a second!
Behind this three-way fight, White’s Volvo harassed Pejkovic’s Best Presented EH until finally getting past and then posting some rapid laps as Daniel Read retired with an electrical short.
At the front of the field, Bennett pushed hard but couldn’t catch Armstrong as the South Australian continued his winning run. Devlin was third again, ahead of the Minis of Creed and Pringle.
Newcomer Dahlstrom’s S Series Valiant limped home and would not start the final race, as a suspected fuel issue was not letting the big slant six rev freely.
Sunday: Race 3
For the final Group N race of the meeting, Armstrong got the jump and led the field away yet again, while Devlin briefly fell to fourth, but zoomed back into third under brakes entering the esses.
Read brothers Daniel and Adrian had an entertaining scrap ahead of Brewster, the Mini world’s fastest octogenarian!
In the Ford v Holden battle, Barrow finally got past Forbes’s Falcon and began to scoot away until the Humpy suddenly slowed and then retired with a left front hub failure. Pejkovic then took up the Holden flag against Forbes; the two Aussie sixes climbing all over each other in a great contest.
At the head of the field, Armstrong stretched out a race-winning lead - posting fastest lap of the meeting with a 1m07.6s in the process - while Bennett and Devlin again completed the podium. Further back, Forbes just held out Pejkovic to win the Blue Oval/Holden Lion dog fight by three tenths of a second.
Minis once again showed their once-a-year Winton short track superiority, but their performances took nothing away from the battles further down the field - it was great racing and a great weekend.
