Hi All,
The Brisbane International has been run and won with some impressive speeds across the classes. We were pleased to welcome visitors from Estonia, Switzerland and also a team from the Sydney Society of Model Engineers tether car section.
The 10 cc Class V was hard fought as usual with Tõnu Sepp recording an awesome 345.887 km/hr on a drying track and very high humidity, following a morning thunderstorm on Sunday. This is the new ‘high water’ mark for the Ø2.1 mm cable, and quite close to the 347 km/hr record on the smaller cable. Michael Schmutz was unlucky to have a timer glitch reduce a likely >343 km/hr to 340.780 km/hr for second place. There was some daylight back to a gaggle of cars around the 330 km/hr mark, with David James taking the final podium spot.
Tõnu won 5 cc Class IV too, with a speed of 314.905 km/hr, a little short of his 317 km/hr world record also set on this super-fast track back in 2014. Locals Scott Clydesdale (303 km/hr after destroying engine #1) and John Walker (296 km/hr) picked up the remaining podium spots. After 10 years at the top of 5 cc with countless National, European and World Championships, Tõnu has announced his retirement from 5 cc to focus on other tether car classes.
The 3.5 cc Class III was won by Geoff Offer (271.329 km/hr) followed by Scott Clydesdale and Doug Harding in third, the only piped class not won by Team Estonia.
Lembit Vaher showed some good speed in 2.5 cc Class II (273.889 km/hr) to finish in front of Geoff Offer. Lembit’s compatriot Rain Teder won 1.5 ccc Class I (265.525 km/hr and just outside of his existing national record) followed by Lembit in second and Sylvia Bach in third.
The local 3.5 cc M Class (unpiped) was won by Kevin Harvey (205.268 km/hr) ousting Geoff Offer from top spot. Tom Clydesdale was third.
The all-important nominated speed was won by Margaret James who was just 0.127 km/hr from her nominated.
A huge thank-you must go to all those who assisted with the timekeeping, horsing, catering (thanks John!), scrutineering, marshalling and all the other jobs that make an event like this come together.