Held at one of the best tracks in Australia SMA, the annual Much More Masters is always a sucess, well apart from when the rains comes... with 30% of the field from interstate it shows that this meeting is one of the best non sanctioned events in Australia. With just over 100 entries the racng was going to be HOT, but the talk on everyones lips was who was going to win F1, who was going to have the nicest replica bodies and who was going to change tyres in the mandatory pitstops.
Touring Car Stock
At the Australian Muchmore Masters this year Team Xray Australia was well represented in the stock class with all team drivers present for what has become a hotly contested event.
Friday was open practice and the team was working well together on chasing down a set up to give the best possible chance for a strong result. Times already on the Friday were quick and it was looking like the pace for the weekend was going to be scorching.
The team had received several new option parts for the T3-12 and the feedback was very positive. Most were running the new carbon arms which made the car feel very planted yet responsive and also ran the new 1.6mm top deck with the kit chassis. This combo was very receptive to the Protoform LTCR shell and was showing to be several 10ths quicker over a fast lap. By the end of Friday practice the stock team were extremely happy and dialed in with their cars.
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Saturday was qualifying day and it was scheduled for 5 out of 6 qualifying runs to be held. From the onset the pace was quick with Team driver Gavin Hatherly setting lap record pace and laying down the benchmark with Xray filling 5 out of the top 6 positions in the first round. The second round of qualifying really stepped up a gear with Team driver Keith Chui laying down a blistering pace for 1st in round and then backed it up again topping the third round. At the end of the days qualifying it was team driver Keith Chui sitting in the provisional TQ position and Xray filling 7 of the top 10 A-Main positions.
Sunday saw the final qualifier run for the stock class just before the rain set in, unfortunately the round wasnâ™t completed and had to be dropped. Time was given to see if the rain would pass but luck was not on our side and the event was called which was a shame as we were guaranteed for some awesome finals action. The great news for Team Xray was that the business was done when it was needed which saw Keith Chui take the event win and Xray filling 7 of the 10 A-Main spots.
Stock Final Result:
1. Keith Chui â“ XRAY T3'12
2. Andrew Seniak 3. Michael Kerr â“ XRAY T3'12
4. Gavin Hatherly â“ XRAY T3â™12
5. James Ainslie â“ XRAY T3'12
6. Wayne Cavanough 7. Nathan Reese â“ XRAY T3â™12
8. Alex Illevski 9. Deniz Demarco â“ XRAY T3'12
10. Justin Murphy - XRAY T3'12
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Touring Car Modified
The modified class was looking very healthy with the largest number of entries of all the classes and the biggest entry list in a while. The reputation for high competition attracted most of the best interstate drivers from around Australia to compete.
In practice the track was gripping up quickly and some fast laps were being thrown down with a few drivers around the 15.6 second lap pace. With all the new options for the car we had a variety of drivers all using different combinations of chassis and top decks to suit their driving styles but in the end all the cars were fast.
Once qualifying began early on Saturday morning nobody knew quite what to expect of the cold track conditions. After round one Simon Nicholson was fastest from Ryan Maker and Tim Lee, with only 1.5 seconds covering the top three, the track was better than expected and the times were fast.
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For the second round the track had warmed up and Tim Lee tried the new graphite suspension arms and was able to TQ the round in front of Simon Nicholson and Ryan Maker, this time the top three were covered by just 1 second. The graphite arms gave the car better traction and cornering speed resulting in faster and more consistent lap times.
For the following rounds other drivers tried the new graphite arms and all improved their times remarking on improved traction.
Jordan Cullis was starting to show that he had great pace and was starting to put in some fast overall times once he improved his consistency. The optional 2mm chassis was working great for his driving style and he finished 3rd for round 3.
Ari Bakla was very fast putting in some 15.6 second laps in his runs but was making some little mistakes pushing just a little too hard to make up points after breaking a rear belt in the first round. With the times so close even just loosing a few tenths in traffic would put you down a few positions for the round.
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Round four was time for new tyres for most of the drivers. Simon Nicholson and Tim Lee were the only drivers dropping down into the 15.5 second laps and Simon was the only driver to just do 20 laps for the event with Tim just 2 seconds behind and 0.6 seconds off 20 laps.
Oscar Piastri was getting faster and faster as he became more comfortable with the track taking fifth for round 4, but he was still changing the setup chasing more corner speed.
In the fifth round the competition was tight again with only 5 seconds covering the top six drivers.
After rain on Sunday the sixth round of qualifying was cancelled and the result was taken on the best 4 of 5 rounds which disadvantaged some drivers that would have moved up a lot if they had completed another good round.
Unfotunately for Cristian Silva (T3â™12) he was unable to make the top ten due to two poor rounds, although the showed pace that would have put him well into the final with another good round. Ari Bakla suffered from the loss of the last round too with his overall times good enough to easily challenge for the top 4 positions if it wasnâ™t for some small mistakes.
The XRAY T3â™12 was the most popular car in the final with twice as many cars than the next most popular manufacturer. Everyone was more than satisfied with the T3â™12â™s performance and with the steady stream of option parts now available the car just keeps getting better and better.
Modified Final results:
1. Simon Nicholson 2. Tim Lee â“ XRAY T3â™12
3. Ryan Maker 4. Jordan Cullis â“ XRAY T3â™12
5. Sandy Iavazzo
6. Justin Vergunst 7. Oscar Piastri â“ XRAY T3â™12
8. Ari Bakla â“ XRAY T3â™12
9. Craig Mcphee
10. Antoni Caretti
