Keeping it Regular

08 May 2016 / Words by Bryan Shedden, Photos by Rob Wilkins & David Lawler

Marulan Regularity – 1 May 2016

When Competition Secretary David Lawler was presented with the problem of a shortage of track bookings for 2016, he recommended that we try using Marulan Driver Training Centre for a club track day. Noise restrictions limit the ability to use racecars at MDTC, so it was quickly agreed that it would be unfair to include it in the pointscore for the Club championship. Marulan is a very short and tight track with minimal run-off area, and David had sleepless nights worrying about how he’d manage the risk of drivers pushing too hard on the track. Then Gaynor Lawler came up with the brilliant idea of making it a regularity event. Regularity involves each competitor choosing a laptime they think they can regularly match, and they are scored on the basis of how close they get to that laptime over the course of the day. This format is brilliant for encouraging consistency over outright speed, and the slowest drivers have the same chance of winning as the fastest ones.

May Day arrived with the prospect of “mostly” clear weather and a field of 31 keen competitors. The low numbers meant that there would be plenty of track time for everyone. After the obligatory track walk, there were two practice runs of up to 12 laps each for the four run groups. This is the first time we’ve had official timing at Marulan, so our track diehards were fascinated to get some laptimes. Ralph Thompson was quickest in practice with 46.944, followed by Alan Townsley (47.878) and David Lawler (48.129).

We stopped for an early lunch break so that competitors could nominate a regularity time. And then it RAINED! It was a short, sharp and intense downpour and the BOM radar suggested there wouldn’t be any more to follow. How on earth do we set a regularity time for a wet track that would dry out quickly, AND our nominated time would determine the run group we would be assigned?! The good news was that we would be permitted to adjust our nominated time after the first regularity run.

With nominations locked in, we hit the track for the first of six trials of five laps each. For each trial we started with 500 points and lost 1 point for every 0.25s slower than the nominated time, or 2 points for every 0.25s faster than the nominated time. Failing to finish the five laps resulted in a zero score. Needless to say, those in the first run scored poorly due to the wet track that rapidly dried, and the next three groups benefitted from an almost dry track. Keith Monaghan blitzed the field on his first trial with a score of 492, closely followed by Kim Jacobs (487) and Martyn Voormeulen (486). In Trial 2, Jamie Martin was the first to hit a perfect score of 500, while Gerardo Martin, Matthew Tarrant and Keith all scored 498. In subsequent trials, there were more perfect scores of 500 by Rohan Matthews, Greg Unger, Bryan Shedden, and Keith Monaghan (twice!).

At the conclusion of six trials, we were summoned to the cafeteria for the trophy presentation. And the winners were: Peter Morris in 3rd place (2947), Gerardo Martin in 2nd place (2948), and Keith Monaghan in 1st place (2982). Keith was a machine, dropping only 18 points in total and 8 of those were in the first trial. Congratulations gents!

All agreed that the MX-5 Club’s first ever regularity event was a great success and we hope to do it again sometime soon.

Click here for Rob Wilkin's photo album

Click here for David Lawler's photo album

 

 

Full Results (including fastest lap)

Driver	Trial 1	Trial 2	Trial 3	Trial 4	Trial 5	Trial 6	Total	Fastest Lap
Keith Monaghan	492	498	495	497	500	500	2982	51.747
Gerardo Martin	478	498	493	498	491	490	2948	52.301
Peter Morris	485	491	497	498	482	494	2947	54.128
Jamie Martin	460	500	497	495	496	494	2942	51.155
Bryan Shedden	456	492	498	500	496	498	2940	49.242
Rohan Matthews	483	495	500	489	482	490	2939	53.624
Mark Garven	478	496	487	494	489	488	2932	56.254
Michael DeMaio	468	485	486	496	497	498	2930	52.218
Gregory Unger	466	492	495	500	490	481	2924	53.137
Graham Fletcher	446	490	491	494	497	489	2907	50.988
Allan Gibson	462	484	483	492	480	491	2892	52.699
Kim Jacobs	487	490	478	480	486	470	2891	52.436
Russell Maxwell	431	482	488	497	495	487	2880	49.951
Ralph Thompson	418	490	496	485	493	492	2874	46.565
David Lawler	438	476	478	483	499	494	2868	47.974
Jamie Collins	479	484	450	487	468	488	2856	51.208
Gaynor Lawler	403	476	496	476	471	480	2802	52.422
Graham Smith	467	464	463	486	442	480	2802	52.974
Dan Poropat	482	480	470	472	444	448	2796	53.645
Matthew Tarrant	426	498	488	447	446	426	2731	54.175
Nathan Houison	346	492	491	444	477	442	2692	52.179
Phillip Reid	468	422	388	406	384	376	2444	52.976
Alan Townsley	485	461	486	486	494	0	2412	47.602
Neil Tribe	479	482	488	458	479	0	2386	51.468
Barry Luttrell	480	475	481	0	486	456	2378	54.867
Warren Hotz	390	491	487	481	489	0	2338	48.598
Malcom Steel	400	488	493	484	468	0	2333	49.939
Tammie Hotz	467	482	492	438	428	0	2307	40.464
Martyn Voormeulen	486	438	0	486	0	0	1410	52.129
Jenette McNeilly	418	396	0	0	0	0	814	57.242