The Official Forum Battle aftermath
Despite the bad weather on Saturday Forum Battle went full steam ahead (as early as 6am) the admin office was full of buzz and had a line of Forum Battlers eagerly waiting to sign on and compete in the first ever inaugural Forum Battle event.
By 9.30am, drivers were signed in, tools unloaded and pit crews ready for service… then the rain started! A decision was made during the driver’s briefing to alter the Time Attack event into a single lap dash.
Rain and bad weather conditions ultimately saw Time Attack along with the Drags officially cancelled. An early causalty by Ovi in the Red Advan Evo aquaplaning into a concrete barrier which was a warning signal to all competitors of the tricky track conditions, testing even the most experienced drivers.
An early withdrawal was seen from the drivers of the Rx7(s), who decided the conditions were less than ideal. They packed up and left for home and who would blame them, 600hp on a wet track is certainly a scary day at the office.
Team SAU stayed on and with little persistence took top honors in the Pro and Street group; Chris Thompson, Adam Newton winning 1st and 2nd respectively and each winning their classes ( fastest Pro 4WD class and fastest Pro RWD class). Ash Cosgriff got the overall win for the street class group and took out the fastest 4WD street class .
Steve Reed for Team OZMPS took fastest Pro FWD class, while in the fastest Street FWD Class saw Rory Hollingworth from Team OPEALAUS take the award. Manny from MELBS15 took out the fastest street RWD Class award and was a consistent competitor all weekend.
One Lap Dash Results:
Motorkhana:
Johnathan Green in his blue Evo for Team Fullboost took out top honors for fastest outright and 4WD Pro class. While Reece McIntosh for Team SAU got fastest outright and RWD street class.
Phouc pushed hard and took home the fastest street FWD car and Marty From Might Car Mods being the only FWD in the Pro class took top honors for being the fastest FWD in Pro Class.In the Motorkhana event, 10 competitors competed for honors. The course layout being 2 sets of chicanes, linked up with a U-turn on the end and with minimal run off and tarmac area after the finish line saw some very close calls as competitors played chicken with the finish line.
Some came off second best, like John in his White AW11 MR2 having a near miss and running into a tyre wall earlier on into the session ( better then a concrete barrier), followed by Phouc in his black Civic slightly tapping a barrier, damaging his front bar trying to find the limit of his tyres and brakes.
Motorkhana Result :
Show and Shine
Out of the 7 Major categories in the show and shine, Team SAU took out 4; Best Presented , Best JDM , Cleanest car and the Historic awards.
Best Australian built went to Boosted Falcon, Best Euro was Opel Aus and Gripshiftslide took the out the award for best street car. Sunday’s show and shine was all blue sky and sunny weather (unlike Saturday). A total of 40+ cars were on display and Team SAU, OPELAUS , Gripshiftslide, Melbs15, Supra and AE86 were out in force and all wanting to take the win. Each team offering a variety of modified cars for spectators and judges to see. The quality of cars were outstanding and made it a difficult job for the judging panel to choose the winners.
Team SAU would go onto taking out the honors for Australia’s Best Forum, Opel Aus and Gripshiftslide came in at a respectable second and third.
Forum Battle would like to say a thank you to all the dedicated competitors and supporters who stuck it out and made the effort to show up and compete. Thank you to the volunteers from the Victorian MG club for flag marshaling, scrutineering and the admin work. Last but not least thank you to all the ForumBattle Sponosors. With the dedication and your passion for the cars Forum Battle would have not been possible.
The weather may have not been on our side, but the dedication and passion that was shown by all that was involved means that the car scene is alive and kicking strong. Forum Battle was a great success, and can now only get bigger and better next year.
