Australian National titles - Littlehampton

Race report by Antoni Caretti

The 2013 Australian National titles were held in the Adelaide hills, at the Littlehampton track in South Australia. This area is around a 30-40 minute drive from the city, and luckily enough my house. Going into the race I had not driven the new 2014 version of the T4, but had a really good feeling as I like the changes the car had received over its predecessor. The race had a lot lower numbers than usual, as some drivers went to the AOC in Japan, and some chose not to come, but none the less the racing was great for those that attended.

We headed up to the track on the Thursday for some scheduled open practice, from the moment I put the car on the track I knew it was working well! Starting with a setup that was pretty well kit setup, I made a few tweaks and it got better and better. I played with some additives also, as the sweep control tyre being used was very new and I had no experience with it before. After the First day I was very happy with how the new car was working. That night I went and picked up my new shell from my painter and started to prepare that for the race.

On the Friday, the weather was horrible, and we didn’t get on the track till 3pm, so with lots of time, I decided to finish cutting and mounting my new shell, and just go over my car and make sure everything was ok. Once we got onto the track, the car was not quite the same as yesterday, as the sugar that was on the track had washed off from the rain. The race director had decided not to sugar it again for the rest of the weekend, as the weather forecast was not looking great for the start of qualifying. I decided to leave the car as it was and let the track grip come to the car. After the track gripped again the car was once again great and I was feeling confident going into qualifying.

Saturday was upon us, but unfortunately so was the rain. Qualifying was delayed until around 2pm, and this late start meant that only 3 qualifiers would be run today, instead of the scheduled 4. Before the straight of qualifying, we had concourse judging, and my shell won for the modified class! Thanks to James Ainslie for the great paint on short notice (2 days before the event!!!)

Qualifying went really well for me, as I managed to top all 3 rounds and only needed 1 more tq run in the morning to secure 1st place on the grid going into the finals, as best 4 rounds from 6 counted. I still had 1 new set of tyres also for the morning. That night I didn’t touch my car as it was going so well!!

On the Sunday, the weather was much better and we had no ran interruptions. The organizers decided to run 3 rounds of qualifying, 1 extra than previously scheduled as the rain delays from Saturday. This meant it was an early start for me, and I’m not a morning person.. None the less, I was up early and feeling good. I managed to again tq all the 3 rounds, making it a clean sweep of qualifying. In round 5, setting the fastest race and lap time of the event. In the stock 17.5 boosted class, Scott Kilford had also manage to do a clean sweep of qualifying, winning all 6 rounds with his T4’14 car.

Going into the first final I was a bit nervous, but a good start helped and I built a reasonable gap and managed to just cruise around and take the first leg win. Scott also managed to do the same, so we both just needed one more final each to secure a double Australian Championship for the new car. In the second final, I managed to do the same, securing the overall win and my first National title for touring car, adding it to my 2 previous 1/12 titles. Scott went on to win the 2nd and 3rd A main’s, making it a clean sweep for the new car!! I decided to run the 3rd final, making lots of changes to the car, but unfortunately a tyre failure put a stop to that race. But none the less, a perfect weekend for the new car, and im very happy with the result. Thanks to all my sponsors, Team XRAY, HEI international, Hobbywing, Pro Amp batteries, Roche and Smokem racing!

Antoni Caretti