F100 Titles At Ipswich
from Geoff Salmon
The sound of highly tuned water cooled Reed Valve engines screaming up to 19,500 revs turned the event into a blistering day of spine tingling thrills and spills.
That was the scene at the 2010 Formula 100 State Titles held at Ipswich Kart Club on the 22nd August under clear blue skies and with a support totaling 151 competitors on the day.
Above: Trent Mercer (40) and Adam Mercer (41) in Formula 100
pic by Kelly Johnson, FASTLANE MEDIA
The Ipswich Kart Club format for the day, different to their normal format, (Saturday afternoon evening) running a full day Sunday meeting and starting at nine AM in the morning.
The Formula 100 format for the day’s racing was 2 x qualifying with 2 heats of 10 laps, pre-final of twelve and final only counts of fifteen laps to determine the overall winner.
The support classes without the qualifying sessions ran two heats pre-final and final only counts again to determine the winner.
The meeting started with Qualifying and Trent Mercer (40) threw the record book away with an astonishing 47.556 second lap that had everyone on the edge of their seats, spell bound, to see what might happen next.
Second quickest was Peter Richards (22) with a 47.791 second lap, 0.225 of a second separated Mercer from Richards, Trent’s brother Adam Mercer (41) third fastest with 47.961, the top three separated by just 0.395 of a second.
After the second qualifying session final grid positions for the first two heats were determined. Ex-Australian Formula A champion Ryan Wlodzinski (7) starting off P4 with a 48.171 second lap, after only one session of qualifying.
The first heat went as was expected, Trent and Adam Mercer from Peter Richards then Ryan Wlodzinski, with Lee Mitchener, (58) (who just three months early took the win in the X30 Championships in France, and was driving for the Col Watts team on the day,) finishing in fifth. Fastest lap Heat one went to Adam Mercer with a 47.903 second lap.
The second heat from the same grid positions (as per qualifying) saw Ryan Wlodzinski drive superbly to finish in front of Peter Richards with Lee Mitchener making up from fifth in the first heat to finish third in the second heat. Fastest lap heat two a 48.341 by Peter Richards.
This heat had five DNF’S and a Disqualification, the temperature almost to the boiling point with still the pre-final and the all important final later in the afternoon.
With the pre-final looking very much like a battle field with a group of warriors all dressed to die if need be to win, expectations were running high, Ryan Wlodzinski (The Alphabet Man) off pole with Peter Richards Lee Mitchener and Scott Rogers (36) up into P4 and the two Mercer boys further back after DNF’s IN heat 2, Trent off P6 and Adam off P8, Patrick Mather (68) off P5 after some consistent racing, John McSpedden (5) and Matthew Rogers (16) making up the top ten positions.
The Pre-Final was spectacular, the action commencing from lap one Ryan Wlodzinski dropped back to second behind Peter Richards at the completion of lap one, by lap three Trent Mercer from fourth to third passing Scott Rogers, Lap four and the first three were Trent Mercer, Scott Rogers and Adam Mercer moving forward from starting in P8.
Five of twelve and Ryan Wlodzinski had drifted back to fourth with Trent Mercer taking the lead from Peter Richards second and Adam Mercer in third, the positions remained the same until lap seven and Adam Mercer moved past Peter Richards into third, by lap five John McSpedden had moved up into position six and remained in this spot until the completion of the Pre-Final. Meantime with Scott Rogers relegated to third and Wlodzinski fourth the Mercer brothers began to establish a firm grip on the front row of the grid for the Final.
The high revving engines starting to feel the pinch with only nine finishes in the pre final. We watched Aaron Paul (23) who had finished in the top ten or eleven throughout the day complete only five laps. The fastest lap of the 12 in the pre final went to Adam Mercer with 47.918 seconds.
Final time and the field prepared itself for fifteen laps of “the devil takes care of himself, because no one else will.” The starting positions for the final determined as per finishing in the Pre-Final and the bookmakers had the brothers Mercer at short odds to make it a one two finish.
The Final was a relatively straight forward affair, the major mover being Lee Mitchener (58) who moved from the rear of the grid through and up to second at the completion of 15 laps. The race went unchanged throughout the first nine laps with Trent and Adam Mercer sparing with each other and Peter Richards and Ryan Wlodzinski doing likewise for third and fourth, Richards and Wlodzinski moved past Adam Mercer on lap ten with Trent Mercer taking not further part in the final and recording a DNF. Wlodzinski and Richards held these positions until lap twelve when Lee Michener moved through into second with Peter Richards recording his first win in a major event followed by Lee Mitchener and third to Adam Mercer, fourth went too Ryan Wlodzinski, that is until the Stewards stepped in and disqualified both Peter Richards and Brendan Nelson from the final results.
We watched Adam Mercer record the fastest lap in the final with a very respectable 47.817 in lap four. With the disqualifications the final positions changed. The eventual winners are as listed below.
1st: Lee Mitchener
2nd: Adam Mercer
3rd: Ryan Wlodzinski
Congratulations to all the entrants for an entertaining day of first class racing for all the spectators. Without the following Sponsorship we would not have been privy to any of the day’s racing. Remo Racing and MG Tyres – Six sets of MG Yellow tyres,
IKD – 5 by $300 vouchers,
IKC Ron Paul Engines, Championsway and Jotar Australia – Cash Prizemoney.
To you all, thank you for your generous contributions, without your support the event would not have been possible.
May I add to the Committee and Members of the Ipswich Kart Club a hearty well done, as they move onto the Rotax Nationals in a short three weeks?
Until then, you’re roving reporter Geoff Salmon signs off until next time.
| IPSWICH KART CLUB MEETING 22ND AUGUST 2010 | ||||||||
| FORMULA 100 FINAL | ||||||||
| Best Lap | 47.817 | |||||||
| In Lap | 4 | |||||||
| Best Spd | 82.816 | |||||||
| by | Adam Mercer | |||||||
| Pos | No. | Name | Laps | Total time | Diff | Best time | In lap | Best speed |
| 1 | 58 | Lee Mitchener | 15 | 12:09.2 | 48.179 | 11 | 82.193 | |
| 2 | 41 | Adam Mercer | 15 | 12:09.3 | 0.119 | 47.817 | 4 | 82.816 |
| 3 | 7 | Ryan Wlodzinski | 15 | 12:09.7 | 0.515 | 47.96 | 7 | 82.569 |
| 4 | 5 | John McSpedden | 15 | 12:14.0 | 4.754 | 48.127 | 5 | 82.282 |
| 5 | 29 | Michael Patrizi | 15 | 12:28.1 | 18.883 | 48.718 | 5 | 81.284 |
| 6 | 8 | Matthew Berridge | 15 | 12:28.8 | 19.649 | 49.06 | 8 | 80.717 |
| Not classified | ||||||||
| DNF | 23 | Aaron Paul | 10 | 08:26.1 | 49.805 | 8 | 79.51 | |
| DNF | 40 | Trent Mercer | 9 | 07:14.7 | 47.852 | 6 | 82.755 | |
| DNF | 36 | Scott Rogers | 7 | 05:47.3 | 48.251 | 5 | 82.071 | |
| DNF | 68 | Patrick Mather | 6 | 05:00.5 | 48.957 | 4 | 80.887 | |
| DNS | 16 | Matthew Rogers | 0 | --:--:--.--- | --:--:--.--- | 0 | - | |
| DQ | 22 | Peter Richards | 15 | 12:07.2 | 47.869 | 6 | 82.726 | |
| DQ | 70 | Brendan Nelson | 0 | --:--:--.--- | --:--:--.--- | 0 | - | |
