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WING
SPAN
AUGUST
FAST AND FURIOUS: PYLON RACING AT CAMPERDOWN
The Victorian Miniature Pylon
Racing Association (VMPRA)
Trophy, held in February at
the Camperdown Racecourse,
attracted visitors from as far
away as South Australia, Sydney
and Bairnsdale.
The weekend’s events started each
morning with the hotly contested
F400. Leigh Hocken’s first round
time of 61.75 seconds set the
fastest time in this class for the
weekend. The ever consistent
Shaun Jacobsen took out first place
by 0.3 seconds with his rocket red
AR-6. Leigh Hocken took second
place and Jarrod Jacobsen took
third.
The Q500 followed and contestants
enjoyed a ripper event. Eight
rounds in the heat of the day
produced some very quick times
and it was great to see Mick Kellet
return to racing. Only a handful
of seconds between most place
getters saw NZ F3D pilot Tom
Wetherill take first place with
times consistently less than 100
seconds. Second place was taken
by the fancy florescent pink Addies
Hobbies sponsored plane flown by
Mick Kellet. Third place was taken
by the ever reliable John Schmidli.
F3D commenced mid-afternoon
on both days, with 12 pilots
spread across four heats battling
high temperatures and hot
racing. Friendly camaraderie and
competition saw Beau Murphy
finishing in first place, Leigh
Hocken in second place and Daniel
Arapakis finishing third after a last
round cut.
It was fantastic to witness such
a high standard of competitive
racing. Perfect engine work with
start-ups every time combined
with ultimate precision flying is no
doubt the success to this F3D class.
Spectators agreed it was the
best weekend’s racing they had
witnessed in a long time.
Daniel Arapakis and Wayne Newman buddied with
the kids for the hands on event.