Weather forces ceasefire on Racewars’ front line

Racewars organisers and competitors have been left with “unfinished business to attend to in 2021” after wet and windy weather forced the event to be called off on Sunday morning. Overnight rain and strong winds forced the cancellation of Sunday’s events at the Albany Regional Airport, including the 1000m V-MAX, which led to Brody Ford’s death last year. Organiser Jon Murray said safety was the top priority, leading the Racewars team to make the tough call early on Sunday. “As someone who went through what we went through last year, nobody wants to see that again,” Mr Murray said. “We’re never going to let a competitor take an undue risk — we never have and we never will. “By making the call when we did, we were able to make sure that everyone went home safely, everyone’s cars went home in one piece and people can rebuild, reset for next year.” The social media announcement drew some criticism from drivers who had made the long-weekend trip to Albany for the event. Although many on Facebook agreed with the decision, some asked why the event could not be held in the afternoon once the runway had dried. Others pointed to organisers’ previous statements that events would go ahead even if it rained. “I’m not saying it’s the wrong call to postpone racing, I just think it’s ... deceptive to mislead people into thinking there will be racing in the wet when clearly the slightest bit of rain has put things on hold,” Noel Ben said in response to the announcement. The FAQ section on Racewars’ website said the event would go ahead “irrespective” of weather, although severe weather could see racing suspended. Strong winds were also taken into consideration before the cancellation was announced. Rain was falling until 8am at the airport, with winds gusting up to 50km/h throughout the morning. The 1000m VMAX was scheduled to run from 8.30am-12.30pm. “The winds on Sunday were also challenging,” Mr Murray said. “People wouldn’t have been able to hit good numbers. “They obviously would have had stability issues with the cross winds. “It just wasn’t worth it.” On Saturday, West Australian Eddy Tassone was able to break a national record in the rolling half-mile event in his twin-turbo 2005 HSV GTO. Tassone clocked 347.67km/h over the 800m course on the last run of the day. “It was insane,” Mr Murray said. “Ed was still very clearly in test and tune mode for the last half of the day and he reeled that off as kind of a statement of intent (for Sunday’s VMAX event). “He had asked us for the last run of the day and he certainly delivered.” The Targa Albany Sprint went ahead as planned yesterday. As of 3pm, the fastest run up Mt Clarence had been made by Will White in his 2006 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9.