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In the final round of Racecentre’s Mixed league the points were tallied up and drop weeks accounted for, in order to paint the championship picture. Sitting pretty was Mr Michael Palladino - all but guaranteed the title. To his advantage, the league called upon his imagination for a car/track combination. His dream of rewriting the 1975 F1 World Championship at an ’88 rendition of the iconic Imola circuit could perhaps come true. Despite fixed setups, each car appeared to display unique personalities which required machine experimentation during practice. Come Qualifying, and Michael topped the charts with a 1:42.848 – 1.3 seconds over David Lord then Ross Rizzo.

Race One – 10 laps
A few guys including Nathan Tregarthen and Sam Owen begin the night with big incidents on the opening lap. Michael finds himself as the meat in a Rizzo sandwich but soon joins a long list of early pitters. The drivers found themselves in a delicate game of preserving their used tyres from qualifying versus pit-stopping at 1975 speeds (i.e. not quite like our modern 3 second stops!). Tyres preservation won-out as demonstrated by David and his McLaren M23B. Michael took second whilst Francarlo Rizzo took third and the chance to move up a position or two in the championship standings.

Race Two – 14 laps
Absolutely awesome racing throughout the whole pack, side-by-side over the whole lap (and clean despite the reverse gird)! The two blue Tyrrells of Jason Brooks and Jeremy Persnez were the first to let the pack get away – mistakes possibly contributed to excessive cloud of tyre smoke of the locked up cars in front. By the second lap though, Michael had already managed to go from last to first! Tyre conservation as proven prior became the popular choice for race two as none of the top-6 finishes visited the pits. 1. Michael P., 2. David L., 3. Ross R.

Race Three – 20 laps
Tallying up the results of the first two races provided a rather interesting scenario for the finale. Every driver was equal to at least one other driver in terms of round points accrued thus far – meaning every spot gained during this race could affect the overall standings of the championship. Sam Owen had a disastrous start, turning hard left into the barriers whilst David slid back to Rival-Michael’s fortune. By the halfway point David had muscled his way back to 3^rd to pester Ross – both having their sights on Michael less than half a second up the road. David dives out of the battle and into the pits. Michael goes on the next lap, Ross on the one after. But David leapfrogs, only to be passed again … swaps again … and again! Ross who’d been in the best spectators’ seat gets within DRS range of the two of them but is 30 years too early to make it work. At lap 15, David pits, leaving Ross to take on Michael ‘mano a mano’. He gets his nose in front, not once, but twice … actually many more times than that! Meanwhile Jason, Jeremy and Scott Durham (who were all tied for round points) are locked within a second of each other. On the final lap, Ross makes one last stand against the Palladino Juggernaut, down the inside … holding him off … until the last sector and locks up! Move over Niki Lauda, Michael Palladino takes all the marbles – the win, the round, the championship!

Michael finds himself rewarded with a few goodies including; a Racecentre cap, a snazzy Pepsi headset and some movie tickets (presuming for the epic Rush). However, the granddaddy of prizes is the exclusive ‘Golden Ticket’ – AKA, the chance to compete for a full race weekend and training in an Aussie Racing car at the Sydney 500 valued at $12,000! We wish him all the best for his upcoming competition as he takes on our other winners. Remember, there are only a few of these tickets remaining so register quickly for our upcoming events!