Mudgee's fastest farmer Doug Barry finished his 20 16 racing season in style when he won the Harold Weal Memorial Speed Weekend run by the Bathurst Light Car Club at Mount Panorama.
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The speed weekend comprised of two legs the supersprint on Saturday and Mountain Straight Hillclimb on Sunday and it saw Barry driving his Reynard 92D Formula Holden, an open wheel race car that was raced previous by Craig Lowndes and Will Power.
Barry has a magnificent record in this traditional last event of the year for the BLCC, as this was the unprecedented 6th occasion he has won the Harold Weal Memorial plaque.
Barry won both legs of the event, with Saturday's supersprint a Mudgee benefit, as fellow Mudgee driver Greg Frame finished second in his highly modified Holden Gemini. It was a somewhat lucky win for the driver who finished runner-up in this year's NSW Hillclimb Championship driving his lead car the Lola.
"I had to work hard to win," Barry said. That car of Greg's is so powerful, I had to come from behind for that win. He bought a 650hp Sprint car engine and installed it into the Gemini, and I really underestimated it, for he was leading with only one run remaining.
Following the sixth and final run of the day, it was Barry who was at the top of the leader board just 15/100th of a second ahead of Frame, while former Bathurst driver Glenn Pro was third in his Toyota Supra sports sedan, a further 1.05 seconds in arrears.
There was an oversubscribed field waiting to take on the Mudgee drivers the following day in the hillclimb, and Barry was a little lucky again to post a win. He posted a 45.91 second time on his second run, but then had to retire the Reynard for the day due to a gearbox problem, but that held all day as he won by 0.89 seconds. This time it was Pro who finished second, 0.95 seconds ahead of the Frame Gemini which was third.
Overall results were sorted on an aggregate of their two times and it was Barry who won from Pro and Frame third.
"It was great to give the Reynard a run, for it's a great car with lots of history, and I just love this event. It's also a real honour to have won it as many times as I have, because Harold (Weal) was a life member of the club (BLCC), a great worker and lovely bloke with it," said Barry.
