The recent wet weather didn't do much to dampen the enthusiasm of the motoring fraternity in Malta, who all congregated at Ta Qali to celebrate the launching of the new Malta Motorsport Federation and to witness some fantastic motor racing in a number of different disciplines, in a most friendly atmosphere.
Saturday's racing programme involved karting by the IKC, motorcycle racing by the MMC and minimoto racing by the MRCM. The AWDC put on a good display with their 4 x 4 vehicles whilst the IRMCC had to give it a miss as radio control cars, with all their delicate electronics, and water don't mix. At the ASM track motocross riders and autocross racers took their turn at sampling the club's new track layouts with positive comments coming from all.
By 11am the track had dried enough for the first class of scooters to venture onto the track, followed at 11.30am by the karters, and at 2pm sharp the racing started in earnest when Brian St.John, president of the Malta Motorsport Federation waved the Maltese flag to start the first race. This was an IKC race for junior karters, which was followed by a number of exciting races for other classes of kart.
The scooters from the MMC followed with some exciting racing at the end of which Paul Deguara was declared the winner with his Peugeot from the Gileras of Gilbert Zerafa and Vince Agius.
Joshua Anastasi's hat-trick
Sunday morning dawned wet and miserable but by 8.30 am Ta Qali was bustling with activity as the 54 competitors in the ICC sprint and the numerous ASM competitors assembled and warmed up for action. Then the heavens opened again, a repeat of Saturday. And again just as it had done on Saturday, the rain stopped and the track was dry enough for proceedings to commence by 11am. And commence they did with Julian Bernard kicking off proceedings with his first practice run, driving his father's Subaru Impreza WRX with his customary gusto.
The Subaru sponsored championship of the ICC was in it's seventh and penultimate round and things were getting pretty exciting, for unlike previous years this year there were 4 or 5 competitors all still in with a chance of winning the championship. But at the end of another glorious day's racing it was once again young Joshua Anastasi who took the honours with an exhibition of "on the limit" driving in his John Bull Racing / Dunlop sponsored JBR3 Kawasaki. Joshua was fastest in practice and fastest when it mattered with a time of 59.959 to pip multiple champion Hubert Camilleri and his Vodafone Chevron Cosworth by the most miniscule of margins. Hubert's second place (56.065) makes him firm favorite for his ninth championship win.
Third overall again was the ever improving Paul Deguara, having dispensed with his Peugeot scooter and squeezed himself into his homebuilt Motoflash Yamaha R1 to record an excellent time of 56.202. There's nothing like keeping yourself busy!
Paul was just 1/10th off Hubert's time and just a 1/10th further back was Matthew Zammit driving his Service Express Van Diemen Suzuki GSXR. It doesn't get much closer than that - just 3/10ths separating the top four, with Steve Zammit Cutajar getting the hang of the newfound power of his Tatuus Hyabusa to finish fifth.
Mark Galea took the honours of "fastest tin top" and sixth overall with his impressive Subaru Impreza WRX pleasing the championship sponsors Liaco distributors of Subaru cars, with Duncan Barbaro Sant's Alberta Escort 2000 seventh, Joseph Cutajar's Escort eight, Johan Spiteri's Terrapin 9th and young Daniel Vella an incredible tenth overall with his Toyota GT Turbo. In my book Daniel's 10th overall goes down as the drive of the day.
The ASM wisely decided to postpone racing on their newly laid course as the track was too wet and would be damaged, and most of the one make clubs decided to give it a miss - wisely as it turned out, for at 2pm sharp the heavens opened once more. Despite the uncooperative weather enthusiasts turned out at Ta Qali in their thousands, and they were rewarded with some spirited precision driving by Malta's leading drivers.
When it was all over I had a word with Federation president Brian St. John. "I'm really impressed by the professionalism of the clubs and the competitors, and I really think we have talent here that should be exploited. These kids are fantastic, from the real kids starting off in their go karts to the top flight drivers in the sprint. They're all heroes".
And that probably sums it up far better than I could ever do. The organizers thanked the authorities, the police, the MFCC who helped us no end, the Red Cross ambulance service, the sponsors, and last but not least the general public who supported the event.
Thirteen clubs worked together to promote this successful event. It can be done - it has been done, and it was a big feather in the new Malta Motorsport Federation's cap that they proved to everyone that Malta's enthusiasts can indeed work together to better their sport.