The final round of the 2013 NSW Motor Race Championships was held at Sydney Motor Sport Park on November 9-10.
Over 150 competitors from the nine categories braved a mixed bag of weather conditions over the weekend, with Saturday’s hot and dry conditions changing to wet and windy for the Sunday. This affected team driving strategies, as well as tyre selection and of course the lap times, as driving rain and winds on Sunday, turned the track into a virtual skating rink.
The Superkarts had the worst of it, with their qualifying session and all three of their races being held on Sunday. Being open and so close to the ground, race organizers allowed them to wear rain covers over their driving suits for their races due to the conditions.
However, this didn’t help these powerful lightweight karts stay on the track, as the rain got heavier, the spinning ballet got worse, with karts sometimes two at a time facing the wrong way on turn two.
Robinson Transport had reason to be joyous on Sunday, as one of their newest recruits in the Formula R class, Rodney Brincat, qualified for the front row of the grid for race 2 on Sunday. Rod has only been in this car for part of the 2013 season. His fastest lap time was only 2.5sec off the fastest in his class. Warwick Robinson liked the wet conditions, posting two second place finishes to Garnet Pattersons win in all three races.
Calamity came to John McKenzie’s Lakewood Electrics team in Impoved Prod O2L, as a broken brake caliper saw John with no brakes coming into turn two on race one on Saturday. Repairs completed by Sunday morning, John was relegated to starting from the back of the grid. McKenzie said: I’ll wont be holding back, and we’ll see how far through the field I can get”.
McKenzie had sliced his way through the field of seventeen cars up into fifth place by lap six, until he aquaplaned out of turn one and through the gravel pits impacting heavily into a tyre wall. Bob Brewer took command of this category with a first, second and third place result.
Wayne Healey’s weekend didn’t get off the ground, as his HQ was shunted heavily on turn one, race one, lap one bringing his campaign to a close even before his engine had reached temperature. He was bitterly disappointed, but said he will be back.
After a spin at turn four, Rob Rowes’ Mondial M89S picked up an orange witches hat in his grill, and drove the whole race with it stuck firmly in place. It was returned to track marshalls at the end of the race.
– Words and pics by Rob Annesley
look@shotbyrob.com.au
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