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Turbo Pass for SMSP as part of Blacktown City Council’s Ratepayer Rewards

OFFICIAL RELEASE: Speedy payment of Blacktown City Council rates could win a lucky ratepayer a speedy experience.

The major prize in this year’s Council’s Ratepayers’ Reward Program is a high speed driving experience at Sydney Motorsport Park, Eastern Creek.

“The entire ratepayer rewards package is spectacular, and includes some pretty exciting and entertaining prizes,” said the Mayor of Blacktown City, Councillor Stephen Bali.

“This year’s rates will be spent to bring some compassion back to council, as well as bringing down our maintenance backlog and providing the standard services that ratepayers expect.

“Once Council budgets primarily focused on roads and rubbish, but the community expects – rightly – that we should do more than this as well as give something back.

“This year’s budget has a series of provisions that make life a little easier for pensioners and facilities that faced closure some time ago are being continued as a result of strong ratepayer demand.

“Council has listened, learnt and acted,” Mayor Bali said.

To be eligible to go into the draw for prizes, Blacktown ratepayers must pay their rates in full by 31 August, 2015 and the winners are chosen by random selection.

The prizes will be awarded in September, with first prize being a Sydney Motorsport Park Turbo Pass valued at over $3,600! The 12 months of truly exhilarating SMSP Motorsport experiences includes a V8 Race “Drive and Ride” Experience for two, a two lap “2-Up” SMPSP Motorcycle Ride experience for two, a six lap drive in the SMSP Ferrari F430, six adult ARDC Enthusiast Annual Memberships and a Drive Aware – stage 1 course for a family of four.

Terms & Conditions. All “SMSP TURBO PASS” prize components must be claimed & used within 12 months of the prize draw or will lapse. Various dates & times for each motorsport experience will be provided but are strictly subject to track availabilities and the relevant terms and conditions of each individual provider which may or may not include age or other restrictions for motorsport participants. Total prize value $3655 based on RRP as at May 2015. Approximate breakdowns + Two (2) x Fastrack V8 Race “Drive and Ride” Experiences @ $890 + One (1) 6 Lap SMSP Ferrari F430 Drive & Ride @ $895 + Family Drive Aware – Stage 1 Course for 2 adults & 2 children with licences) @ $1000 total + Two (2)x SMSP Ride Days 2 Lap “2-Up” SMSP Motorcycle Ride experience @ $360 value + Six (6) Adult ARDC Enthusiast Annual Memberships @ $85 ea or $510 total). Prizes are not redeemable for cash. Prizes may be transferable to friends/family of the prize winner under the same general Terms & Conditions subject to ARDC approval.

LIVE STREAM: Australasian Superbike Championship

Check out our live stream coverage of round 3 of the Swann Insurance Australasian Superbike Championship at Sydney Motorsport Park this weekend.

The live coverage includes Sunday’s racing, which commences at 9:40am, plus a one hour Friday evening live panel show  and an exciting announcement on the series’ future from 6:00pm to 7:00pm.

CAMS SUPERSPRINT RD 3 JUNE 14, 2015

Supersprinters are a tough bunch, as was evident on Sunday June 14th, when 110 hardy souls braved the winter 5 degree early foggy chill to pull on race suits and strap on helmets with the idea of bettering their previous personal best times around the Sydney Motorsport Park North (Druitt) circuit. Great to see a bunch of new faces/cars that came out to experience the fun that supersprinting provides. This round was sponsored by the NSW Road Race Club.

There must have been something in the clear crisp winter air that both drivers and cars enjoyed, because when the final results for the day were tallied, records tumbled with PB’s exceeded in almost all categories. Some records were absolutely smashed by both new individuals, as well as incumbent record holders. Of note, Andrie Tan just gets smoother and smoother as he becomes one with his car, taking a further second off his already superb sub one minute Class 4D time to record a 0:57.584 lap, making him the fastest person on the track on the day. Richard Perini also took more than half a second off his own Class 4C record in his beautifully presented Porsche RSR with a 0:63.946.

Jason O’Meara (Honda Civic) in Class 3C broke the previous record of Rob Neal set last year by a further 0:16 seconds. Jason is the current record holder in three different classes, 2A, 3A and now 3C. He is one of only two drivers to currently hold more than one class record at SMSP Druitt and the only one to hold three records at one time. For those who are wondering what is Jasons’ competitive edge, it may have to do with his new paint job.
Anecdotally, Chris Muir, fellow Manly-Warringah club teammate, joked with Jason prior to racing on Sunday suggesting that Jason would likely be careful to keep away from other cars so as to not get his paint work scratched. You were correct Chris, he did… by driving quickly and staying right out the front of the pack. Chris also had a spectacular drive in Class 4B shattering the Ed Corey-held record by a massive three and a half seconds with a very impressive time of 1:12.737. Chris is the other multiple record-holder with both the 4A and 4B records. Ed Corey was also driving well, breaking his own record, but was unable to match it with Chris on the day.

Anthony Crott finally unveiled his new turbo MX-5 with updated livery. Featuring a silver grey base with orange and lime green striping, it is quite spectacular out on track. Willem Fercher had mixed fortunes with a fastest lap in category before a loud bang and huge puff of smoke saw his weekend end on the back of a flat top.

RECORDS
Class Records were broken in every Type with the exception of Type SV where all class records remained intact. All in all, 9 class records were broken.

Class 1C – Preston Peiris broke his own record set last year by just over a quarter of a second with a time of 1.17.307 in his Mazda MPS3.

Class 2D – Craig Donnell also broke his own record by just over a half a second in his supercharged Holden Clubsport with a time of 1.10.966.

Class 5C – Marek Tomaszewski. who also gets faster and faster, knocked a massive 2.848 seconds off his own record in his Stohr WFI with a sub one minute time of 58.854. Apart from Andrie in the Radical, Marek was the only other sub one minute performer on the day.

Class 5D – Andrie Tan broke his own Class 5D Record in his Radical Supersport with a time of 57.584.

Class 6A – Tony King shaved just under a quarter of a second of Samuel Hollier’s two year old Class 6A record in his Mazda MX5 with a time of 1.16.269

Class 6C – Troy Fraser reduced Jonathon McKinnon’s 2103 record by 1.598 seconds in his Nissan 200SX with a time of 1.07.269

CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP
The Mazda MX5 Club is surging away in the Club Championship scoring a massive 508 points on the day. They have now amassed a total of 1,859 Club Championship points and they are 765 points in front of the current second place ADRC, who have now a total of 1,084 points. The HSV/HDT Club is a further 338 points back with a total of 746 points. MX5 club have a handy lead, however with five rounds to go, the other clubs with an enormous effort, could still get their hands on the club trophy.

Thanks to Bruce Welsh for his in-depth statistics.

Words and pics by Rob Annesley
www.shotbyrob.com.au

2015 SYDNEY RETRO SPEEDFEST WRAP

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Winter racing at Sydney Motorsport Park is always exciting and this past weekend’s running of the 2nd Annual Sydney Retro Speedfest, an event jointly sponsored by the Historic Sports and Racing Car Association (HSRCA) and the ARDC, did not disappoint.

Featuring a massive field of 246 entrants across the eight events on the program, spectators and competitors alike received great value for money. Cars filled the track four times each for their 20 minute racing stints over the two day event. As well as the cars on track, marquees lined the length of the pit area filled with static displays of classic cars with owners only too happy to chat about them.

Specialty cars rarely seen in Australia graced the pits and track. An ex- Niki Lauda 12-cylinder BRM P160, as well as a pair of Le Mans style Porsche 926Cs, were extremely impressive and dominated the O, Q & R category. The chief mechanic of George Nakas’ Blue/White 962C team said “This car no longer has any fuses, it has been completely rewired and is exclusively programmed by computer for every electrical instruction. The wiring loom has 585m of industrial electrical cabling, which took us over 140 hours to install!”.

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The car performed well under Nakas’ guidance with second place in all three races. Nakas was unlucky not pull a win in either of the first two races as only half a body length separated the two thundering Porsches across the line. Well done to Peter Harburg’s “Jagermeister” entry on his two hard-fought wins. Duncan MacKellar took full advantage of Harburg’s race three DNF to record a 4 sec win from Nakas, whose car is being packed into a shipping container next week for its upcoming campaign in the USA at Laguna Seca.

Regularity is always a well attended category and this weekend 37 cars filled the dummy grid to almost capacity. In race one Brian Wilson in his Ford GT40 took the honours with 2 laps exactly on his predicted speed of 2:03 and another only three one hundredths underneath his nominated speed. Race two accuracy went to Chris Scheffer ( MGB) also with two laps on his nominated time and race three saw Aaron Lewis (E-type Jag) nail 4 laps on his nominated time. Craig Duthie was the most consistent with second place in both race two and three. Dave Lawrences’ beautifully turned out red Austin Healy 100/4 gleamed in the sunlight and Dave was also beaming with pride as he sang happy birthday to his pride and joy on its 60th birthday. You see, on Sunday June 6th, his ‘Healey was “born” back in 1955.

Group C& A is the baby boomers favourite racing event. With Skyline R32’s and Ford Sierra’s on track rest assured that the Goliath vs Godzilla arguments of the ‘90’s were reinvigorated trackside. Whilst the ‘boomers are much more mellow nowadays, sporting greyer hair (and less of it) the enthusiasm for this category hasn’t wained. With current high profile driver Rick Kelly feeding the Retro Speed press machine this past week driving Terry Lawlor’s Godzilla ( Car #4 – Skyline R32) this publicity might have been the catalyst that Terry needed in his campaign to overcome his nearest rival , Anthony Alfords, with his equally quick R32. With absolutely nothing in it, Lawlor was narrowly victorious in al three races, but they were hard fought as the margins were ultra slim in all three races. In fact, Terry had a mirror full of Alford all day as there was less than five one hundredths of a second between both cars at the finish of each race. Tony Compton was only a second back and took the final podium place in each race.

Group Sc was dominated by a foursome of determined Porsches: Geoff Morgan, Stan Adler, Wayne Seabrook and Andrew Purvis. For the most part Geoff Morgan’s birch green Carrera 911 was regularly out the front of each lap, however a determined grab of the lead by Purvis in race 3 proved unsustainable and somewhere along the way black tire marks ( which weren’t there at the beginning of the race) appeared on Geoff Morgans left side door showing how intense the racing had become late in the day. Group Sb was being fought out back in the field some 25-30 seconds behind the lead group as Damien Meyers smoothly kept two thundering Shelby Mustangs at bay (Laurie Sellars and Kevin Luke) as he went on to grab two wins and a third for the weekend. Sellars took the spare win as well as a second and third to round out his weekend. Colin Goldsmith was trying not to skin his knuckles in the cold foggy damp air very early on Sunday morning in his garage as he changed his front shocks. Deftly wielding a torque wrench Colin said”…I must have had a premonition that they needed changing because I brought a spare pair with me, and being that prepared is very unusual for me”

In Q & R John Bowe driving a 3 Litre March 741 was getting comfortable with the car behind Alex Davison ( Lola T332)and Tom Tweedie.(Chevron B24/28). Late in race two Bowe came to grief at turn 17 with steering and suspension problems causing a very untidy swerving manoeuvre and ultimately a DNF requiring a full uplift to return the car to the pits, ending his weekend. Stephen Borness slotted into the third spot vacated by Bowe joining Davison and Tweedie on the podium for the race two and three results respectively.

Words and pics by Rob Annesley
www.shotbyrob.com.au