The Australian Racing Drivers Club

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Event Wrap: Sydney Retro Speedfest

HSRCA RELEASE: Held over the weekend of the 3rd and 4th of May, 2014, the inaugural Sydney Retro Speedfest was a huge success, putting on an excellent weekend of historic racing and a brilliant event for an impressive crowd of historic motorsport fans.

Practice kicked off on Friday, with the impressive field of historic sports and racing cars gathering at Sydney Motorsport Park and entrants settling in, catching up with friends, preparing machinery and putting in a few sighting runs around the circuit.

When the event proper kicked off on Saturday morning we were greeted by cold and rain, which produced some tricky conditions for drivers. Thankfully the weather turned around for Sunday and we were rewarded with a warm and sunny day for spectators and great conditions for racing.

The quality of racing was, as usual, excellent – especially in Saturday’s tricky conditions.

Sunday saw a few racing incidents and technical malfunctions interrupt proceedings, but overall the event ran smoothly thanks to the tireless efforts of our volunteers and courteous driving from entrants, and drivers kept everyone entertained throughout the weekend with back-to-back events that had the track buzzing throughout both days.

We’d like to thank all of our entrants for your safe and responsible driving, the endless hours of work that go into preparing, maintaining and racing your cars and for getting involved!

Historic motorsport offers unrivalled access to the pits and paddock, and the cars and drivers that fill them, and Sydney Retro Speedfest was no exception to this!

This weekend saw the entirety of Sydney Motorsport Park filled with immaculately-prepared historic racing and sports cars of all kinds, much to the joy of everyone involved. The event attracted some unusual and very special machinery from the past eight decades of motorsport history, often with a friendly owner/driver nearby ready for a chat, and it’s lovely to see these cars at a racetrack, enjoy them being tinkered with, maintained, repaired and prepared, and experience them at full-tilt.

The great selection of machinery and friendly, buzzy atmosphere made the pits and paddock a pleasure to explore and chat one’s way through, and we’d like to thank everyone for making this the case!

Most importantly we, and I’m sure everyone involved, would like to send our most sincere and heartfelt thanks to the many selfless and tireless volunteers who apply their skills, energy, time and love to our events. Without you there would be no historic motorsport, and we can’t thank you enough. THANK YOU!

We would also like to send our congratulations to Randall Bezuidenhout, who won the “Win a Hot Lap at the Sydney Retro Speedfest” competition conducted on Radio 2GB’s Sportzone program. Randall collected four weekend entry tickets to the Speedfest, four Sydney Motorsport Park caps, and scored a hot lap in a Porsche 911 racecar.”

PCRA Round 2 Event Wrap, April 6 2014

Sunday April 6th was Round 2 of the PCRA (NSW) annual motorcycle championships. Sydney Motorsport Park hosted this round on the South Circuit, utilising the new 800mtr track addition with it sweeping bends and undulating elevations. It truly is a spectacular addition to the circuit, and provided excitement and many challenges for the riders.
Early on in the morning session the weather was coolish but mainly cloudy with sunny breaks. It looked like a great day of dry racing. This unfortunately was shortlived, as by 10:30am it was sporadically raining, which built to a steady downpour by mid afternoon.
The healthy field of 96 entrants got underway on time, and the morning session saw some very quick times. In the New Era 125cc class, Leanne Nelson and Edward Marsden shared the two race wins, both on Honda 125’s. Marsden had an exceptional run in race two, as the weather closed in he created a new lap record of 1:19:94.

In the Motorlites/Superlites 80-200cc Tyler Bradford and Anthony Marsden each took a race win, both of them breaking lap records with Bradford holding on for a second place in the second race and bettering his earlier lap record as well. A good effort and valuable points towards his championship aspirations.

Wade Lewis in the Pre-Modern F2 class on a CBR600 set a lap record in his first race win ( 1:13:66) and went on in awful weather conditions to better it by 2.3sec with a 1:11:32 in his second race win. Incredible!!

Troy Galvin rode his ZXR750 to back to back race wins in the P6 750cc races. Sitting in fifth place in the championship, after two 5th places in Round 1, these wins will catapault him up the rankings. No lap record, but 2 sec in front of his nearest competitor, gave him some nice breathing space on a slippery track. Troy’s plan was obviously to set a pace out front, and let the field make its mistakes trying to chase him down. It worked a treat for him.
Bob Garner in the P4 350-500cc class, won all three of his races, in the only category to complete all three of its scheduled races.

This was due to the fact that as the afternoon wore on the rain bucketed down bringing strong gusting winds with it and at one stage was so strong that it actually blew a bike over.

The event continued and at the height of the storm one rider was heard to exclaim ”…oh yeah, that’d be right, its my race!” By 4pm however, the track had water streaming across itand race organizers called a riders briefing. When the conditions were explained to the assembled riders a vote was taken and the meeting was officially ended after race 15.

– Words and pictures by Rob Annesley
look@shotbyrob.com.au

The 2014 Barry Sheene Festival of Speed

The ninth Annual Barry Sheene Festival of Speed was held at Sydney Motorsport Park on March 21st-23rd. Three sensational days of motorcycle racing were held under cloudy but dry skies, albeit at times very warm temperatures.
Featuring both International and Australian motorcycling stars, both old and new, who all came together to celebrate a life cut short, and to honour Barry Sheene’s memory and his love of motorcycling in the spirit of fun, friendship and rivalry. Just the way Barry enjoyed his beloved sport.
A healthy cohort of international riders, teams and personalities were in attendance. Scout Fletcher (NZ) joined Maria Costello (UK) as they came to battle with our very own Leanne Nelson, who edged the other two ladies back into third and fourth place respectively in the P6 125cc class. Leanne saw off the other two ladies challenge with the second highest points score for the weekend with 114 points. Congratulations to Jason Dunn taking first with 119 pts.
The Kiwi’s brought over a large contingent to contest Leg #1 of the Trans Tasman Challenge, with high hopes of retaining their hold on the TTChallenge Cup. For the first time racing in Australia two of Japans’s leading domestic racers Yugi Terada and Tomiki Adachi are riding in the P5 Unlimited class.
As expected some spirited racing dogfights were eagerly awaited, none more anticipated than the contest between Cameron Donald and Mike Dibb on their 1100cc machines. With nary a tyre diameter between them all day, they swapped race wins over the weekend, until finally Dibb (119 pts) took a 3-2 race win lead, edging out Donald (116 pts), with Mizzi (87 pts) and Japans’ Adachi ( 71pts) rounding out the 30 field.
In Formula 2 Sidecar racing, Beare Boys Racing (Aus) combo of Dwight and Noel Beare, were simply unbeatable, taking a clean sweep of both the Australian F2 three race series, as well as the two Trans Tasman races. Noel was excited saying “… this is the best result we could hope for and gives us the confidence we need to fair well at our upcoming assault on the Isle of Man TT F2 sidecar race meeting in May/June.”
A very good crowd attended the BSFoS three-day race meeting and gave strong encouragement to the 250 racing entrants. One of the drawcards on the program for the crowd, was the three-lap Parade on Sunday, available for spectators to ride their bikes around the 3.9km circuit, an honour that few have the opportunity to do, especially in the company of such international luminaries as Phil Read who led the parade.
– Words and pictures by Rob Annesley
look@shotbyrob.com.au

 

A colourful event- 2014 Color Me Rad 5K

The inaugural Color Me RAD 5K was a huge 5km colour fun run event held on Sunday Feb 23rd, under cloudy but dry skies, and with pleasant temperatures greeting the 4500 enthusiastic entrants.
The event’s premise was to enjoy a walk or run around the Sydney Motorsport Park GP circuit and to end up covered in as many colours of paint powder as possible.
As well as the fun and friendship the event engendered, there was a serious side to it: in excess of $12,000 was raised for the Australian Cancer Research Fund. A conspicuous army of volunteers, all smartly dressed and well organized, from the RRT ( Rapid Response Team) helped to marshal the thousands of runners.
Many of the crowd were dressed in predominately white clothing; ensuring that the liberal application of cornflour mixed food colouring powder would turn their pristine garments into a riot of colour. The concept for the “festival of colour” comes from the ancient HOLI festival in India.
To start the days festivities, and to get the crowd warmed up, a rousing 20 minutes of ZUMBA music and movement got everyone in the mood. Stirringly led by Brad “Bear” Mader, the ebullient race controller/ compere held the crowd like putty in his hands.
By now, the crowd were revved up and straining at the start line to get underway, and “Bear” showered the first wave of over a thousand runners with dozens of exploding colour bombs. Near pandemonium erupted when finally the start order was given, and the crowd surged forward.
Two subsequent waves of runners were staged and let go, to make their way around the track. At regular intervals around the track, “colour stations” were set up, ensuring that as runners went past, they were showered with liberal handfuls of colour: Orange, Purple, Blue, Pink and Green. Upon reaching the finish line more colour bombs were thrown into the moshpit of screaming rainbow coloured youth dancing to the twin D.J’s . It was a enormously successful event.
The run is suitable for all ages, and is a very fun way to get out and enjoy some healthy exercise. There were babies in strollers, little kids, teenagers, mums and dads, and many “older folk” – even a walking stick or two could be seen on the track. This event is planned to run in many major cities in Australia during 2014.
– words and pics by Rob Annesley
look@shotbyrob.com.au

 

Formula One legends line up for Sydney Retro Speedfest

THE ROAR of legendary Formula One cars will once again echo around Sydney Motorsport Park, as a dozen examples of the spectacular racers from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s take to the track for the inaugural Sydney Retro Speedfest on May 3 -4. With only around 20 examples in Australia, there will arguably never be a better time to see these amazing machines in action. The F1 cars will be trackside for display, hot laps and will also be racing over the weekend of the Speedfest, which promises close classic competition and fantastic off-track entertainment for fans of all ages.

One of the main attractions will be the Williams FW07, driven by Alan Jones to victory in the 1980 Formula 1 World Drivers’ Championship, and also took out the Constructors’ Championship. The 3.0-litre Cosworth Ford-engined machine will be driven by Victorian owner Paul Faulkner in its NSW debut. Another car driven by Jones in 1985 and now owned by Ian Ross is the turbo-engined Beatrice Lola Hart; one of the last used by the World Champ on the international scene before he embarked on his touring car career. A significant inclusion will be the Repco-Brabham BT24 used by Sir Jack Brabham to secure second place in the 1967 World Drivers’ Championship behind team-mate Denny Hulme. A winner of the French and Canadian Grands Prix, the BT24 played a big part in taking the Brabham-Tauranac team to a second consecutive F1 Constructor’s Title.

Current Race Director of V8 Supercars, Tim Schenken, also had his hand in F1 racing history as a factory driver with the Surtees Formula 1 team in 1972. His car, the Surtees TS9B, will be driven at Sydney Retro Speedfest by John Gale, who has enjoyed success on the track since acquiring the stunning racecar in 2009. Also featured will be the fearsome Benetton B186 driven by Gerhard Berger in six Grands Prix in 1986. Powered by a turbocharged BMW engine which reportedly produced 1500 horsepower on full boost, current owner Les Wright will opt for a more conservative boost delivering a mere 800 horses… Other legendary marques include Arrows, Ferrari, March, Spirit-Honda and Tyrrell. The Retro Speedfest will showcase a feast of racing, with the best of classic touring cars, historic sedans, production sports cars, open-wheel and pedigree sports racers, and formula fords and vees, with 28 races including trophy feature races over the two-day weekend.

Early-bird ticket pricing is now available: call the ARDC office on (02) 9672 1000 to secure your place in Motorsport history!

Wrap: 2013 CAMS NSW Supersprint Championships

On Nov 29th, many of the competitors and officials involved in the CAMS NSW Supersprint competition gathered together to celebrate the conclusion of another great year of competition.

With a sturdy field of 179 Registrants throughout the year, of which 154 regularly competed in the seven categories , evenly split between Road Registered and Log Book Cars.

To win a championship, you must acquire the most points over an arduous eight rounds of competition. Indicating the popularity of Supersprint, seven of the eight rounds were fully subscribed with waiting lists. The organisers would like to thank all the competitors who supported the Championship.
The Championship rounds were hosted by clubs including the ARDC, NSWRRC, Mini Car Club and MX-5 Club. These clubs host the event rounds, and provide the officials for each event, ably assisted by Kerry Butcher, series Chief Scrutineer and Ian Bigg, series Chief Steward.

On a reflective note, we wish Brett Giles all the very best, as he steps down from his post of Supersprint panel member, and past chairman, after 20 years tireless service to the sport.

The championship, by category were awarded to:
Type 1 – Standard Road Cars – Tony Chan – Toyota Celica and Toyota 86.
Type 2 – Mildly Modified Road Cars – Alex Ball – Lotus Elise 111R
Type 3 – Improved Production Cars – Robert Kolimackovski – Holden Commodore VL.
Type 4 – Sports Sedans – Warwick Fuller – Holden Commodore.
Type 5 – Racing & Sports Racing Cars – Andrie Tan – Radical Supersports V8
Type 6 – Time Attack Cars – Jonathon McKinnon.
Type SV – Clubman, Special Vehicles and Highly Modified Road Cars – Allan Bugh – PRB Clubman.
Club Championship – the Australian Racing Drivers Club ( ARDC)
To further underscore the popularity and quality of the sport in NSW, NSW competitors represented 30% of the competitiors at the recently run Australian Supersprint Championship at Philip Island, Victoria, walking away with First, Second and Third place outright trophies. Andrie Tan, Duncan Forrest and Marek Tomaszewski did us proud. This was the first time the trophy was won by a driver outside the host state. An additional six “first place in category” trophies were awarded to our drivers as well. Congratulations to our NSW drivers.
We look forward to another safe and successful year in 2014.
– words and pics by Rob Annesley
look@shotbyrob.com.au
Thanks to Mike Hicks for his assistance.