Major Events

Oct 29 2013

Event Wrap- Porsche Club NSW

The fifth and final PCNSW club driving event for 2013 had 45 enthusiastic members battling it out for club honours on the SMSP North Circuit.

Patrick Garvan ‘s 994 Turbo was extraordinarily quick, with the days fastest lap of 1:03 with Paul McKinnon at the wheel, and a 1:07 for Patrick .

Sean Buchanan found out the hard way just how fast Paul was when he was unceremoniously passed and left breathing exhaust fumes, eventually recording a 1:07 himself.

Richard Perini (GT3 RSR) and Bruce Hibbard (GT2), both seasoned campaigners in competitive racing, rounded out the second and third places in the event.

Vivienne MacMahon, who regularly finds herself featuring in the top 10, brought home an impressive 1:08, and Tom McGann’s 1:12 in the 944 s2 continues to eclipse his car owner/benefactor Chris Stannard’s time of 1:13 sec.

PCNSW Club President Paul Dortkamp (928S), himself a regular racing competitor, said: “We are a sporting car club to our core, and many of our 840 members relish the opportunity to regularly get their cars out on the SMSP track. As an active club we run upwards of 5 club motorkhanas and 5 supersprint events annually.”

Unfortunately for Paul, his track time was cut short on Saturday as a timing belt tension puller bolt failed, leaving him garage bound.

– words and pics by Rob Annesley
look@shotbyrob.com.au

Oct 28 2013

Event Wrap: CAMS NSW Supersprint Championships Rnd 8

Round 8 of the CAMS NSW Supersprint Championships was sponsored by the Mini Car Club NSW. It was run at Sydney Motorsport Park on Oct 26^th, utilising the South Circuit ,including the newly built 800m track extension. For many of the full field of 90 competitors, it was a wonderful opportunity to drive the new track layout.

The overall fastest lap time was taken by Marek Tomaszewski (Stohr DSR) with a 0:530, closely followed by Duncan Forrest (Stohr WF1) with a 0:538, and Allan Bugh (PRB Clubman) rounded out the top three with a 0:59.

Fastest tin top was Allan Marin (VK Commodore) posting a time of 1:01 sec.

Early in the day Roger Beard wondered why his Clubman was a bit sluggish and upon returning to the pits found his inlet manifold dust cover stocking firmly ensconced inside an inlet tube. Once that was removed the car returned to its expected performance, bringing Roger a fourth place and a quick time of 0:59 sec.

As this was the final round of the 2013 Supersprint Championships, club championship honours went to ARDC with 1097 points, ever so slightly ahead of MX5 on 1090 points, with NSWRRC on 478 points and Manly Warringah on 471 points.

– words and pics by Rob Annesley
look@shotbyrob.com.au

Oct 20 2013

WTAC 2013 Day 2 Wrap

EVENT RELEASE: After two tumultuous days of time attack competition, racing has finished for another year. Positions were still being decided in the final sessions, and records have been broken across the weekend.

With Tilton setting the pace early on, the Pro Class field was playing catch-up.

Nobuteru Taniguchi was pushing the Top Fuel / Voltex S2000RR and posting some very fast times. The car went almost a second faster than last year but fuelling problems prevented the team from giving it the final big push on Saturday.

MCA Suspensions’ S13 in the capable hands of Earl Bamber was consistently fast and beat their last year’s time of 1:27.8080 with a new PB of 1:27.3670 moving ahead of Nemo into the second overall and the fastest RWD of the event.

The Nemo Racing team were not able to overcome their overheating problems and only managed to get out for one low-boost session. The 2012 champions still ended the event in an honourable 3rd place.

After having some mechanical issues on Friday, Suzuki went out all guns blazing resetting his 2012 time and edging closer to Nemo’s time.

Unfortunately it was not to be for Suzuki-san as he once again narrowly missed out on the podium finish with a time of 1:27.958. Scorch Racing was the fastest international team at this year’s WTAC, ahead of Top Fuel / Voltex, RE Amemiya and Esprit.

Despite not being able to make the podium, RE Amemiya RX-7 was one of the most popular cars on the track, turning heads wherever it went.

Tarzan had a love-hate relationship with the Esprit NSX, ending the event in 8th place with a time of 1:30.139

Precision Maintenance Evo was the pace setter in Pro Am with a time of 1:30.9570

Sutton Brother’s S15 was spectacularly fast and only a 0.9 second slower than the class leader Precision Maintenance Evo. A well deserved runner up spot for the Sutton Brothers.

Flying the Subaru flag, the Auto Engineering Hulk was in hot pursuit of the Sutton Brothers and completed the Pro Am podium in a third place.

Open Class saw several leader changes during the day with BC Automotive R32 GTR taking the win in the final session.

V-Sport’s Evo X set the best Open Class time early on Saturday but was relegated to the runner-up position by BC Automotive.

Legions of Honda fans cheered Benny Tran who pushed his BYP Racing Integra to its limits, not only placing it on the Open Class podium but also earning the title of the Fastest FWD of the event.

Jason Wright took out the Clubsprint win in the Prcess West WRX STi putting an end to the general assumption that you need an Evo to win at WTAC.

The “mult-tasking” award of the event has to go to Jason Wright and Benny Tran both of whom drove two cars, in two classes and managed to put both of them on the podium!

Jason drove the Autotech Engineering Hulk in the Pro Am and the Process West STi in Clubsprint while Benny Tran drove the BYP Racing Integra in the Open and a BYP Racing S2000 in the Clubsprint Class. Top effort guys!

Jason Naidoo took a well-deserved third place in the Clubsprint Class in his SuperPro Evo 9.

And once again, the Yokohama World Time Attack Challenge is over for another year. We have a new World Champion – a team that has not only been the fastest at this event but managed to break the seemingly unassailable lap record set in 2012 by Nemo.

ROYAL PURPLE PRO CLASS

1 – Garth Walden (NSW) Tilton Evo – 1:24.8550

2 – Earl Bamber (QLD) MCA Suspension S13 – 1:27.3670

3 – Warren Luff (QLD) AugerTorque/Nemo Evo – 1:27.7080

4 – Under Suzuki (JPN) Scorch Racing S15 – 1:27.9580

5 – Nob Taniguchi (JPN) Top Fuel S2000 – 1:28.8660

GARRETT PRO AM CLASS

1 Mick Sigsworth (QLD) Precision Maintenance EVO – 1:30.9570

2 Andrew Sutton (NSW) Sutton Bros S15 – 1:31.8320

3 Jason Wright (NSW) Autotech Engineering WRX STi – 1:32.4040

4 Andy Papageorgiou (CYP) Simply Racing Evo VI – 1:33.2980

5 Atsushi Shimaya (JPN) Endless/R Magic FD3S RX-7 – 1:33.5550

V-SPORT OPEN CLASS

1 Dean Lillie (VIC) BC Automotive R32 GTR – 1:31.7980

2 Rick Bates (NSW) V Sport/Go-Pro Evo X – 1:32.4260

3 Benny Tran (NSW) BYP Racing Integra – 1:32.6800

4 Nik Kalis (NSW) Piazza Doro EVO – 1:33.5330

5 Simon Podlewski (SA) Move Yourself Racing 180SX – 1:34.4456

JUST CAR CLUBSPRINT CLASS

1 Jason Wright (NSW) Process West WRX STi – 1:39.2470

2 Benny Tran (NSW) BYP Motorsport S2000 – 1:41.0360

3 Jason Naidoo (NSW) Superpro EVO 9 – 1:41.2560

4 Dan Farquar (NSW) IS Motor Racing/Royal Purple Evo – 1:41.5450

5 John Richardson (VIC) Motul/Advan R33 GTST – 1:42.0590

Our congratulations to all competitors.

– See more at:

Sep 23 2013

V8 Supercars to grid up twice at SMSP in 2014

The Australian Racing Drivers’ Club (ARDC) is proud to announce that not one, but two V8 Supercar Championship events will be held at Sydney Motorsport Park (SMSP) in 2014. Round nine of the 2014 V8 Supercars Championship Series, the Sydney Motorsport Park 400, will be held at the Eastern Creek circuit on August 22 – 24, joining the Sydney 500 and the Bathurst 1000 as the third NSW venue for the premier touring car series.

Earlier this month, V8 Supercars announced that SMSP would continue to hold the official Sydney.com V8 Supercars Test Day until 2016. The Test Day, which precedes the Championship season, is free for all fans to attend, and saw numbers in excess of 18,000 in 2013.

“We are excited and delighted to announce that Sydney Motorsport Park will host a round of the V8 Supercars series next August, in addition to the pre-season test and fan day on February 15,” said Glenn Matthews, CEO of the ARDC.

ARDC President Andrew Leithhead said: “The ARDC is keenly looking forward to welcoming V8 Supercars back to Sydney Motorsport Park for round nine of the 2014 Championship. Our Members and all motorsport enthusiasts will be delighted to have four separate V8 Supercar events in NSW next year, and we anticipate some exciting racing at SMSP.”

Sydney Motorsport Park is owned by the NSW Government and operated by the ARDC, and is the only permanent Australian race facility that holds a FIA/FIM Grade 2 International licence.

In August last year, the V8 Supercar Championship was one of the first major racing events to sample the $11 million track and facility redevelopment undertaken at the Western Sydney circuit, which was completed in May 2012 and jointly funded by the ARDC and the NSW Government.

“The support of the NSW Government has been important to the ongoing expansion of Sydney Motorsport Park’s contribution to economic activity in Western Sydney, in terms of infrastructure, employment and major events.” “We would like to thank Minister Souris and Destination NSW for their support in helping to bring a Championship round to Sydney Motorsport Park,” added Matthews.

“This is yet another great event that we have brought to SMSP, and 2014 will be a very exciting year with these premier events – the two V8 Supercar events, Top Gear Festival Sydney, and more still to come.”

The Championship round is just two weeks before the 10th anniversary of the Australian Muscle Car Masters, which celebrates the heritage of V8 Supercars with a weekend of racing and memorabilia from the glory days of the Bathurst 1000. Other major events on the 2014 Race Calendar at Sydney Motorsport Park include Top Gear Festival Sydney, World Time Attack, the Shannons Nationals, the NSW Motor Race Championships, FX Superbikes, Australian Superbikes, and the HSRCA.

A full calendar will be released shortly on www.sydneymotorsportpark.com.au.

Sep 23 2013

Event Wrap- 2013 NSW Motor Racing Championships, Round 5

On a beautiful blue-sky weekend, 198 entrants brought Round 5 of the NSW Motor Racing Championship back to Sydney Motorsport Park on September 21-22.

Racing was spirited, and several competitors were sporting new livery and cars this round. Simon Pace in Formula Vee ( Mako MK111) had a new paint job, and his racing successes have continued strongly into this round with one second, one third and a fifth placing over the weekend. Steve Lacey (Sports Sedans) drove a very quick Camaro to a second and third place, but ended with an unfortunate DNF in the third race.

In the HQs, Tony Camilleri’s good-heartedness reached new heights as he helped his fellow category competitors to get (or keep) their cars on the circuit, including changing brake pads on Troy Hulbert’ #82, replacing a head gasket for Adam Leach in #42, loaning a carby to Chris Molle in the 23 car, and assisting to repair drivers side panel damage on John Baxters #51 car.

As usual, some campaigns came to a premature end, and Ahmed Bagdadi (Improved Prod) was unfortunate to have a power steering line rupture, and cause a weekend-ending fire in the VXSS Commodore. Misadventure plagued Tim Miller as well, after qualifying fastest, he finished second in race one, only to be sidelined for the rest of the weekend after a broken driveshaft left him standing motionless on the starting grid. Peter Foote shattered a gearbox on turn 15, leaving a legacy of oil on the track and gave an almighty scare to two competitors who were right on his hammer. It also caused a lengthy delay and subsequent shortening of race one.

Terry Robertson ( Reynard 913), who is currently supporting five entrants in the Formula R class, spoke enthusiastically about the probability of seeing up to seven competitors in this class for 2014. This class offers an economical entry into competitive racing on the back of a Dallara platform with a VW engine, providing incredible reliability and cost-effective racing.

Production Sports saw Russell Bayley win all three races in his flying 7-litre yellow Chev Corvette with Lachlan Higgins (Porsche 996) taking second in all three. Sports Sedans best performer was Birol Cetin (Chev Camaro) with a first and second placing, before he succumbed to a DNF in the third race.

Improved Production was hotly contested with a large field of 34 cars, the pointy end a battle between Mark Ruta ( Mazda 808) with two race wins, and John McKenzie ( Commodore) with two second places and a third.

Production Touring was ruled by the triumvirate of Gerry Murphy (EVO 10) with three race wins, Matthew Holt (HSV GTS) with two race seconds, and Bob Pearson (EVO 10) with three race third placings.

Formula Cars’ clean sweep went to Garnet Patterson ( Dallara 301), followed by Graeme Holmes (Dallara F3) recording two seconds and a third placing. Tim Reynolds ( Sabre 02) had two race wins in Formula Vee, while Tim Brook (LE 100) took the other win and a second.

As the sun started to set, the final session saw the ever popular vintage HQ’s dashing and spinning, with Troy Hulbert (#82) executing a graceful 360 degree spin at turn 15. With wickedly twitching rear ends disappearing into the distance, Jeff Mulligan (#69) piloted the Baxter Coaches sponsored car to two first places and a third. Brett Osborn (#86) was his closest rival with a second, third and fourth results.
– words and pics by Rob Annesley
look@shotbyrob.com.au

Aug 05 2013

ASBK Race weekend wrap

TEAM SUZUKI rider Wayne Maxwell capped off a perfect weekend at Sydney Motorsport Park with victory in today’s fifth round of the QBE Australian Superbike Championship.

Maxwell, who won both 12-lap races today, has extended his lead in the championship to sit 24 points ahead of Glenn Allerton.

“What a weekend,” Maxwell said. “To win all four races is the ultimate dream come true.

“The GSXR 1000 was incredible all weekend and handled extremely well. Full credit to the team for giving me such an awesome bike to ride this weekend.

“We have the championship lead but I am not going to get ahead of myself. We need to take it race by race. If we are winning races the rest will come,” he continued.

Pole-sitter Robbie Bugden was second for the round with Allerton bouncing back from a disappointing result yesterday to round out the podium.

“I had a good first race and finished second to Wayne,” Budgen explained. “In Race 2, I ended up involved in a massive battle and I tried a few things but they didn’t pay off and I ended up fifth.

“It was still a fantastic weekend for the team. We finished 1-2 in both rounds and I had pole for today’s races.”

Team Honda riders Josh Hook and Jamie Stauffer were fourth and fifth for the round with Sydney rider Glenn Scott sixth.

Scott broke through for his first top three finish in today’s opening Superbike race and was the leading privateer for the round.

In the Motul Supersport class Aaron Morris took the round victory with two race wins ahead of Aiden Wagner.

The Yamaha mounted duo traded blows throughout today’s final 12-lap race with Morris moving into the lead on Lap 9.

“I pretty much led the first race from start to finish but I hit false neutral on Lap 2 in the second race and lost about four spots,” Morris explained.

“From there I just had to keep chipping away at it. Aiden and I ended up in a good battle but I was able to get him towards the end.

“I got some good points today and have started to close the gap to Daniel (Falzon),” Morris said.

Morris has reduced the points deficit to Motul Supersport championship leader Daniel Falzon to just eight points in the championship standings.

Matt Walters continued to dominate the Prostock field with another clean sweep of today’s three 9-lap races. He was joined on the podium by fellow New South Welshmen Dustin Goldsmith and Sean Condon.

The next event sees the QBE Australian Superbike Championship head to Darwin’s Hidden Valley Raceway for the September 12-15 ultimate weekend of motorsport, which will include the Australian Supercross Championship.

Top Ten Round 5 Results QBE Australian Superbikes – Sydney Motorsport Park

1. Wayne MAXWELL (VIC) 50

2. Robert BUGDEN (QLD) 37

3. Glenn ALLERTON (NSW) 35

4. Josh HOOK (NSW) 34

5. Jamie STAUFFER (NSW) 34

6. Glenn SCOTT (NSW) 33

7. Linden MAGEE (QLD) 28

8. Beau BEATON (NSW) 26

9. Sloan FROST (NZ) 24

10. Ben HENRY (QLD / WA)21

Top Ten QBE Australian Superbike Championship Standings (After Rd 5 of 7)

1. Wayne MAXWELL (VIC) 180

2. Glenn ALLERTON 156

3. Robert BUGDEN (QLD) 156

4. Jamie STAUFFER (NSW) 135

5. Josh HOOK (NSW) 133

6. Glenn SCOTT (NSW) 119

7. Linden MAGEE (QLD) 99

8. Beau BEATON (NSW) 99

9.Phil LOVETT (NSW) 79

10. Sloan FROST (NZ) 71

Top Ten Round 5 Results Motul Supersport – Sydney Motorsport Park

1. Aaron MORRIS (NSW) 50

2. Aiden WAGNER (QLD) 40

3. Daniel FALZON (SA) 36

4. Michael BLAIR (NSW) 34

5. Chris QUINN (NSW) 31

6. Kyle BUCKLEY (QLD) 28

7. Aaron GOBERT (NSW) 28

8. Callum SPRIGGS (QLD) 26

9. Mohd RAMDAN (MAL) 23

10. Michael LOCKART (NSW) 23

Top Ten Motul Supersport Championship Standings (After Rd 5-7)

1. Daniel FALZON (SA) 158

2. Aaron MORRIS (NSW) 149

3. Michael BLAIR (NSW) 135

4. Chris QUINN (NSW) 130

5. Aiden WAGNER (QLD) 112

6.Callum SPRIGGS (QLD) 112

7. Ryan TAYLOR (VIC) 109

8. Aaron GOBERT (NSW) 91

9. Kyle BUCKLEY (QLD) 86

10. Michael LOCKART (NSW) 80

TEAM SUZUKI RIDER WAYNE MAXWELL CAPPED OFF A PERFECT WEEKEND AT SYDNEY MOTORSPORT PARK WITH VICTORY IN TODAYS FIFTH ROUND OF THE QBE AUSTRALIAN SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP.