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Race Meetings

Event Wrap: CAMS Supersprint Championship Round 3

Round 3 of the CAMS Supersprint Championship was held at SMSP North last weekend, and while rain threatened, apart from some fine misting, it didn’t really eventuate. Another plentiful roster of 117 eager competitors lined up in the eleven groups. No sooner had competition started when a lengthy delay occurred due to a full circuit oil spill from Paul Martens Clubman ( #63), had track maintenance staff dusting and blowing the track from the entrance to turn one all the way around to the entrance to the pits on the main straight – practically the entire track.
A long 40-minute wait had competitors on the dummy grid quite antsy. A funny side to it was when race control called to scrutineering to have a chat about the oil spill. The scrutineer apparently misheard the call and asked for a repeat of the car number involved. Race control replied”…go find car #63… it’ll be the clubman with no oil in it.”This is a good time to doff our caps to the maintenance and safety staff who do such a good job in preparing and maintaining the track, making it safe for us all to enjoy the sport. They worked tirelessly to get the track back in driveable order, and to clean up an oil spill stretching 2.8 km. I noticed that we have a new industrial broom, a forklift with a massive broom attached to the front. Very cool…and sweeps very fast.The delay resulted in the session being shortened by two runs, however the day was successful; records were broken in two Types and seven Classes as well.Again Andrie Tan was the fastest on the day in his Radical with the only sub one minute time of the day of 59.302. Steve Lacey brought his Chev Camaro to the Championship for the first
time. Steve has been a Championship competitor for many years. First in his white Torana, followed by his blue VK Commodore, but this Camaro is something else. Steve was the fastest tin top on the day with a time of 1.03.415, which broke the Type 4 and Class 4D
records. He previously held both those records in his VK Commodore Sports Sedan. Unfortunately, Steve suffered steering problems on his third pass, and was forced to retire. Paige Butchers had a scare when her bonnet flew up on turn one and scratched her windscreen pretty badly.
Warwick Morris was the other Type record breaker in his Porsche GT3. He recorded a time of 1.08.593, which broke the Type 2 and Class 2C records. Warwick has broken the Class 2C record at every track he has run this year and it is the second time he has broken the Type 2 record.
Other Class records broken were:
Class 1C – Preston Peiris took a second and a half off the Class 1C record with a time of 1.17.587 in his Mazda MPS3. Preston has broken the Class 1C record at every Round this year.
Class 4A – Chris Muir set a new Class 4A record in his new Honda CRX with a time of 1.16.401. Chris only unveiled his newly finished CRX today, was extremely happy with its performance.
Class 4B – Ed Cory broke the Class 4B record in his Mazda MX5 with a time of 1.16.250 Class 4C – Richard Perini broke the Class 4C record in his Porsche RSR with a time of 1.04.564. While they didn’t make the record books, it is worth noting that Bruce Hibbard (Porsche GT3), Adam Laura (BMW M3) and Matt Cole (Mazda RX7) also broke the Class 4C record yesterday.
Class 5B – Chris Kostakis broke the Class 5B records by about 3 seconds in his MNR Vortex with a time of 1.056.973. It should be noted that Chris has broken the Class 5B record at every Round this year.
The Mazda MX5 Club is leading the Club Championship by the barest of margins on 1226 points just ahead of ARDC who are just four points behind on 1222 points. Manly Warringah are in third place on 597 points.
-Words and pictures by Rob Annesley
Special thanks to Bob Welsh for specific race details

Event Wrap: FoSC Queen’s Birthday Weekend

The Amaroo Circuit (South) hosted the second Festival of Sporting Cars ( FoSC) event for 2014 on the June Queens Birthday weekend. Known as the Queens Birthday Invitational the event was held under grey overcast conditions however the threatened storms held off until the final chequered flag fell. The event ran over the 1.9km circuit, utilising the new challenging 800m winding track layout.

David Nichols, President of FoSC, said:” We are thrilled to have a bumper field attend this event at Sydney Motorsport Park, we weren’t sure how many would come, but this roll up is terrific. We are also excited to welcome our feature events for the day, rounds of the Excel Championship and the Historic Touring Cars Association Championship, both events being run inside our FoSC programme.”

Also on the programme were races for Historic and Invited Racing Cars plus Historic and Invited Sports and Touring Cars. The Regularity category was underlined by two good-sized fields – with a diverse mix of vehicles, including some beautifully restored classics.

There were also two non-racing but still very successful events. The first was a Come and Try event which is a soft introduction to would-be hopeful racers giving them a chance to drive on the black top circuit with the assistance of an in-car mentor. The entrants here were given two opportunities to practice their skills over the course of the day. The “newbies” gained valuable experience with the expert advice of the likes of Master Drivers’ Mal Brewster and Ray Gulson. These gutsy first-timers rolled up in a Jag, Volvo, Renault, Austin Healey and even a Datsun Sunny. “Its not about the car, its about the fun,” said one entrant. Another happy newcomer commented …” FoSC must be the best-kept secret in motor sport.”

The second non-racing event was the “Partners Parade” in which a spouse, friend, child or significant other gets a chance to come out in the car on track with you, either as a passenger (in the case of the 10 y.o I saw) or if they have a licence they can have a drive themselves. This was a particularly enjoyable part of the day for those family “pit crews” who do all the backup work race after race. It was a great inclusive event to make it a fun day for all.

As you can imagine, with nearly 130 entrants across six racing categories plus Regularity and the non-racing events, the pits, paddock and grid were abuzz with frenetic activity. One thing to appreciate with the FoSC is the amazingly wide variety of sporting cars that grace this event. Several entrants that caught this reporters eye were Dave Lawrences’ beautifully restored Red 1955 Austin Healey 100, which is still his daily driver, and Alan Morrins’ Ford 1984 GT40.

Excel Series racing was a hotly contested affair, with close bumper to bumper action between all three of the Team AGI cars of Nathan Gotch (#66), Nick Filipetto ( #77) and Glenn Smith ( #44) . Nathan took the major honours of the day with two wins and a second place, whilst Nick got one of each, a first, second and a third. In the Historic Touring Championships Wayne Rogerson (Mazda RX2) was too hard to beat, laying down three straight wins, followed by John Wright ( LJ Torana XU1) with two second places.

The FoSC has enjoyed nearly ten years of offering affordable racing events, with its mantra of “helping racing enthusiasts to get into and enjoy motorsport with a minimum of money and red tape.” FoSC pride themselves on being able to offer a fuss-free way to go racing. President Dave Nichols wished to thank all the regulars and new comers alike for making this event at Sydney Motorsport Park a huge success.

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

Event Wrap – NSW Motor Racing Championships Round 2

Round two of the NSW Motor Racing Championships was held over the weekend of May 17-18th utilising the full 4.5km Brabham circuit, which includes the new 800m “S” bend and “paperclip” windy-bendy sections up the top side of the track. 180 competitors fought out the eight classes, and in the usual action packed, bumper to bumper excitement there were many a fine duel and even a little fender bending between mates in the close proximity racing.
In race three, Graeme Watts (Nissan Silvia) touched up both Steve Devjak (Commodore)and John McKenzie (Commodore), the latter having his rear bumper eventually fall off due to the encounter. McKenzie was dragging the bumper for a couple laps and apparently didn’t see the black flag board for two laps which earned him a trip to the headmasters office for a chat. Watts had the best result over the weekend with a first and two second placings.
In the same race, Gavin Stevens (Mitsubishi Lancer) got himself all out of sorts and very crossed resulting in a spin at turn eight which saw him broadside the curb on drivers left, ending up with him flipping the car. I wish everyone could have heard the commentary over the two-way. Race control was flummoxed by the report from the sector marshall at turn eight. It went something like this:
Sector Marshall: “Car 37 has spun drivers left, and oh….he’s, he’s hit the curb and oh dear….he’s rolled over.” Pause… “Car 37 has continued on!”
Race Control (incredulity in voice): “Did I just hear you say “continued on? “
Sector Marshall:” Yes, Race Control. He rolled all the way over and drove on.”
The unbelievable upshot of this is that Car 37 ended up finishing the race in fourteenth place out of eighteen finishers. Solid effort Gavin!
Steve Lacey had high hopes for his beautiful new graphic designed livery on the Z28 Chevy Camaro he is racing this year. Its quite the looker! Unfortunately the script went to hell in a handbasket as he firstly suffered electrical problems throughout qualifying and in Race three drove the length of pit straight with a broken steering box, eventually ending up in the kitty litter on turn one. Steve acknowledged with a wry grin that it wasn’t how he had envisaged his weekends campaign finishing however with his usual even tempered nature he took the two DNF’s and third place in his stride.
Notably this weekend Sydney Motorsport Park was the venue for the launch of the worlds first electric race car. It was the first time ever that an electric race car has run in an official circuit race any where in the world. This caused a huge hubbub and as a result a large amount of international motorsport officials and media descended on the track to see for themselves the eco-race car of the future. In the body manifestation of a Radical vehicle, the ELMOFO electric racer can produce 300kw of power and achieve speeds of 265kph. Unfortunately, the manufacturers had a problem with the chemistry in their batteries, and the car only saw a limited amount of track time.
The very large Formula Vee field of thirty cars saw Dylan Thomas (Stinger 015) take two firsts and a second place. In the last race Simon Pace (Mako MkIII) pulled of a daring manoeuvre to win by 1/100th of a sec, and take away a clean series sweep for Thomas.

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

NSW Motor Race Championships Rd 7, Nov 9-10 2013

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