The Australian Racing Drivers Club

For members and guests

motorsport

Event Wrap: NSW Motor Race Championships Round 4

Round 4 of the NSW Motor Race Championships returned to Sydney Motorsport Park with a mixed bag of conditions. Staring out dry on Saturday, a freakish storm cell with strong winds rolled through mid afternoon scattering tents and creating 15 minutes of havoc both on and off track. This left the afternoon sessions with a wet track with which to contend, though Sunday started cold and bleak, but the sun shone and thawed us all out for a great day of racing.

This round saw the Improved Production category take a mid-year break, and instead the round featured a one hour enduro by the Production Sports Racing Cars Association; a real treat to see many of these cars in their annual sojourn to SMSP.

Enduros are tough on both drivers and cars, and this race was no different with nearly a quarter of the field failing to go the distance. A marvellous effort by the Mawer/Lazaris (Lotus Exige GT3) team, starting from 12th on the grid and holding on to a half race lead in the closing stages to take the win. Not so lucky was Anthony Soole, who’s birthday was spoiled by a late in the race gearbox failure which saw him drift to a stop out of turn one and hand the Class B race win to Nick Cancion (Mazda MX5). Class C went to Rob Hay in another MX5, managing to hold off the McGann/Stannard (Porsche 944) pair who were only seconds behind during most of the race.
Formula Ford was a see-saw affair all weekend, with Hamish Hardeman (Mygale ST13) and Nick Rowe (Mygale SJ10A), swapping the honours in all three races. Hardeman took the race wins in race one and three and Rowe took home a first, second and third across the weekend, leaving Jacob Parsons (Spectrum 014) to be content with a second and two thirds.

Thundering Sports Sedans racing saw a determined Steve Lacey, who has suffered race ending steering problems over recent months, come out in a determined bid to get his championship aspirations back on track. He finished with two third place finishes in race one and two. Starting from fourth on the grid in race three, he took a very aggressive race line early in the race to first edge out Chris Jackson (Holden Calibra) and then a couple laps later he pushed Anthony Macready very wide to slip by and eventually hold on for second spot in his best finish in quite a while. Birol Cetin (Camaro) took two race wins and his consistency is holding him at the top of his class. Grant Doulman enjoyed a rare race win and a second place, before exiting early in race three.

The HQ racing was a family affair with the Heinrich brothers squaring off against each other. Grabbing four podiums between them they hogged the front end of the field for most of their events. Both Joel and Bruce had race wins and a third place each. They are a competitive pair, giving no quarter as they swapped a bit of paint with each other in race two at turn two.

Aaron Seton blitzed the field with three straight race wins in the Production Touring category in his EVO 10, and absolutely hammered it in race two to record a lap record pass of 1:42.72. Congratulations Aaron!

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

 

Event Wrap: CAMS Supersprint Round 4

Round Four of the CAMS Supersprint Championships was held at Sydney Motor Sport Park on July 20th on the 4.5km extended Brabham Circuit. This was the first time this year that the gigantic field of 99 entrants were treated to this very testing track layout. They enjoyed a great day weather wise, and every driver got the opportunity to complete four solid sessions.
As we have come to expect in recent times, Andre Tan in his Radical was the fastest car on the day with a time of 1.50.179 although Marek Tomaszewski was not that far behind in his Stohr with a very close time of 1.50.793. Andre broke the Type 5 Record and Class 5D Record while Marek broke the Class 5D Record. It should also be noted that Marek also bettered Andre’s old Type 5 record.
Richard Perini was the fastest tin top on the day in his Porsche RSR with a
time of 1.58.837 which broke both the Type 4 and Class 4C Records. Four Type Records were broken and 12 Class Records were broken.
Records broken or set on the day were:
TYPE RECORDS
Type 2 – Warwick Morris in his Porsche with a time of 2.05.547. Warwick also
broke the Class 2C Record. This is the 3rd Type Record that Warwick has
broken this year only missing out at Wakefield Park at Round 1.
Type 4 – Richard Perini in his Porsche RSR with a time of 1.58.837. This is
Richard’s 1st Type Record this year but 3rd Class 4C Record.
Type 5 – Andre Tan in his Radical with a time of 1.50.179. Like Warwick
Morris, Andre has broken 3 Type Records this year, just failing to better
his own Type 5 Record at SMSP North at Round 3.
Type 6 – Kim Tai in his Mitsubishi Evo with a time of 2.01.019. This is
Kim’s 2nd Type Record this year.
CLASS RECORDS
Class 1C – Preston Peiris in his Mazda MPS3 with a time of 2.21.661. Preston
has broken the Class 1C each time he has run this year.
Class 2C – Warwick Morris in his Porsche GT3 with a time of 2.05.547.
Warwick didn’t just break the record, he shattered it, taking a massive
7.583 seconds off the previous record.
Class 3A – Perennial record breaker Jason O’Meara broke his own Class 3A
Record by almost 2 seconds in his Honda Civic with a time of 2.14.980 Class
4A – Chris Muir in his Honda CRX with a time of 2.15.373. This is only the
2nd time out for Chris in this car but he has broken the Class 4A Record
both times that he has run.
Class 4B – David Lawler broke his own Class 4B Record in his Mazda MX5 by
7.401 seconds with a time of 2.18.361. It worth mentioning that both Ed Cory
and Anthony Crott ran in the 2.18s and were both 7 seconds under David’s
previous Class 4B Record. Sorry that you don’t make the record books but
great effort guys.
Class 4C – Richard Perini in his Porsche RSR with a time of 1.58.837.
Another shattered record. Richard took 8.166 seconds off the old Class 4C
Record.
Class 4D – Drew Hall broke the Class 4D Record in his Nissan GTRV R34 with a
time of 2.03.193 Class 5B – Chris Kostakis broke his own Class 5B Record in
his MNR Vortx with a time of 2.01.672. Chris has broken the Class 5B Record
at each of the 4 Championship Rounds this year.
Class 5C – Marek Tomaszewski in his Stohr with a great time of 1.50.793.
Marek broke his own Class 5C record by 2.372 seconds.
Class 5D – Andre Tan broke his own Class 5D Record in his Radical by 1.249
seconds with the fastest time of the day of 1.50.179 Class 6A – Blake Jones
broke the Class 6A Record by 5.876 seconds in his Mitsubish R-Colt with a
time of 2.17.470 Class 6D – Kim Tai smashed the Class 6D Record by just
under 11 seconds in his Mitsubishi Evo with a time of 2.01.019
CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP
The Mazda MX5 Club has broken away from ARDC in the Club Championship
scoring a massive 513 Club points at Round 4 to ARDC’s 361. MX5 Club lead the Club Championship on 1,739 points and are now 156 points ahead of ARDC on 1,583 points. Manly Warringah are coming third with 844 points.
Words and picture by Rob Annesley
Special thanks to Bob Welsh for specific competitor details

 

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.”

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

 

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.

 

FoSC Christmas Invitation race meeting

While the V8 Supercars were bouncing off the walls at Homebush, the Festival of Sporting Cars (FoSC) was busy conducting a two-day race meeting, with nearly 40 events, for Historic and Invited Sports, Racing and Touring Cars, plus Sidecars and even a Come and Try field for novices to get used to circuit competition.
The various races and regularity events attracted over 120 entrants over the weekend and provided close competition and plenty of track-time for everyone.
The layout of this circuit enabled FoSC to present novices and experienced drivers with a challenging drive that was rewarding when they got it right. As innovative as ever, FoSC ran fields as diverse as a dedicated Datsun Z Consistency, a Veloce Racing Association Challenge for Alfa Romeos and the final round of the Excel Racing Championship series – the latter being won by Nathan Gotch, with Ian Kegg and Michael Hiscoe as runners-up – plus the more familiar Sports, Racing and Touring car categories.
A regular feature of FoSC meetings, was the presence of the Masters – a group of legendary racers, including John Leffler, Spencer Martin, Bruce Stewart, Ray Gulson and Mal Brewster (with guest instructors Geoff Pike, Rob Jardine, Denis Tobin and Mike Dyer) – who provided driver education for anyone who wanted expert advice.
The combination of this kind of mentoring, the experience of well known Event Director, Charles Jardine, and a down-to-earth approach to motor sport, means that FoSC and the ARDC can deliver enjoyable, affordable competition for a wide range of enthusiasts.
On a lighter note, one pit-crew member who camped overnight was surprised to be awoken by a fox tugging on his trouser leg – can’t imagine that happening at a street circuit!
All in all, for FoSC, its competitors and officials the meeting was a resounding success and a gratifying conclusion to the year’s activities.

– words and pics by Rob Annesley
look@shotbyrob.com.au
Thanks to Dave Nichols ( FoSC) for his assistance with this report.