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Event Wrap: 2015 CAMS Supersprint Round 5

Round 5 of the CAMS Supersprint  run on August 9th at Sydney Motorsport Park was a very cold affair. Even when the temps started to climb, a chilly breeze kept the jackets and beanies on and engines and tyres took longer to attain optimum driving temperatures.

One hundred and twenty-one competitors took to the track and were rewarded with five sessions on track and it was great to see some new cars come along and enjoy the fun.

But wait! Do my eyes deceive me? Is that Robert Kolimackovski? Yes…after a two year hiatus our former back to back State Champion has returned bringing his mothballed Walkinshaw Commodore back to join us in Supersprint. Family commitments have kept him away and when asked how he felt about being back he said: “I am so excited. My whole family is coming out this morning to see me.“

Recuperating from heart surgery last year, Kerry Redfern (President of Manly-Warringah Car Club) has now had final word from his doctor that he will unfortunately not be allowed to return to competitive motorsport. This has come as a real blow to him, as he had spent 16 months with longtime “sprinter” Bob Muir in building their joint project, a pristine red Honda Civic, and he has never had an opportunity to drive it in a competitive environment. Kerry said “…I’ll still be part of supersprint and our car club, and I guess I’ll have to be content with the convivial and spirited friendly torment that my car club mates heap upon me.”

Carl Seaver’s Datsun 240Z transformed from its “desert dueller” outback dust buster mode and took on a more streamlined look for black top racing. Carl is an avid supporter of the Royal Flying Doctor Outback Car Trek, a trek that covers 6000kms over 12 days and raises over $1.4mil for charity. Today his car was stripped of its bull bar and full undercar stone tray and dirt tyres as these were replaced by officially sanctioned track equipment. Once Carl renewed his fire extinguisher he was given the thumbs up by our great group of official scrutineers to proceed on track.

Alan Nolan brought his Nola Chev 5Ltr out for a run around. Not a usual supersprinter, Alan has recently brought the big Formula 5000 out of retirement after 13 years, and is using every opportunity to prepare it for the Spring HSRCA meeting at Wakefield in September.

In racing, Andrie Tan was the fastest car of the day when he turned the tables on his arch rival Marek Tomaszewski and took back his Type 5 record with an amazing time of 1.25.628 in his Radical Supersport. Not to be outdone completely, Marek also put in a Class 5C record beating run of 1.25.705 in his Stohr, just under 8 hundredths of a second behind Andrie. Jason Wright was the fastest closed wheeler of the day in his green WRX Time Attack car, which he calls The Hulk, with a time of 1.32.141.

There were only two other records broken yesterday. Preston Peiris took back the Class 1C Record in his Mazda MPS3 from Michael Miller, which was only set at the last round, with a fabulous Type 1 time of 1.52.557 while Craig Donnell broke his own Class 2D Record in his supercharged Holden Clubsport with a time of 1.44.519.

The MX5 Club took out the Club Championship honours yesterday scoring 546 points, which brings their overall tally up to 2,937 points putting them well ahead of ARDC who are running second with 2,007 points. The HSV/HDT Owners Club are firmly holding 3rd place down with 1,236 points.

Text and photographs by Rob Annesley
www.shotbyrob.com.au

Thanks to Bob Welsh for his contribution of statistics.

 

NSW Motor Race Championships Round 4

The mid-winter round of the NSW Motor Race Championships for 2015 arrived back at Sydney Motorsport Park in direct contrast to the bleak, freezing conditions the state has been beset by over recent weeks. The weekend brought forth predominately sunshine-filled days and much warmer temperatures; ideal conditions for drivers comfort. Only around 160 entries came out for the weekend however, with the Production Sports category headlining the weekends event schedule with a one-hour , two driver enduro race. In fairness, some of the regular state competitors were otherwise engaged assisting in this major event.

The Production Sport enduro brought out some glamourous metal. No less than four Audi R8 LMS vehicles with their coloured headlights beaming their no-nonsense “get-out-of-my-way” message, mixing it with a large cadre of Porsche GT3 Cup smartly liveried beasts loudly purring in amongst the vast field. Rounding out the eye-candy were a Gallardo, GT40, E-type Jag, Elise/Exige’s, Monaro, MX-5 and a Commodore. The day surely went to Andrew McPherson (Porsche GT3R) who started second on the grid after qualifying. Constantly pushing Rod Salmon’s Audi Andrew’s team took race one as well as the enduro, with his co-driver Brad Shiels winning the second “driver B” race. Clean sweep! Rod Salmon and Neale Muston placed second and third respectively.

Listed as a competitor in the program, perennial “owner” of this category second places this year, Birol Cetin did not line up for racing this weekend. This allowed Steve Lacey to take a lock on one notch up the podium from his usual third spot. Grant Doulman did what he does best, and stayed out front for all three races with as much as a one minute lead during race two. Chris Jackson and Anthony Macready split the third places.

Formula Vee gave us all a bit of a nervous time. Race one had only just begun when six cars got all tangled up at turn two ( where else) leaving fibreglass debris of nose cones and torn away bits of race car on the track. This caused a 40 minute delay as CXC racing identity Matthew Bode (Stinger 010) was cut free from his car after a heavy t-boning of Gary Hook ( Jacer F2K4). Amazingly Hook’s car was driveable and went on to compete in the following races. As a precaution Bode was very gingerly extricated and fortunately whilst not taking part in any further racing, was walking around the pits the following day. Recovery was very busy with the Manitou, a tow truck and a flatbed all needed to clean up the tangled mess of non-working vehicles after the incident. Race one was ultimately abandoned. Dylan Thomas (CXC Racing) and Michael Kinsella (KE Power) shared the remaining race wins, whilst Tim Brook converted an ordinary qualifying result, starting from tenth on the grid, to finish race one and two with a couple of second place podiums. Ever-consistent Simon Pace rounded out the placings with a pair of thirds. Simon’s son Aaron is a debutante this year, under his dad’s watchful and encouraging eye. Aaron is showing excellent signs of talent after a short time in competition. Starting eighth after qualifying Aaron finished with a fifth and sixth place.

Improved Prod O2L is all in the hands of Graham Watts. From early Saturday morning through to Sunday afternoon, his smooth driving style and excellently prepared Nissan Silvia purrs out the front of this category. Consistently lapping at 1:40/41’s, Graham kept a 30sec advantage on the field. Closest to him all day was John McKenzie, but in doing so John flaunted the new rules that prohibits drivers from drifting wide on turns like #5 and #15. If all four wheels cross the yellow lines, then a time penalty is awarded for each time this occurs. This has been judged to give a driver a “slingshot” advantage over other drivers. Whilst McKenzie got within 15sec of Watts, it came at a cost of 60sec’s worth of penalties. Paul White ( Mazda RX7) finished with a second and third place, sharing that distinction with Michael Posa ( RX3) in the reverse order.

Jason Grimmond from Queensland experienced SMSP for the first time, coming to Sydney combining a family holiday with getting some mid year track time. Jason said when asked what brought him to Sydney for this event ”…there are long gaps between events in Qld mid year, and I’m working on a new suspension setup, so this event gives me a chance to put some new thoughts into action.” He also commented that “….this is a big track. The corners are huge. Just when you think you through them, they keep on going.” Sam Maio was wanting to work on his understeer problem on Saturday evening, but this was put on the backburner as he ended up spending much of the night rebuilding his gearbox after problems on Saturday. He was back in his garage very early on Sunday morning tinkering with his setup to correct the understeer.

The NSW Motor Race Championships return to SMSP on Sept 26/27th.

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

Event wrap: 2014 Tasman Trophy

The final event on the 2014 racing calendar, The Tasman Trophy, was run by the HSRCA (Historic Sports and Racing Car Assoc) on Nov 29th – 30th. Like the inaugural Tasman Cup and Tasman Revival meetings, the Tasman Trophy is a celebration of the original 1960’s Tasman Series which saw sports cars of that era travel from all over the world to race in Australia. Similarly, this weekend saw competitors from the UK, USA and New Zealand come together to reprise those heady days of open wheeled sports cars and production sports and touring cars.

David Kent, Acting President of HSRCA said “… many of the cars that are here for this event are the actual cars that raced here in the beginning. Today these cars, whilst cherished by their owners, are nevertheless driven in a spirited and competitive fashion. We expect to see some very good racing this weekend.”

Patrick Quinn, publicity manager for HSRCA said “…over 250 cars converged this weekend on SMSP to recapture the iconic days of these wonderful period vehicles. Back when names like Clark, Stewart, Rindt and Hill came with marques like Lotus, Cooper, BRM and Ferrari’s to fight it out for the Tasman supremacy. Competitors this weekend will take part in 36 races ( four per group) of between fourteen and eighteen minutes duration. There will also be one enduro of fifty minutes for Group S. With a two driver option, well known celebrity driver John Bowe was seen suiting up in Andrew Purvis’ garage.

The conditions for this race meeting were the same as we have been experiencing in Sydney over the past month. Unsettled with strong cloud bands, strong gusty winds bringing storms bearing rain squalls and lightning.

Saturday was fine and quite warm, but Sunday was clear and fine UNTIL around 2:30pm. Then an almighty weather event brought torrential rain, lightning and strong winds. Group N had just gone out for their warmup lap, when the storm hit.. A rolling start and as the first six cars came out of turn one, the first three cars of Wheatley (Cooper S), Tierney ( XU-1 Torana), and Robertson (Charger)aquaplaned and slid straight off the track across the grass and into the gravel trap.

In just a few short minutes the water had pooled and there was absolutely no adhesion. In trying to avoid the ballet of misadventure being performed by the previous three cars, Alan Mayne (Mazda Rx2) and Danny Berry (Cooper S) found themselves swamped on drivers left at turn one. The race was called off as the conditions were just atrocious. The resources of tow trucks and rescue vehicles was stretched, and one of the rescue vehicles very nearly joined the bogged and stranded cars.

In Formula Ford, Barry-Cotter (PRS82F) had a Sunday morning to forget. Not content with spinning at turn two and coming into contact with Lynn Cowan, (both resumed, however Cowan car succumbed to its injuries and retired early) but Barry-Cotter had a second go at perfecting the pirouette on turn six, and this time hit the wall ending up in a dangerous position. Up at the business end of the racing Garry Watson ( Mawer) gradually got faster as the weekend wore on, and as a result in each race led by a larger margin eventually recording four wins from four starts. Dave Holland (Reynard) took all four second places and Ed King (Reynard) grabbed a trio of thirds.

Ian Bailey (1962 Lynx) got a fright when one of his wheels passed him at turn 15. Michael Anderson (XY GT) led from start to finish in Group N and took all four wins for the weekend. The fierce battles were for second and third between Andrew Whiteside (Mustang) and Wayne Rogerson (Maxda RX2) with Marty Macri pushing those two with his late under brakes dives. In race three it worked, as Macri took a third out from underneath Rogerson. It was an eventful race as Mark Broadhead hit a large strip of oil and spun ending up sidelined while Michael Collins (Cortina) got crossed up trying to avoid hitting Mark and nearly coming to grief himself. The oil stretched from turn 14 down to turn 15 causing a delay in proceedings as it was cleaned up.

Formula 5000 cars are always a crowd favourite. These massive open wheeled gargantuans bellow their 5Litre V8 power as they scream around the track. Tom Tweedie reigned over the weekend with two wins from both his starts, showing his dominance from start to finish with a twelve second clear victory in race two. Clark Proctor took race one over Steve Ross, but as soon as Tweedie entered the contest, both the others were relegated to the minor placings.

Paul Zazryn held two thirds places to round out the weekend. Russell Greer retired early in race two and Greg Thornton only made it for one race as his campaign was cut short with a dropped rod and a massive bellow of smoke. So much smoke in fact that the fire Marshall stopped by Gregs’ garage to make sure a fire didn’t erupt. Another early exit was Warren de Guara’s 1965 Mustang. Suffering the same fate as Thornton, a massive belch of smoke whilst cruising past pit lane had Warren ending up sidelined around turn one with a blown engine.

The Trophy winners for this meeting were:
The Bernie Haehnle Trophy: Daniel Bando
The Bib Stillwell Trophy: Rob Tweedie
The Bill Brown Shield: Geoff Morgan
The Brian Foley Trophy: Darryl Hanson
The Frank Matich Trophy: No Competitors
The Ian Forsyth Shield: Graham Henshaw
The Ian Geoghegan Trophy: Graham Russell
The Jack Brabham Trophy: Ed Holly
The Jack Myers Trophy: Phil Anseline
The John Leffler Shield: Tom Tweedie
The Kevin Bartlett Trophy: No Competitors
The Leo Geoghegan Trophy: Damon Hancock
The Peter Finlay Trophy: Matthew Price
The RACA, Sa Trophy: Peter Jackson
The RACA, Sb Trophy: Wayne Seabrook
The Ron Tauranac Trophy: David Kent
The Spencer Martin Trophy: Richard Knox

Special mention must be made in regards to Wes Dayton’s marvellous induction as an Honorary Life Member of the HSRCA, for his exceptional and sustained contributions to the HSRCA and motorsport in general.

– Words and pics by Rob Annesley
look@shotbyrob.com

Event Wrap: Shannons Nationals Finals

The final round for the year of “The Nationals”, the nine round Shannons series that criss-crosses the country annually climaxed at Sydney Motorsport Park under extreme weather conditions to say the least.

Saturday’s very hot and windy conditions culminated in high powered winds through the latter part of the afternoon and had competitors guessing, especially as they exited pit lane into turn one at three-quarter speed, as they faced the swirling 50 knot nor-westerly winds. Thunder and a barrage of lightning gave spectators an incredible front row seat to an awesome light show, and had teams on high alert as the track alternatively went from hot and dry, followed by wet and cold, returning to hot and dry only a matter of 10 minutes after the storm abated.

This sequence occurred twice more as the wave of storm cells crossed the Eastern Creek precinct throughout the afternoon. Nathan Gotch, of AGI Motorsports, commented “…it was really tough to get the setup correct yesterday. Starting with a stiff setup to match the new tyres , we were constantly adjusting and softening the setup as they wore and as the temps dropped throughout the afternoon. We battled the viscous cross winds, too but I guess we should be thankful our races missed the full brunt of the rain squalls. It was very busy in our team garage as we discussed all the variables we were facing…the rain, wind, tyre wear and dropping temps.”

Other teams were busy for different reasons. BRM Rundle Motorsport were forced to rebuild the front end of Chris Anthony’s Dallara after a front-on collision at turn 6 on Saturday after he ran wide and mounted the concrete.
Sunday brought forth a cool and sedate breeze, and all the hulabaloo of the previous day settled into a serious day for competitiors as four champions were crowned during the course of the day.

Justin Ruggier, Simon Hodge, Tim Berryman and Tony Ricciardello were all crowned national champions on the final day of racing While Hodge and Ricciardello clinched their respective Formula 3 and Kerrick Sports Sedan titles in race two, the Kumho V8 Touring Cars and Radical Australia Cup went down to the wire in their final races of the year.

Simon Hodge won the Formula 3 Australian Drivers Championship title, Justin Ruggier the Kumho V8 Touring Cars and Tony Ricciardello sealed a record eighth Kerrick Sports Sedan title. Tim Berryman won the Radical Australia Cup. Tim Berryman grabbed the Radical Australia Cup series win, with all four champions crowned this weekend also winning their final races of the year, respectively.

Simon Hodge won the CAMS Gold Star award after a breathless Formula 3 race on Sunday morning, carving his way through the field to win the championship with a race victory. Hodge then won the feature race of the season to close out his title in style.

Tim Berryman won the Radical Australia Cup, rebounding from a high-speed crash in Friday practice to end his season on top. The New South Wales driver charged to the front in the final 50-minute endurance race that completed the season, winning the race and edging season-long rival Michael Shaw out for the overall championship in the process. Berryman’s ten-point victory gets him a UK trip and a works Radical Cup drive in Europe for a selected major event next year. Shaw sealed the SR3 class championship and second overall thanks to a consistent weekend performance, with Kim Burke completing the top three.

Justin Ruggier sealed the Kumho V8 Touring Cars series win after he and Ryan Simpson took their year-long battle down to the final race of the season. Simpson kept his title hopes alive heading into the final race after taking a last-gasp victory in race two, slicing up the inside of Ruggier on the final lap of the race to grab the win. Ruggier had it easier in the finale’, however, holding out Simpson to win by less than a second to seal his maiden national title

Today’s Kumho V8 title win was the second V8 title for Eggleston Motorsport, having wrapped up the V8 Supercar Development Series title with Paul Dumbrell in early October. Ruggier’s win also creates history for his car – the ex-HSV Dealer Team Commodore won the V8 Supercars title with Rick Kelly before winning the Development Series at the hands of Tony D’Alberto. Matt Palmer finished third in the round and completed the series podium in his STR Truck Bodies Ford.

Tony Ricciardello wrapped up his eighth Kerrick National Sports Sedan Series today by winning two of the three races contested in the series’ final round of the year. Ricciardello won races two and three after Hossack had earlier won the opener after another sensational battle between the longstanding rivals. The pair signed off the season by staging another sensational duel in the final race before Ricciardello was able to drive away and win to close out his title in style.

Thomas Randle scored his first Australian Formula Ford series round victory in style at Sydney Motorsport Park, scoring both Sunday races to seal the round victory and take the title fight to the final round this November. Randle jumped to a clear second in the standings behind leader James Golding and will be just 21 points behind when the series stages its final round at Phillip Island. Jordan Lloyd finished second for the round, despite being turned around in turn two in the opening lap of race two on Sunday morning. Despite dropping to the back of the field, Lloyd recovered to fifth place in that race and climbed to second in the finale’ before climbing to second in the finale’ after a race-long battle with Nick Rowe. Rowe finished third overall for the round with Golding not scoring a podium finish. It was also great to see Synergy Motorsports fostering young up and coming talent in the ‘Nationals. Caitlin Wood, a former karting champion, acquitted herself well up the field in the Formula Ford series in only her first year of national racing experience.

Stuart Shirvington won the one-off PRB Clubman series round ahead of Stefan Versluis and Chris Barry, while Barry sealed the PRB Motorsport series title ahead of Shirvington.

Words and pics by Rob Annesley
look@shotbyrob.com.au

CAMS Supersprint Champshionship, Round Seven, Oct 5 2014

As the motorsport season draws to a close for 2014 this, our final Supersprint event for the year, saw a healthy field of 87 competitors bring their hopes and aspirations for glory, and a few more championship points, out to Sydney Motorsport Park South Circuit on what turned out to be a fabulous day for motorsport.
The morning Spring temperatures were a little fresh, however the jumpers were well and truly peeled off by mid morning. Blue skies and sunshine made for excellent rubber -to -bitumen connection, and the days program got off to a brisk and on time start.

No better way to get the spectators lining the fences than to have the two quickest lads in the house take it out early. Marek Tomaszewski and Andre Tan have duelled all year, and this being Marek’s favourite track layout, he let Andre know from the get-go that he intended to “bring it on”. Marek, who is a bit of a specialist on the South Circuit, was the fastest car on the day in his beautifully prepared and driven Stohr with a time of 53.329 ,while Richard Perini was the fastest Tin Top in his Porsche RSR with a Type 4 record breaking time of 56.946. Chris Kostakis brought his recently acquired beautiful White Radical out for a spin. He was throwing down clean, fast lines and ended the day only two seconds behind Tomaszewski and Tan.

It was great to see one of our next generation of Supersprint stars doing well this weekend. Cooper Calman, a 16yo who is completing grade 10 this year, broke the Class 4C record in his Mazda RX7 FD. This well spoken rising star also holds the NSW Hillclimb Championship in his category. Speaking about his enjoyment of Supersprint, Cooper said”…I really like coming to Supersprints, cause I get so much more drive time in the car than in some other events in which I compete.” Cooper and his family supporters drive long distances to come to these meetings, and their commitment is reaping rewards in Coopers increasing talent.

TYPE RECORDS
Warwick Morris broke the Type 2 and Class 2C records in his Porsche GT3 with a time of 1.00.984. Warwick has broken the Type 2 and Class 2C records for all of the circuits used in the Championship this year. A great year, and congratulations Warwick.
Allan Marin continues on his winning way as he broke the Type 3 and Class
3D records in his Commodore with a time of 1.01.109. I should mention that
Allan has broken the Type 3 and Class 3D records at the last three Rounds.
Records at SMSP Brabham and SMSP North are the only Type 3 records that he hasn’t broken this year.
Richard Perini broke the Type 4 and Class 4C records in his Porsche GSR with a great time of 56.946.
Chris Sutton broken the Type 6 and Class 6D records in his Subaru STi with a
time of 58.861 This is a first time in the record books for Chris this year
but I think we’ll being seeing him there a fair bit next year.

CLASS RECORDS – Craig Donnell broke the Class 2D record in his Walkinshaw Commodore with a time of 1.03.858. He was having a really good run, but unfortunately for late in the day he touched the wall.
Karl Kosutar broke the Class 3C record in his Mazda MX5 with a time of
1.02.706. First time in the record books for Karl who was only there
for a couple of runs before being chauffered off to a private box at the Grand Final. Were unsure who he was barracking for, but he’s sure to have had a great day all round.
Chis Muir broke the Class 4A record in his Honda CRX with a time of
1.04.100. This is the third time in the record books for Chris this year.
Chris now holds the Class 4A records for all of the SMSP circuits with the
record at Wakefield Park the only one eluding him. Next year maybe, Chris?
Ed Cory broke the Class 4B record in his Mazda MX5 with a time of 1.04.409.
This is the second time in the record books for Ed this year.
Tony King broke the Class 6A record in his Mazda MX5 with a time of
1.06.074. Again, this is the second time in the record books for Tony this year.

RECORDS BROKEN THAT DON”T GO INTO THE RECORD BOOKS
Spare a thought for those guys who broke records on the day but whose times will not go into the record books as they were not the fastest in their particular Class on the day.
They include:- Grant Bush – Class 2C, David Lawler – Class 4B, Anthony Crott – Class 4B, Adam Laura – Class 4C , Cooper Calman – Class 4C

Well, the Championship has now finished for the year and we now have seven new Type Champions. Please congratulate our 2014 CAMS Supersprint Champions:

TYPE 1 – STUART TEMESVARY – MAZDA MX5
TYPE 2 – WARWICK MORRIS – PORSHE GT3
TYPE 3 – ALLAN MARIN – COMMODORE
TYPE 4 – RICHARD PERINI – PORSCHE RSR
TYPE 5 – ANDRIE TAN – RADICAL
TYPE 6 – CHRIS SUTTON – SUBARU STi
TYPE SV – ROGER HEARD – PRB WIDEBODY

The Club Championship was won by the MX5 Club with ARDC coming in second and Manly Warringah Sporting Car Club taking out third.

Thank you to all those people that worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make each and every event enjoyable and safe for the competitors. We look forward to seeing you all back at the CAMS Supersprint Championships in 2015.

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

Thanks to Bob Welsh for his in-depth statistics.