Another year of racing excitement came to a close for many of the NSW Motor Race Championships regular contenders on Sept 17/18th. The very large and enthusiastic field of 237 entrants filled SMSP’s garages, carports and the skid pan with teams bustling with activity and good camaraderie.
The Spring weather brought blue skies to practice and qualifying, but Sunday was wet, wet, wet! At one point the mid-afternoon races were shuffled around and the SuperKarts final race was abandoned due to standing and running water. Anyone in an open top got a drenching. In the Formula Cars it was noticeable that the water was playing havoc with electricals as a couple of not so insulated cars spluttered and lost power.
This weekend the super quick Radicals joined the festivities as well as the SuperKarts. Lucky for some, and not others, as the Radicals finished all their races on Saturday, and the unlucky Super Karts drew the short straw and had to race in the wet on Sunday.
Aaron Cogger went into the weekend holding a commanding lead on the championship, and with three straight wins across the weekend he put a lock on this year’s silverware, followed by previous state champion, John Pellicano.
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Aussie Cars aren’t seen at SMSP very often, but they brought the most vibrant paint jobs and well presented midget cars seen here. It is hard-fought racing, with race one seeing two simultaneous accidents on different sides of the track taking out five cars. James Duckworth is obviously the gun driver of this category, taking out all three wins in his “Nissan Altima”.
Supersports Neale Muston impressively sped round the GP track layout in the 1:27s during qualifying . He could only take one race win, however, finishing with a DNF in race 3. Mixed fortunes for his final spin of the year. John Moyes similarly looked the goods in early qualifying, but ended up with exactly the same diagnosis and result as Muston.
In 2013/14 Cetin dominated the Sports Sedan championship, in 2015 Doulman and Lacey fought it out. This year Birol Cetin has had more top three finishes coming into this weekend to once again claim the ASSA club championship as well as the NSWMRC State Championship for 2016. His final weekend finished with a 3-6-1 and the two podiums helped to keep him once again ahead of Steve Lacey who picked up second.
The HQs always give a great show, and it’s been the Osborn and Baxter show during 2016, with Brett and John swapping the lead whilst racing side by side, and even though they still hogged the top step of the podium between them again this weekend, the field has responded to their quality driving and set up a challenge of their own. Scott Walker, 2016 debutante, has spent the year doing his “time” in B grade, however he grabbed a pair of thirds and wasn’t far off the rear bumpers of both Osborn and Baxter. He has gained a great deal of confidence and experience this year, and showed it in his 1st in B-grade and 4th place overall in the association championship. As well, Deering and Cameron stole a 2nd place each from the masterful pair, and showed excellent adaptive driving skills in the wet.