Meet and greet ARDC Member #3463, Jimmy Vernon, one of the front-runners in the CAMS Formula Four Championship. He’s only 17, believe it or not!
Watch the video here:
2015 SYDNEY RETRO SPEEDFEST WRAP
Winter racing at Sydney Motorsport Park is always exciting and this past weekend’s running of the 2nd Annual Sydney Retro Speedfest, an event jointly sponsored by the Historic Sports and Racing Car Association (HSRCA) and the ARDC, did not disappoint.
Featuring a massive field of 246 entrants across the eight events on the program, spectators and competitors alike received great value for money. Cars filled the track four times each for their 20 minute racing stints over the two day event. As well as the cars on track, marquees lined the length of the pit area filled with static displays of classic cars with owners only too happy to chat about them.
Specialty cars rarely seen in Australia graced the pits and track. An ex- Niki Lauda 12-cylinder BRM P160, as well as a pair of Le Mans style Porsche 926Cs, were extremely impressive and dominated the O, Q & R category. The chief mechanic of George Nakas’ Blue/White 962C team said “This car no longer has any fuses, it has been completely rewired and is exclusively programmed by computer for every electrical instruction. The wiring loom has 585m of industrial electrical cabling, which took us over 140 hours to install!”.
The car performed well under Nakas’ guidance with second place in all three races. Nakas was unlucky not pull a win in either of the first two races as only half a body length separated the two thundering Porsches across the line. Well done to Peter Harburg’s “Jagermeister” entry on his two hard-fought wins. Duncan MacKellar took full advantage of Harburg’s race three DNF to record a 4 sec win from Nakas, whose car is being packed into a shipping container next week for its upcoming campaign in the USA at Laguna Seca.
Regularity is always a well attended category and this weekend 37 cars filled the dummy grid to almost capacity. In race one Brian Wilson in his Ford GT40 took the honours with 2 laps exactly on his predicted speed of 2:03 and another only three one hundredths underneath his nominated speed. Race two accuracy went to Chris Scheffer ( MGB) also with two laps on his nominated time and race three saw Aaron Lewis (E-type Jag) nail 4 laps on his nominated time. Craig Duthie was the most consistent with second place in both race two and three. Dave Lawrences’ beautifully turned out red Austin Healy 100/4 gleamed in the sunlight and Dave was also beaming with pride as he sang happy birthday to his pride and joy on its 60th birthday. You see, on Sunday June 6th, his ‘Healey was “born” back in 1955.
Group C& A is the baby boomers favourite racing event. With Skyline R32’s and Ford Sierra’s on track rest assured that the Goliath vs Godzilla arguments of the ‘90’s were reinvigorated trackside. Whilst the ‘boomers are much more mellow nowadays, sporting greyer hair (and less of it) the enthusiasm for this category hasn’t wained. With current high profile driver Rick Kelly feeding the Retro Speed press machine this past week driving Terry Lawlor’s Godzilla ( Car #4 – Skyline R32) this publicity might have been the catalyst that Terry needed in his campaign to overcome his nearest rival , Anthony Alfords, with his equally quick R32. With absolutely nothing in it, Lawlor was narrowly victorious in al three races, but they were hard fought as the margins were ultra slim in all three races. In fact, Terry had a mirror full of Alford all day as there was less than five one hundredths of a second between both cars at the finish of each race. Tony Compton was only a second back and took the final podium place in each race.
Group Sc was dominated by a foursome of determined Porsches: Geoff Morgan, Stan Adler, Wayne Seabrook and Andrew Purvis. For the most part Geoff Morgan’s birch green Carrera 911 was regularly out the front of each lap, however a determined grab of the lead by Purvis in race 3 proved unsustainable and somewhere along the way black tire marks ( which weren’t there at the beginning of the race) appeared on Geoff Morgans left side door showing how intense the racing had become late in the day. Group Sb was being fought out back in the field some 25-30 seconds behind the lead group as Damien Meyers smoothly kept two thundering Shelby Mustangs at bay (Laurie Sellars and Kevin Luke) as he went on to grab two wins and a third for the weekend. Sellars took the spare win as well as a second and third to round out his weekend. Colin Goldsmith was trying not to skin his knuckles in the cold foggy damp air very early on Sunday morning in his garage as he changed his front shocks. Deftly wielding a torque wrench Colin said”…I must have had a premonition that they needed changing because I brought a spare pair with me, and being that prepared is very unusual for me”
In Q & R John Bowe driving a 3 Litre March 741 was getting comfortable with the car behind Alex Davison ( Lola T332)and Tom Tweedie.(Chevron B24/28). Late in race two Bowe came to grief at turn 17 with steering and suspension problems causing a very untidy swerving manoeuvre and ultimately a DNF requiring a full uplift to return the car to the pits, ending his weekend. Stephen Borness slotted into the third spot vacated by Bowe joining Davison and Tweedie on the podium for the race two and three results respectively.
Words and pics by Rob Annesley
www.shotbyrob.com.au
BURROWS DRIVE DAY
A quick look inside a Burrows Drive Day! Check our Events Calendar the next Burrows Drive Day (cars not supplied…)
NSW MRC – WET BUT FUN!
Sydney Motorsport Park hosted Round two of the NSW Motor Racing Championships on May 1-3rd during some of the worst weather conditions NSW has seen in recent months. Qualifying was conducted under grey and wet conditions, however Saturday’s racing was wet and windy. The black top never completely dried out and standing water was the enemy of all who ventured out. The ground was moist and in some cases downright sodden on exposed corners so anyone running wide onto the grass verge was at the total mercy of momentum as understeer and wheelspin were the order of the day. Tony Virag ( HSV GTS) experienced this firsthand with a lose at turn 3.7 as he careered drivers right onto the grassy verge just over the hill and left a 100m deep gouge in the soggy turf ending up broadsiding into the wall in a shower of grass and mud resulting in two broken rims.
Although conditions were not ideal for lap records, driver skills were on show and made for a nonetheless exciting spectacle. Rain and vapourised water spouting off rear tyres mixed with steam and smoke from engines and exhausts added to the visual excitement of the weekend’s racing.
The Supersports category copped the worst of it with all three races conducted on Saturday. In a cagey move, Neal Muston went out slow in qualifying getting a really good look at the track conditions. Last on the grid for race one, he blitzed the field making up all sixteen places to take the chequered flag in race one and completed the trifecta with wins in all three races for the day. John Corbett and Rob Baird collected second and third place trophies in each of the three races. It was interesting to note that as the weather deteriorated during the afternoon the lap times increased dramatically with a full 20 sec being added to the Supersport final race times.
Dylan Thomas was a busy chap over the weekend competing in both the Production Touring and Formula Vee categories. Getting an early feel for the speed of the track Dylan took pole position in Prod Touring with a good qualifying result and proceeded to podium finish in all three races with his best being a win in race one. Luke Searle handled the very disrupting conditions with a win and two seconds and Daniel Oosthuizen rounded out the champagne spraying list with a first, second and third across the weekend.
A very large field of Formula Vee hardy stalwarts weathered the awful conditions in open wheelers with nowhere to hide from the downpour on Saturday. With rooster tails of water spray coming off all four wheels of this large field it was a massive effort just to be able to see one car length in front of you. Dylan Thomas managed to get passed Ryan Reynolds with a 2 sec faster lap time to clinch race one. Michael Kinsella edged out Reynolds by half a second to take race two with a fine hole shot off the line from fifth spot on the grid. Reynolds fought tooth and nail with Kinsella in race three with a gritty effort over the 10 laps but ended up 1/100th of a second short as they crossed the line in an almost photo finish. James Horne qualified strongly in third spot but found himself coming off second best to the conditions with strong contact into a wall forcing him out of any further racing.
Improved Production started with a smaller field than usual with only eleven cars competing. However this category is always fiercely fought out and the trio of Miller, Watts and Posa were in the thick of the action. Qualifying in that order race one went to plan for the successful qualifying triumverate. However the script got torn up as Watts took advantage of Millers engine trouble to grab the race two win and Mick Hazelton pounced from a handy mid field position to scoop second place honours. Millers problems forced him out of race three and four so Watts and Hazelton made the most of his absence. Watts added 3 race wins to his championship tally and Paul White rounded out the second spot on the podium with a clean run in his Mazda RX-7 in races three and four.
Commenting on Saturdays qualifying result in Sports Sedans Steve Lacey said”….I had a spin at turn two and got in with the wrong crowd which left me with a lot of work to do off the grid.” Further commenting on the conditions, Steve said “…Saturdays conditions were not conducive to dive bombing in order to make up places as everyone’s visibility was obscured by so much wheel spray. It was like thick fog out there.” A spirited and gutsy run saw Steve make up three places to finish third in race one. Spouting crowd pleasing flames from his VZ Commodore, Warren Millett grabbed first spot in race one followed by Steven Shiels big blue 6 Litre Camaro. One Sunday, Grant Doulman lamented “…one of the problems for us during rain delays is that we were stuck sitting in the pouring rain on the dummy grid for 50 minutes on Saturday. Our car has no windows and so water just flooded down into our car and caused an electrical gremlin. We had to completely relocate and replace our MSD”. This obviously didn’t adversely affect the SINOCO team performance as Grant went on to win races two and three, closely followed by Birol Cetin with two second places. Darren Steeden chose to sit out race two as the conditions were to so wet and he didn’t have any wet rubber. Fred Axisa exited the weekend during qualifying with a straight through slide out of turn six into the concrete wall destroying his suspension and suffering a cracked gearbox to boot.
Formula Ford action was again wet and sloshy for these open wheelers ( and open cockpits). Visibility was difficult as the spray from 15 closely grouped cars with no mudguards had drivers squinting to see and everyone trying to get a clear space in front of them to acquire some vision. Hence contact was inevitable and at one point Rod Baker and Andrew Crawshaw touched and spun leaving Baker stopped in the middle of the track awaiting assistance. Duratec racing was a three man show, with Luis Leeds taking maximum points with a third and two firsts, Tom Maxwell grabbed a first and two seconds and Andrew Kahl settled for a second and two thirds. Andrew ran all weekend with a faulty alternator. Not surprising as water and electrics don’t play well together.
Formula Ford 1600 series was completely controlled by Will Powers with three straight wins. Jason Liddell gave Powers an excellent run for his money and an exciting finish with only half a second between them after ten laps. Liddell finished with a second and third and Simon Hodge likewise.
2014 rookie Caitlin Wood was impressive over the weekend bettering her times and position with each subsequent race finally ending the day only two seconds away from a podium finish.
The Superkarts came out with a mighty onslaught on Sunday. Having all their races on the one day the very large field of 40 karts swamped the track and was a great spectacle. On lap one of race one an interesting set of circumstances came to pass. Firstly, Mark Robin tagged the rear tyre of Matthew Wark just short of turn two causing Wark to get sideways and as Robin went passed him, Wark’s loss of control repaid the compliment to Robin, sending him and Aaron Cogger to the sidelines for a DNF. Secondly, at the same time, only 20 metres further on at the entry to turn two, too many karts were trying to fit into the corner at the same time and this caused Chris McKeon, John Dunn and Paul Degan to have a coming together with only Degan escaping the altercation. Watching it live was a vision of total chaos but it eventually cleared itself and Aaron Steven went on to win with Matt Bass and Russell Jamieson taking the minors. Starting near the front of the grid in race two was too much advantage to give Jamieson, the 2013 Australian Champion, who went on to win with a comfortable six second margin. The race was hotly contested however with the reigning Aussie Champion Gary Pegaroro starting in grid position six, but had too much length to catch up and finished in a credible third. This was what Pegoraro had wanted, to be within striking distance of Jamieson. Race three was a thrilling eight laps, however the flying Jamieson was never headed and went on to claim his second victory of the day with a twelve second win from Pegoraro and Bass. Bass had a trifecta of podiums for the day with two seconds and a third.
Improved Production U2L was a mixed affair with last year’s champion, Dave Crighton, not represented this weekend. This years championship leader Justin McClintock had a slow start but gained momentum with a fourth and third result before his campaign ended on the back of a flat bed truck in race four on Sunday afternoon. With no championship points recorded before this weekend, Jordan Cox made up for that with podiums in all four races over the weekend with two wins and two seconds on the back of pole position qualifying. Daniel Burton similiarly hadn’t worried the scorer before this weekend however amassed a great tally of points also with four placings over the weekend with one race win, two seconds and a third. Peter Pauling took the other race win.
Words and pics by Rob Annesley
www.shotbyrob.com.au
ON LINE!
Welcome to our new website, www.sydneymotorsportpark.com.au! The new site brings together the ARDC and SMSP pages to deliver all you need to know about the Park and how to make the most of the facilities and experiences. There’s also a new Members portal, allowing easier sign up for new Memberships, information and to renew. Enjoy!
Mostert’s Winning Start
A freshly re-painted and re-surfaced Sydney Motorsport Park greeted the V8 Supercar teams on February 7-8, for the sydney.com Test Day. While the circuit itself drew lots of attention, all eyes were on young gun, Pepsi Max Crew’s Chaz Mostert as he took out the ARMOR ALL SuperShootout at day’s end.
Last year’s Bathurst winner was debuting the FG X Falcon at SMSP, adding to an excellent first test hit-out with the win against his more experienced rivals – and this from a driver who has never taken a V8 Supercars Pole Position. That looks set to change for 2015.
“It’s fantastic … everyone’s on the same brand new tyre, one lap to do the job and it’s good to be well inside the top 10 – further in front than we thought we would be,” Mostert said.
“The guys have worked so hard in the off-season… we’ve got a bit of homework to do, I wasn’t quite happy with the balance so a bit more speed to get out of her.”
The next round of the V8 Supercars at Sydney Motorsport Park is the SuperSprint, August 21-23. (Photos: Mark Horsburgh.)