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.