Round 3 of the CAMS Supersprint Championship was held at SMSP North yesterday and while rain threatened, apart from some fine misting, it didn’t really eventuate. Another plentiful roster of 117 eager competitors lined up in the eleven groups.
No sooner had competition started when a lengthy delay occurred due to a full circuit oil spill from Paul Martens Clubman ( #63), which had track maintenance staff dusting and blowing the track from the entrance to turn one all the way around to the entrance to the pits on main straight. A long 40 minute wait had competitors who were waiting on the dummy grid quite antsy. A funny side to it was when race control called to scrutineering to have a chat to Paul about the oil spill. The scrutineer apparently mis-heard the call and asked for a repeat of the car number involved. Race control replied”…go find car #63… it’ll be the clubman with no oil in it.”
This is a good time to doff our caps to the maintenance and safety staff who do such a good job in preparing and maintaining the track making it safe for us all to enjoy the sport. They work tirelessly to keep the track in race condition. The oil spill today stretched 2.8 km and they did a great job cleaning it up. I noticed that we have a new industrial broom, a forklift with a massive broom attached to the front. Very cool…and sweeps very fast.
The delay resulted in the session being shortened by two runs, however the day was successful as records were broken in two Types and seven Classes. Once again Andrie Tan was the fastest on the day in his Radical with the only sub one minute time of the day of 59.302. Steve Lacey brought his Chev Camaro to the Championship for the first time. Steve has been a Championship competitor for many years. First in his white Torana, followed by his blue VK Commodore, but this Camaro is something else. Steve was the fastest tin top on the day with a time of 1.03.415, which broke the Type 4 and Class 4D records. He previously held both those records in his VK Commodore Sports Sedan. Unfortunately, Steve suffered steering problems on his third pass, and was forced to retire. Paige Butchers had a scare when her bonnet flew up on turn one and scratched her windscreen pretty badly.
Warwick Morris was the other Type record breaker in his Porsche GT3. He recorded a time of 1.08.593, which broke the Type 2 and Class 2C records. Warwick has broken the Class 2C record at every track he has run this year and it is the second time he has broken the Type 2 record
Other Class records broken were:
Class 1C – Preston Peiris took a second and a half off the Class 1C record with a time of 1.17.587 in his Mazda MPS3. Preston has broken the Class 1C record at every Round this year.
Class 4A – Chris Muir set a new Class 4A record in his new Honda CRX with a time of 1.16.401. Chris only unveiled his newly finished CRX today, was extremely happy with its performance.
Class 4B – Ed Cory broke the Class 4B record in his Mazda MX5 with a time of 1.16.250 Class 4C – Richard Perini broke the Class 4C record in his Porsche RSR with a time of 1.04.564. While they didn’t make the record books, it is worth noting that Bruce Hibbard (Porsche GT3), Adam Laura (BMW M3) and Matt Cole (Mazda RX7) also broke the Class 4C record yesterday.
Class 5B – Chris Kostakis broke the Class 5B records by about 3 seconds in his MNR Vortex with a time of 1.056.973. It should be noted that Chris has broken the Class 5B record at every Round this year.
The Mazda MX5 Club is leading the Club Championship by the barest of margins
on 1226 points just ahead of ARDC who are just 4 points behind on 1222
points. Manly Warringah are in 3rd place on 597 points.
-Words and pictures by Rob Annesley
Special thanks to Bob Welsh for specific race details
