Supersprint Nationals and NSW Season Wrap-up 2022
26 October 2022 / Words by Joe Kovacic, Photos by Rob Wilkins and Joe Kovacic
SMP Gardner Circuit 16 October 2022
A mild and sunny morning greeted 94 competitors for the Motorsport Australia National Supersprint hosted by Australian Racing Drivers Club at Sydney Motorsport Park Gardner Circuit on Sunday 16th October 2022. The event doubled as the final round of the NSW Supersprint Championship. Firstly, there was a practise session to allow drivers to familiarise themselves and iron out any bugs before all 94 competitors were gridded into 5 run groups managing to get 5 sessions around the GP Circuit at SMP. The fastest car of the day was Dean Tighe in a Dallara, the sole driver from Queensland, with a blistering time of 1:22.7328.
The highlight of the event, as far as our Club is concerned, was Luke Kovacic being crowned National & NSW Champion in Type RR driving a Toyota GR Yaris. Luke will be invited to the prestigious Motorsport Australia Awards Presentation sometime next year. This is Luke's second Type Champion award, having previously awarded the Type 2 NSW Champion in 2016 driving an MX-5 NB SE. Congratulations!
Thank you to all MX-5 Club drivers who represented our club gallantly against a barrage of ARDC drivers. Congratulations to Zac Raddatz on having the fastest MX-5 on the day (1:42.9753, class TA1). As Luke Kovacic won Type RR, he also won Class RR3. Other MX-5 Club members to win their Class at the Nationals were David Brown (2R2) and David Alland (RR2). Congratulations goes to our 9 registered championship drivers on their National results as follows. New member Jackson Crebert also competed as a non-championship driver, and we hope to see more of him in the Supersprints next year.
| Driver | Place | Class | Time | Vehicle |
| Luke Kovacic | 1 | RR3 | 1:46.3580 | Toyota GR Yaris |
| David Brown | 1 | 2R2 | 1:51.4433 | Mazda MX-5 |
| David Alland | 1 | RR2 | 1:57.4565 | Mazda MX-5 |
| Russ Maxwell | 2 | 2R3 | 1:51.1180 | Mazda MX-5 |
| Ken Hardy | 2 | RM2 | 1:53.4156 | Mazda MX-5 |
| Jie Ren | 3 | RM4 | 1:42.2113 | Toyota GR Supra |
| Zac Raddatz | 3 | TA1 | 1:42.9753 | Mazda MX-5 |
| Gerald Dreschler | 3 | RR2 | 2:01.1363 | Toyota 86 |
| Ralph Thompson | 4 | TA1 | 1:44.3378 | Lotus Exige |
 Jie Ren |
 Zac Raddatz |
 Ralph Thompson |
 Russ Maxwell |
 David Brown |
 Ken Hardy |
 David Alland |
 Gerald Dreschler |
|
A special congratulations goes to the following four drivers for achieving 1st place in their respective classes for the NSW Supersprint 2022 Season:
| Driver | Class | Vehicle |
| David Brown | 2R2 | Mazda MX-5 |
| Russ Maxwell | 2R3 | Mazda MX-5 |
| Gerald Dreschler | RR2 | Toyota 86 |
| Luke Kovacic | RR3 | Toyota GR Yaris |
The Mazda MX-5 Club of NSW, with only 9 registered competitors, managed to obtain a convincing 3rd place in the Club Championship. The pointscore after the final round for the 2022 Season has the Clubs as follows; 1st place Australian Racing Drivers Club (15056 points), 2nd place HSV Club of NSW (6180 points), 3rd place MX-5 Club of NSW (5172 points). That's a long way off our era of dominance in 2014-2017 when we won the Club Championship four years running. Hopefully we will see more MX-5 Club drivers competing next year and we can improve our standing.
Click here for all the photos from Rob Wilko
