Supersprint Round 2 at SMP GP

17 June 2016 / Words and photos by Bryan Shedden

Round 2 of the CAMS NSW Supersprint Championship was held on the Grand Prix circuit at Sydney Motorsport Park on Sunday 15 May. A clash with the Nulon Nationals at Bathurst hillclimb meant that our team numbers were down for the day, yet we fielded a strong team of 20 MX-5 Club drivers, which was an excellent effort.

Supersprints at SMP have been a wonderful social outing for our club members, with Ed Cory coordinating the booking of pit garages for our drivers to congregate. Sadly the ARDC scotched those plans by introducing new rules giving booking priority to ARDC members. After countless emails and phone calls, Ed was granted three garages and three carports for our team, scattered from one end of the pits to the other. Not happy ARDC! But thank you Ed for your perseverance and tenacity.

The day started painfully slow with very long queues at check-in for the 122 entrants. This was compounded after the first run when a clubman dumped its guts on the main straight and required the clean-up crew. Then on the third run, an Alfa Romeo GTV took an ambitious line through the very high speed turn 1, got onto the dirt and speared back across the track into the concrete wall. The driver was not injured but his car was a mess, and it happened right in front of me!

There was another very long delay while the officials sorted out the aftermath - it was after lunch by the time we had our second run. Thankfully the proceedings sped up after that and by the end we had five runs of four laps each.

Our star driver was Chris White in Class 4B, who broke Brian Anderson's 11 year record by 0.998s with a great at time of 1:44.272. Congratulations Chris! There were class podiums for Bryan Shedden 2nd in 1B (1:56.756), Keith Monaghan 3rd in 1B (2:02.483), Scott McGarry 1st in 2A (1:59.629, only one lap due to engine trouble), Jason Russell 2nd in 2A (2:00.950), Luke Kovacic 3rd in 2C (1:51.347), Ralph Thompson 1st in 3B (1:50.152), Chris White 1st in 4B, Ed Cory 2nd in 4B (1:59.351), Marty Voormeulen 3rd in 4B (2:00.353), Glenn Thomas 1st in 6A (1:57.473), Stewart Temesvary 2nd in SVB (1:58.415), and Warren Hotz 2nd in SVC (1:51.110). The team scored a total of 437 points in the Club Championship bringing our tally to 908. Yet this wasn't enough to stop ARDC from taking the lead, as the home advantage helped them move to 939 points.

That evening, the presentation for the 2015 Supersprint Championship was held upstairs at the Garage Cafe. A tidy haul of trophies were awarded to our competitors, although only a handful were present to collect. Our winners were Bryan Shedden (3rd 1B), Phil Donnelley (3rd 1C), Scott McGarry (1st 2A), Tony Williams (2nd 2A), Jon Fox (3rd 2B), Luke Kovacic (3rd 2C), Mark Palmer (2nd 3A), Ralph Thompson (1st 3B), Phil Abraham (2nd 3B), David Lawler (2nd 4B), Ed Cory (3rd 4B), Matt Perry (2nd 4D), Tony King (1st 6A), Mike Hicks (2nd SVB), Greg Bunn (3rd SVB), and Russ Maxwell (3rd SVC). Congratulations!

Round 3 returns to Sydney Motorsport Park on Sunday 19 June, this time on the North Circuit. While it is not a track that suits low horsepower MX-5s, our drivers will once again be out in force to represent the MX-5 Club of NSW.

Click here for all of Bryan's photos