MX-5 Club Delivers at Amaroo
11 July 2026 / Story by Bryan Shedden, Photos by Baden Jones
The MX-5 Club of NSW took on hosting duties for Round 3 of the Combined Sports Car Association (CSCA) Supersprint Championship at Sydney Motorsport Park's Amaroo Circuit on Sunday 3 May. While our club has a long history of running this event and normally supplies virtually all of the officials, this year proved to be a little more challenging.
With many of our experienced volunteers committed to NatMeet in the Hunter Valley, we called on officials from several other CSCA clubs to help ensure the event ran smoothly. Their assistance was greatly appreciated. The Clerk of Course also had an unexpected challenge on the morning when the appointed Steward failed to arrive, creating some extra work before proceedings could get underway. Fortunately, a solution was found, and the event proceeded without drama — a testament to the teamwork that exists between the CSCA clubs.
A total of 75 competitors lined up for the day, with the MX-5 Club fielding an impressive 29 entrants — by far the largest club representation. While the majority competed in the cars that brought us together, seven members were campaigning other machinery. Our growing Toyota GR Yaris contingent has now expanded to four with Georgios Zaharof joining the club, proving that while some members have wandered from the Mazda fold, they still know where the best motorsport club is.
Unfortunately, recent minor surgery ruled me out of competing, so instead of wearing a helmet I spent the day wearing an orange vest as the flag marshal at Flag Point 12. It turned out to be one of the better spectator positions on the circuit, with a clear view of the cars charging over the rise at Turn 10, standing on the brakes for the tight hairpin at Turn 11, and then digging in for the uphill run through Turns 12 and 13.
Thankfully, my sector remained incident-free all day, so the yellow flags stayed rolled up. Instead, I spent much of the day displaying blue flags as the faster cars caught traffic. It's surprising how often a well-timed blue flag is rewarded with a grateful wave from the quicker driver — and occasionally a sheepish one from the driver who had been ignoring their mirrors. Helping competitors get a clear lap without interrupting their rhythm was almost as satisfying as being out there myself.
At the front of the field, Benjamin Jackson's Radical SR3 was simply untouchable, recording the fastest lap of the day with a blistering 58.493 seconds. Club Lotus Australia's Louis Chan claimed second outright in his Lotus Exige, while our own Georgios Zaharof announced his arrival in the club with an outstanding third outright in his Toyota GR Yaris, stopping the clocks at 1:00.289.
The first MX-5 home was Luke Kovacic, who continued his excellent form by steering his 30th Anniversary MX-5 to fourth outright with a 1:03.285 lap. Jason Russell's ever-rapid NA MX-5 was close behind in fifth, while Sam Hou's GR Yaris finished eighth overall. Brett Lansley rounded out the outright top ten in ninth with another strong performance in his turbocharged MX-5.
The MX-5 Club's Sprint Championship produced some excellent competition across the classes. Chris Andry claimed Standard Class honours with a benchmark-beating score of 100.47%. Luke Kovacic topped Clubman (100.02%), while Scott McGarry (99.68%) and John Karayannis (99.64%) completed the podium in an extremely competitive class. Kyle Robinson took Modified Class honours (98.69%) ahead of Paul Dierking (98.40%) and Reece Lyndon (97.15%), while Brett Lansley headed the Open Class. The Non-MX-5 category was won by Georgios Zaharof leading home fellow GR Yaris drivers Sam Hou, Jason Atkins and David Phillips.
The Amaroo Circuit once again delivered close, competitive sprinting and plenty of personal bests. More importantly, despite the organisational challenges leading into the event, the day ran safely and efficiently thanks to the efforts of competitors, volunteers and officials from across the CSCA clubs.
While I'd much rather have been behind the wheel than behind a flag point, spending the day on the other side of the fence gave me a fresh appreciation for the volunteers who make our events possible.
