Supersprint Round 6 at Wakefield Park

03 October 2016 / Words by Bryan Shedden

The penultimate Round 6 of the 2016 CAMS NSW Supersprint Championship was held at Wakefield Park on 11 September, hosted by the Mini Car Club. 83 competitors arrived bright and early; so early in fact that the last carport was snaffled within 10 minutes of the gates opening! The MX-5 Club of NSW was represented by 23 drivers and one non-championship entrant - a very strong turnout at the MX-5 friendly track.

September is usually the best month for fast laps at Wakefield Park, and we were not disappointed this year. Blue skies and light cloud started the day before a cool change came through and kept the temperature down to a top of 14°C. Mini Car Club ran an exceptionally efficient day, helped in no small part by our grid marshall, Joe Kovacic. Joe worked his magic and drivers were given the opportunity for up to seven runs of five laps each. Amazing!

It was an eventful day for two of our drivers. Scott McGarry's NA6 developed a misfire on the first run and was diagnosed as a failed coil-on-plug. Nothing that couldn't be quickly fixed after a quick trip into town to buy a replacement part. Gus Elias then managed to snap off the gear lever on his NB. Seriously! He got going again after driving to Canberra to pick up a spare - thanks to Peter Battisson at ACDC for getting helping Gus out on a Sunday.

The fastest MX-5 driver was Chris White who claimed 1st in 4B with a superb time of 1:05.840 on treaded R-spec tyres even though slicks are permitted in Type 4. Chris shaved 0.03 seconds off the 4B record that was set by fellow MX-5 Club member Ed Chivers back in 2004 and in doing so, he erased the longest standing Class Record. Ed's old record was set in "Fanta", a well known bright-orange NA that was subsequently campaigned by Peter Browning. You can watch Chris' record lap in the video below.

Class podiums went to Bryan Shedden 2nd in 1B (1:12.476), Keith Monaghan 3rd in 1B (1:16.237), Phil Donnelley 3rd in 1C (1:16.361), Scott McGarry 1st in 2A (1:12.790), Jason Russell 2nd in 2A (1:15.037), Gus Elias 3rd in 2B (1:12.706), Luke Kovacic 1st in 2C and 2nd in Type 2 (1:09.218), Ralph Thompson 1st in 3B (1:09.238), Phil Abraham 2nd in 3B (1:16.005), Phil Ashton 3rd in 3C (1:09.754), David Lawler 2nd in 4B (1:08.741), Greg Bunn 3rd in SVB (1:11.548), and Russ Maxwell 3rd in SVC (1:15.888), and the top three in 6A were claimed by Tony King (1:08.586), Ray Estreich (1:12.069), and Glenn Thomas (1:12.478).

Luke Kovacic is now holding 1st place in Type 2, which is amazing effort against a gaggle of Porsches, Exiges and HSVs. Well done Luke, and good luck for the final round.

The Club Championship lead has changed again and the MX-5 Club is on 2712 points, ahead of ARDC by just 22 points with only one round to go. Superb effort by our team of drivers! The final round is at SMP Amaroo Circuit on 16th October and all our fingers and toes are crossed for our first ever hat-trick of Championship wins.

Full Results:

Results
Type
Class
Club Summary
Times
Lap Records