12th/13th November 2011
Eastern Creek Supersprint Round 9 / Australian Supersprint ChampionshipThe final round of the NSW Supersprints at Eastern Creek also doubled as the Australian Supersprint Championship. We were in for a treat with a two-day event and the rain stayed away despite the forecast of afternoon showers both days. It was bloody hot though, starting at 20C by 9am and peaking at 29C on Saturday, 27C on Sunday. Doesn't sound too bad, but when you're sitting in a hot car waiting for the next run, it's bloody uncomfortable.
The event was open to a maximum of 150 drivers, but ARDC must have been disappointed to attract only 100 in total, many of whom only showed up for one day - there were around 90 drivers each day. We had 6 runs of 3 laps on Saturday, but a disappointing 5 runs on Sunday despite an early start as cars did not need scrutineering again. We had to finish early to get the presentation done. I was pleased to see my friend Avril enter in her MINI Cooper S. We started doing trackdays together back in 2005 when I had my Cooper S, and she still regularly competes in the BMW Supersprints. Avril was running in Class 2C and had tough competition from a group of BMW 3 Series.
Day 1Run 1 started after a delay to clean up an oil spill in turn 1. Needless to say, it took me a while to build confidence through there. So I eased into the day with a 2:00.510. Had fun chasing down a kermit green Focus RS (Class 3D) and caught him on the last lap ... 224kW versus 85kW! He was consistently 2 seconds quicker than me for the rest of the day though.
Run 2 included a big slide on turn 9 which might previously have ended in tears with the old grass runoff, but the new track surfacing allowed me to easily stop before the tyre wall. Lap 3 was looking really good up to the last two turns, but my foot slipped off the clutch for the change to 4th gear on the straight, and I dropped a few tenths. However, I surprised myself with a lap of 1:59.835. So much for unfavourable conditions!
Run 3 was compromised by displaying of yellow & red flag for turn 2 throughout the run. Not sure why because there didn't seem to be any problem with the surface. So I had a 2:00.413 on that run.
Run 4 went smoothly at first, and I did a 1:59.873 on lap 2. The last lap got a bit skatey and I made a mess of turn 7. Had a nice view of the Focus RS in my mirrors this time.
Run 5 had a bit of overtaking traffic, and was entertaining to watch the vintage yellow GTS Monaro (Class 4D) in front of me. He'd blast away on the straights and then I'd catch up again in the corners. He proved to be a nuisance for the Boxster S and Austin Healey Sprite that tried to get past, by repeatedly blocking their overtaking move. I improved my time to 1:59.741 on the last lap with Mike Hicks breathing down my neck in his NB. Five tenths quicker than the Monaro!
Run 6 was snuck in at the end of the day, when many were already packing up. On the second lap, I improved my time a bit more to 1:59.584 with a Vmax down the straight of 174.6km/hr. After that my tyres cried enough and it got very skatey from turn 4 onwards.
That was the end of Day 1. I was thrilled with a best lap of 1:59.584 on a hot day. It was only three tenths slower than my PB which was achieved in August's much better conditions.
My friend Snapper put me up for the night at his place just down the road at Colyton. Having only a 10 minute drive "home" was a massive novelty for me! We met up with a few more friends (including Avril) and had a chicken schnitzel at the Colyton Hotel. I wasn't much fun afterwards though - falling asleep on the lounge by 9pm!
Day 2Had a great nights sleep and enjoyed the luxury of a sleep-in (relatively speaking), and cooked my host some scrambled eggs and toast for breakie, before heading off for the track. The cars did not require scrutineering again, so we had a relaxed start to the day.
Run 1 was a steady warm-up. I went out right at the end of the group, and then got stuck behind a pair of dawdlers on the warm-up lap, so I got passed by the leading C63 AMG before I even started the first lap, and then by an FPV Ute before the end of the first lap. My third lap was a 2:00.966 - just warming the brakes and tyres.
Run 2 was a ripper. On the second lap, my PBox timer indicated I was actually beating my PB lap right up to the last turn. But then I was forced to take a tighter line onto the main straight in order to avoid Alex Slack's MR2 that was rejoining the track after an off. I still crossed the line in
1:59.293! That was a mere
four thousandths of a second slower than my PB. Had I not shed a couple tenths on that last turn, it would have been a new Class 1A record. Bugger. My last lap got a bit slidey in turns 5 and 9, so that was it.
Run 3 was a write-off because a BMW ran wide on turn 1 and parked in the kitty litter. So the supercritical turn 1 was yellow flagged for the entire run. I had a best lap of 2:01.172, but enjoyed chasing Avril's MINI and watching flames shooting from the exhaust. So much for road-registered!
Run 4 was spent following Avril's MINI again. Our lap times were very close all weekend. This time I let her pull ahead a little during the first lap, and concentrated on chasing her down after that. The third lap was a beauty - 1:59.412 - could have been a couple tenths better as I had a bit too much slide in turn 5.
Run 5 was looking good on the second lap - until I carried a little too much trail brake into turn 7, didn't quite catch the oversteer, and flicked onto the grass off to the right. Rejoined the track OK, but then our run (the last for the day) was checkered one lap early - and it was only 3:30ish. So that was it for the weekend.
The reason for the early finish was that CAMS had to do the trophy presentation. I won Class 1A, but that wasn't difficult as I was the only entry! No trophy for me. However, Stewart Temesvary won Class 1B in his NC, with a time of 1:57.430, ahead of four other MX-5s (NBs). Elliot Caras won Type 2 in his Honda S2000 with a 1:46.355. Robert Kolimackovski won Type 3 in his VL Commodore with a 1:44.771. Stuart Inwood won Type 4 in his AU Falcon V8 Supercar with 1:35.994. Jason Wright won Type SV in his WRX STi with a 1:36.209. And - no surprise - Andre Tan blitzed Type 5 and the Outright trophy, in his Radical Supersport with a 1:30.048, despite blowing up the gearbox after completing only two laps! Andre was a massive six seconds quicker than his nearest "rival".
The Final Wash-upI finished the season in first place for Class 1A, with Supersprint records at both Eastern Creek (1:59.288) and Wakefield Park (1:14.978). There were only two other irregular competitors in 1A, so it wasn't much of a challenge. I was also third in Type 1 - Stewart Temesvary beat me by a solitary point. His win at
Round 8 by a paltry 0.03s made all the difference! Although to be fair, Stewart also missed a round.
In the other classes, Stewart Temesvary (NC & NB8A) won Class 1B, Keith Monaghan (NB8B) was second, and Glenn Thomas (NB8B) third. Tony Williams came third in Class 2A behind a pair of B16A Civics. In Class 2B, the competition was very tough and our best performers were Ralph Thompson (NC) fourth, and Steve Green (NB8A) fifth.
Sadly, the MX-5 Club of NSW just missed out on winning the Club Championship. We needed to make up a 36 point gap to NSWRRC at this last round of the season, but could only claw back 7 points. So congratulations to NSWRRC.
The top five clubs were: New South Wales Road Racing Club (962), MX-5 Club of NSW (933), Australian Racing Drivers Club (807), Manly Warringah Sporting Car Club (436), and Clubman Drivers Club of NSW (406).
Natsoft ResultsVideos to come soon ...
I had to use it with his fixed seat for the driver training back in September. A "fully sik" driving position was required to reach the pedals! 
. Enjoy! 
