Club Track Day at Wakefield Park
28 January 2017 / Words by Bryan Shedden, Photos by Grant Webber & Rob Wilkins
2016 was a crazy mixed up year for club motorsport. Would you believe that 11 December was our first Sunday track day at Wakefield Park in 2016?! Thankfully it was a beautiful day with blue skies, light scattered clouds and a top temperature of 26°C. David Lawler was absent so David Johnson stepped in as our Clerk of Course - what a great job he did too! The day was fully booked and after a few no-shows, there were 77 drivers competing - all but 12 were in MX-5s. It was amazing to note that 17 competitors made the long trip down from Hunter Chapter - well done!
Fastest of the day was Curran Brennan with an amazing time of 1:07.829. Curran and father Stephen have really got their turbo NA sorted and wiped more than three seconds off their PB. Visitor Alaine O'Connor was next fastest with 1:08.918 in a Trackschool NC racecar - he was so impressed with our track day that he's since joined the club.
With President Keith Monaghan absent due to surgery, Mitchell Bennett dominated Class 1 in his standard NB8A with 1:16.220. Michael DeMaio, Greg Unger, Phil Christie and Mat Fraser fought a close battle for second place, with less than half a second separating 2nd from 5th. Greg Unger particularly impressed with a 1.3 second improvement on his PB.
Luke Kovacic and I had a ding dong battle in Class 2, with Luke claiming the win (1:12.619). I trailed by a mere 0.019 seconds ... until the last run when Luke extended his lead to a "mammoth" 0.082 seconds. For perspective, that's equivalent to a gap of 3.2m at the finish line, or less than a car length. Superb driving Luke! And another perfect example of how the Standard MX-5 classes provide highly challenging competition.
More and more NDs are finding their way to the track, and they look right at home with numbers on the doors! Jason Atkins claimed a comfortable win in Class 3 (1:14.490). Brett Meehan was second and first-timer Yuki Yu third.
Graham Fletcher had a blinder in Class 4, shed 0.9s off his PB and claimed the win with 1:16.183. It almost made up for his obsession with red eye-shadow! Graham was followed by Josh Allen and Colin Glazier.
Phil Mayo is a veteran of the modified NA6s in Class 5 and set a new PB of 1:14.876 to claim the win. However he'll need to carefully watch over his shoulder at future events as Jason Russell and Graham Perkiss are also improving strongly. P-plater Blake Hotz impressed with a highly respectable 1:18.230 on debut - he's obviously inherited fast driving genes from Warren and Tammie!
John Karayannis had Class 6 all to himself (1:12.727) with Gus Elias experiencing a car that was down on power after a head gasket replacement following Winton (1:14.287). Mark Kavanagh claimed 3rd and will soon be challenging John & Gus as he continues to improve.
Greg and Lesa Bunn claimed 1st (1:11.359) and 2nd (1:13.844) in Class 7 with their modified NC. It was almost a PB for Lesa too, missing out by only 0.01s. Andrew Digney peddled his lightly modified ND to an impressive 1:14.016 to claim 3rd.
In Class 8, Phil Donnelley absolutely smashed his PB by more than four seconds to claim the win (1:11.790). All his recent modifications to his SE really paid off! Ray Estreich was less than half a second behind in 2nd place, and only 0.01s behind his old PB. Josh Fitzgerald's SE was unfortunately not ready for the track, and he was forced to claim some Class 8 points in a non-turbo car.
The racecars in Class 9 were dominated by the usual suspects: Ralph Thompson in 1st (1:09.759) and Ian Combes 2nd (1:10.417). Welcome to Matthew and Terry Johnson who impressed at their first club track day with times in the 1:12s. No surprise really - Matthew was third in the 2016 MX-5 Cup Championship and he's no first-timer!
Curran and Stephen Brennan were 1st and 2nd in Class 10, with Tammie Hotz 3rd debuting her recently acquired supercharged NC.
Keith Bridgement in his WRX was fastest of the non-MX-5s in Class 11 (1:11.020). Jamie Collins usually drives his SP at the track, but had a run in his Commodore SSV this time. He claimed second and revelled in the thrill of leaving black lines on the exit of turn 10. It was wonderful to see Val Stewart return to the track after a three-year absence, although her day was ended early by an oil leak in her RX-7.
So concluded the 2016 calendar year of MX-5 motorsport. Our first club track day for 2017 is on 4 February at Sydney Motorsport Park South Circuit. It is already fully booked, as is the driver training day at Marulan on 12 February. The following track day is at Wakefield Park on Sunday 5 March 2017 and entries are now open. Do not delay in submitting your entry as this event will book out very fast, especially as it will double as an MX-5 Cup round for the serious racers.
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