MX-5 Cup Round 3
27 June 2015 / Words by Steve Green
SMP SOUTH 31 MAY 2015
The day dawned wet and cold, not the ideal conditions for prepping the car for our first Cup meeting at the SMP South Circuit.
Great to see Luke Otten back in the immaculate looking #33 and a welcome to some newcomers to our 2015 Cup rounds in Daniel Byron, Lou Iezzi and Bill Shipton. The rest were the usual suspects in Matilda, Scott, Wayne, Stuart, Andy, Carl, Keith, Cameron, Michael and Steve all eager to squabble over the available Championship points.
First decision of the day was tyre choice for qualifying on a very greasy surface. At least for those that had a choice, a few only had slicks and were going to struggle until conditions changed for the better. Wets set the pace and established the all-important grid spots. Passing would be difficult on this tight track, Race 1 was still quite damp and greasy particularly offline. For this reason and the fact many entrants for the day had not driven this circuit before, standing starts gave way to rolling starts in the name of safety.
Race 2 and 3 were run on pretty much a dry track and times started to tumble. Majority of the pack were running around doing 1:02s and 1:03s, Luke stamped his authority in Race 3 with a low 1:01. Pretty quick considering there was still quite a bit of rubbish being dragged onto the track from the previous category.
Racing throughout the day as always was close and clean. Some great overtaking maneuvers’ on this tight and technical track with no contact is a credit to the whole Cup team. The podium positions were hotly contested between Luke, Scott, Wayne, Matilda and Stuart. But it was Luke that took out top spot overall for the day closely followed by Scott and Wayne.
Many thanks go to the FOSC team for letting us come and play. This particular track has proved to be an excellent challenge for our little Mazdas and like many other Cup runners I can’t wait to finish off the series back here in November.
Should see a few of the other regulars back on track after some running repairs to their vehicles as well at the next meeting at Wakefield Park on the 28th June. So if you’re thinking of going racing now is the time to give it a go, see you there.
