NSW/VIC MX-5 Club Interstate Challenge

16 November 2024 / Story by Ian Spinks & Bryan Shedden, Photo by Bryan Shedden

The 2024 NSW/VIC MX-5 Club Interstate Challenge was hosted by the MX-5 Club of Victoria & Tasmania on Sunday 3rd November for the first time at the Wodonga TAFE Driver Training Complex just off the Hume Hwy to the west of Wodonga. We kicked off the event with a casual dinner at The Goods Shed in Wodonga on the Saturday night which was a nice way to catch up with and size up our competitors for the following day, over a meal and couple of quiet drinks.

Sunday morning presented a patchy looking sky as we arrived at the circuit, many for the first time. 12 NSW cars had made their way south to take on the 23 entrants from the Victorian club. First impressions of the circuit we good - a little bit like a small Mallala or a flat Pheasant Wood with plenty of runoff everywhere except the last corner. The only negative that anyone was discussing was the strong local contingent of flies.

The Clerk of Course was fellow club member Chris Hogan who was running the day on behalf of the Albury Wodonga & Districts Car Club. After the drivers briefing, the run groups kicked off and with the NSW cars all being in groups 3 and 4, we had the opportunity to watch our Victorian counterparts to get an idea of the lines and techniques to follow on the circuit. As we started to assemble on the dummy grid, spots of rain began to appear on our windscreens to add another challenge on new circuit. After the first run the consensus was that we were all quite impressed with this little track and all struggling to work out how to take the long sweeping corner over the back of the circuit. The spots of rain were a common theme for the morning, almost every time we were on track up to the lunch break, but our times continued to tumble as we grew in confidence. Following the driest period so far over lunch we were greeted with another brief shower when competition resumed, but this didn’t last long as the wind picked up to clear the clouds. The bright sunlight then pushed the track temperature up, effectively locking in most of the times set from earlier in the day.

The NSW team ended the day with the fastest time over all (Ian Spinks 0:55.5976) and a couple of fastest times in class. Chris Andry 0:59.2525 in Standard NC was lauded for clocking this highest benchmark score. However, the volume of Victorian cars, combined with their favourable vehicle classifications, meant that they were able to score sufficient points to take the trophy back from NSW this year.

Overall, a good day was had by all with no damage sustained and only a couple of minor mechanical concerns. We look towards next year where we can hopefully utilise the home ground advantage in numbers to reclaim the trophy in 2025. The full results with our own vehicle classes for our Sprint Championship point score are here. Details of the Interstate Challenge scoring will be published after the Victorians share it with us.

During the day, Chris Hogan told us about another mysterious little track called Wilby Park that none of us had heard about before. This 1000m circuit is located only an hour to the west of Wodonga, near Yarrawonga, and is managed by Albury Wodonga & Districts Car Club. The video below shows Chris driving the circuit in his modified NC MX-5. The circuit is apparently very cheap to hire ($1000!) and would make an ideal double-header weekend with one day at Wilby and the next at Wodonga. Something for the future maybe?