It feels like it’s only just begun in earnest, but 2020’s CSCA super sprint series signed off on Sunday afternoon, settling in for a Summer vacation following a spectacular day of sprinting around Sydney Motorsport Park.
The final CSCA round of 2020 was held on Sunday the 18th of October on Sydney Motorsport Park’s North circuit, hosted by the Jaguar Drivers Club of Australia. It was round six of a season somewhat paradoxically only four rounds long, and our first visit to Sydney Motorsport Park since we were on the same layout for round six of the 2019 series back in September of last year.
With 18 signed up, we ended up with 14 Club Lotus Australia drivers settings times, eight of which qualified for the top ten once the final chequered flag went out.
After a week of depressing weather predictions for Sunday, the day dawned gloomy. However, the predicted precipitation seemed to prefer its place amongst the clouds, and we enjoyed dry conditions blooming into a pleasant afternoon.
Brett Stevens put in a great drive to secure the Club’s top spot. He went fastest in P3 and second overall on a 1:11.047, leapfrogging Martin Duursma (1:11.22, fastest M3) and Richard Woodhams’ (1:11.62, fastest P2) timeless rivalry along the way and hanging on admirably to Daniel Nolan in the Nola Chev, who pushed the ferocious old beast to a 1:04.61.
After enduring an enforced early mark at Wakefield Park a few weeks ago, Liam Sheppard was back – starting on ‘wet’ tyres and enjoying a good slide. Eventually the tardy pit crew arrived (ie. Craig) and ‘dry’ tyres were made available. Immediately Liam went to the pointy end of proceedings for the season finale. He set a 1:13.10 in the Exige, fastest M2.
A note of caution here to beware The Lotus Crew’s collective sense of humour. After spending twenty minutes changing tyres ‘the old fashioned way’ and just as the last nut was torqued up, the chief wag, one M. Duursma, was heard to say “By the way I have a rattle gun” followed by the chorus of laughter from Brett, Richard, Colin, Graham and Peter. Absolutely hilarious!
Peter Deller was our next quickest driver, his Commodore making short work of the longer straights and enjoying the more gentle corners of the North Circuit layout. He steered it to a 1:13.43 with brother John Deller not far behind on a 1:14.93.
Colin Rudd is getting consistently quicker, and on Sunday pushed his Elise Sport 220 to a 1:13.66, second M2. On that note Adrian Weir looked plenty fast in his Renault Megane RS250 and had it working hard as he steered it to a 1:14.22. The final spot in the top ten went to Peter Taylor, who claimed a 1:14.64 in his Exige S.
Our second Lotus driver on board a Renault for the day, Terence Waugh, went fastest in R4 with a 1:15.43 in the Renault Sport. Pare things back even further than Terence’s Renault and you have the feisty little Hawke Formula Ford of Grahame Burton. Grahame ran a 1:15.54 in the iconic historic racer. On his tail was another Graham (Allen), who ran a 1:17.13 in his Elise.
Ashton Roskill continues to dial the Elite in and from the permanent smile on his face doesn’t seem bothered by the process at all. He ran a 1:19.36.
Paul Tilse joined us for the first time at the 2019 CSCA season finale, held in November last year at Wakefield Park, driving a BMW M2. He’s since found himself a Porsche Cayman GT4 to play with, and on Sunday steered it to a quick 1:20.897.
As we packed up, the heavens finally opened, which seemed like a fitting end to the season that was 2020.
Our huge thanks to the Jaguar Drivers Club of Australia for hosting the round and persisting through the varied and changeable challenges of doing anything interesting in 2020.
Most importantly, we’d like to send our immense gratitude to all of the many volunteers who play an instrumental role in making not only the CSCA series, but all forms of community motorsport possible. You provide us with opportunities to enjoy our cars and develop our skills in a safe and well supported environment, as well as to take part in a wonderful community of fellow enthusiasts. Thank you!
Finally, thank you to everyone who got involved this year, whether you were chasing down the very pointy end, quietly progressing your skills, supporting our drivers or just coming out to catch a few sessions and say ‘Hi!’ to good friends.
All too soon and with fewer miles than we’d like on the odometers, that’s a wrap. Club Lotus Australia will host the opening round of the 2021 series on the 7th of March 2021 at Wakefield Park. We hope you’ll join us for another great year of CSCA sprinting – hopefully with 50% more motorsport!
