The sixth and final round of the 2023 CSCA supersprint series was held on Sunday the 22nd of October, kindly hosted by the Jaguar Drivers Club of Australia on Sydney Motorsport Park’s ‘North’ circuit. We enjoyed a wonderful day of spring super sprinting, and it’s time to catch up on everything that went down.
We were pleased to see excellent support from competitors, 71 drivers turning out to run on the day including 17 under Club Lotus Australia. The weather did its best to support the event, offering good conditions all day, although as we’ve experienced multiple times so far this spring, it got hot, working its way up to the 30s. By 1:30pm most of the Lotus runners were running a second or two slower – both the car and the drivers, so they returned to the relevant comfort of the garages and traded stories on what could have been.
In a rare turn of events, CLA members were unable to break into the top three on the timesheets – although the machinery at the very top was a little specialist. Alexander and Neil Kenny set the fastest two times of the day for JDCA, Alexander running an impressive 1:00.65 in the Juno CN2015, Neil a few seconds behind in a Nova Proto NP01.
The quickest CLA drivers on the day were Brett Stevens, who ran a 1:11.42 in the 2021 Exige for second M3 and fifth overall, and Ralph Thompson, almost exactly one tenth slower in his Exige and third M3, sixth overall.
Peter Taylor and Chris Pearse followed, Peter running a 1:13.35 in the Exige 410 for first P3 and tenth overall. They were chased by Geoffrey Linders, who we were pleased to welcome to his first super sprint outing with the club. Geoff ran a 1:13.52 in an Exige Sport 410.
Then it was Peter Deller in the Commodore, just two tenths slower on a 1:13.57. Peter was immediately followed by Len Goodwin in the lovely Elan 26R, first CD1, and Craig Sheppard in the Exige Cup 240 R claiming first in M2.
Brett Monk and John Deller completed the top 20, the Commodore making its second appearance just a tenth slower than Monk’s Exige. Paul Tilse just squeaked into the 1:15s on 1:15.99 in the Porsche 718 GT4 and was followed by Graham Allen on 1:17.17 in his Elise. Meanwhile, Garth Selig found himself bang in the middle of the time sheets, running a 1:18.64 in the GSM Dart he built with long time member Syd Reinhardt.
Derrick Cho was able to give his sister Tina a good run in the Type R Civic on the shorter, twistier North circuit, just a few tenths slower than Tina’s 1:19.24 in her WRX R3. It was great to see John Culvenor’s handsome Elan out for another run after being brought back into competition earlier this year after an extended break, John finding more speed each outing. Sadly our fearless leader Ashton was left dangling off the bottom of the time sheet after the Elite developed an electrical gremlin that couldn’t be fixed.
Thank you to everyone who came out to support the event, on track, as a volunteer or in any way that you could. And a very special thank you to the Jaguar Drivers Club of Australia for putting on a smoothly run and most enjoyable event to complete the year’s super sprint competition. We’re already looking forward to getting out again early next year – hopefully with a return to Wakefield Park!
