Upcoming Round

NEXT RACE – Round 1 – April 27 – 28, 2024

Round 1
Track: Winton Motor Raceway
Date: April 27 – 28, 2024
Length 3.0KM
Turns: 12
F3 Lap Record: 1.14.3″

2022 Motorsport Australia AGI NSW Formula Race Cars Championship

2022 AGI NSW Motor Race Championship Round 5 
29th – 30th October, 2022
Sydney Motorsport Park

Race Report Click here:

For images click here:

Points Table click here:

 

This race report is brought to you by our gun reporter Jodie Sok,
on debut at the NSW Motor Sport Championships.

2022 AGI NSW Motor Race Championship Round 4 
6th – 7th August, 2022
Sydney Motorsport Park

Pole position during Saturday’s morning qualifying session, one race win after another, the success kept on flowing for AGI Sport’s Nathan Gotch in his Dallara F307 this weekend, securing the win for Round five of the AGI NSW Motorsport Race Championship. By the end of this weekend, Gotch increased his lead in the championship standings, with the young gun Costa Toparis finishing second for the round and for the overall standing.

 

Pre -race

After constant rain after our previous races this season, we have been fortunate enough to be granted a weekend of sunshine and a dry track, to get racing underway at Sydney Motorsport Park after countless wet qualifiers to start our weekends.

A strong field of 17 cars were preparing in the garages, with high anticipation to see what Costa Toparis can do in his Mygale F4 after a great run from him in the last round. After missing the last round, Rodney Brincat, Rod Anderson and Ron Coath have joined us for the dry racing. 

 

Qualifying 

To kick us off, bright sunny skies welcomed the qualifying session on Saturday morning for a grid of 17 cars ready to start the weekend off. Although Rodney Baker seemed to struggle to start the engine of his Dallara F399,  he eventually managed to join us to qualify after multiple failed attempts on the way to the dummy grid.

AGI Sport’s Nathan Gotch secured the fastest lap with a time of 1:27.77the fastest lap seen all weekend. The two young guns Costa Toparis and Gianmarco Pradel in the AGI Mygale F4’s would be ready to contest the lead with him for the three upcoming races,

But fell just short of his qualifying time. Toparis had a fastest lap time that was 2 seconds behind Gotch, followed by Pradel, who was slower than him by a mere second. The ‘gentlemen drivers’ could not compete for a spot at the front of the grid, with Robert Rowe’s fastest time securing him a spot in 4th and Greg Muddle in 5th after ending the session with a time 2 tenths of a second behind Rowe. Glenn Lynch in 6th, Rodney Brincat in 7th and Doug Barry in the sole Formula Holden, who all had a time in the 1:33s. Going down the grid is Rodney Baker in 9th and Tim Boydle completing the top 10 for the first race.

 

Race 1

The 17 cars rolled onto the grid after an uncomplicated qualifying session for the start of race 1 on Saturday afternoon. A good start for Nathan Gotch who managed to keep hold of his qualifying position, controlling the field for the entirety of the 12 laps. Also good start from the two young guns behind him as they managed to get a good start ahead of the rest of the pack. However, there was an unfortunate early retirement for Lawrence Katsidis in his Dallara on lap 1. 

An awesome start saw Barry launch into 4th and he was able to hold that for the entirety of the race.  A mishap on Costa Toparis’ part held him back, in an attempt to lap backmarker Mark Wilson, which gave Gotch the opportunity to extend his lead, crushing any chance Toparis at winning this first race, meaning another strong finish for Gotch to add to his collection., ahead of Toparis and Pradel.

A fluctuation of positions for Greg Muddle throughout this race; starting at 5th and challenging Rowe but losing a lot of places taking avoiding action when Rowe had trouble out of Turn 9. Thereafter he was constantly losing and gaining positions, and the chequered flag saw him finishing in 11th place overall. 

Baker and Brincat had a great battle in the closing stags for 6th, Brincat holding on for the position.

Although Gotch may have finished the race with the win, it was Costa Toparis who pulled out the fastest lap time by just one tenth of a second.

 

Race 2

Race 2 started off Sunday’s schedule of racing, with high anticipation after a promising qualifying and race on Saturday. First of the drivers to sit out of a race start this weekend was Rod Anderson after finishing near the back of the pack in the first race with engine misfire issues. 

A good start to Nathan Gotch’s Sunday who secured yet another win with an impressive time of 1:29. Another great finish for Toparis who finished second again, but a not so great finish for the young competitor Gianmarco Pradel who had his worst finish this weekend of 6th after gradually losing ground from the leaders.

Even though he got his car running, it was another disappointing race today for Lawrence Katsidis after contact with Mark Wilson, bringing him into the pits on lap 4, taking him out of contention for this race.  The incident had one vehicle leaving the safety of the ground. What could have been a disastrous collision, was only a slight rush for the audience and Wilson continued unscathed.

A great run from Greg Muddle who seems to be adjusting quite well to his Dallara F307 after overtaking Gianmarco Pradel, who was struggling at the end of the race with fuel issues putting him into 3rd. He managed to hold this position, leaving the rest of the pack behind all the way

A slight bump between the tyres of two drivers on turn three, after both drivers continued on with the race unscathed.

 

Race 3

A light drizzle shortly before, in the first sector almost had us questioning our last race, but thankfully cleared with no problems. Pradel also bounced back from his 6th position after lights out putting him into 3rd. On the down side, the fiasco in race 2 earlier on in the day for Lawrence Katsidis kept him out of the running for this race. Keeping him company was, again Rod Anderson, Robert Sviderskas, and Greg Muddle who was unable to get his car started.. A disappointing finish to their weekend, especially after a strong finish from Greg in the previous race. 

Gotch was cleanly away again but chased hard by Toparis, Pradel and Barry, the top four gapping the field. Doug Barry put himself in the running for 3rd after completing a smooth overtake of his young opponent Gianmarco Pradel on turn 2.

An incident taking Ron Coath off the track at Turn 9 on lap 6 brought out the yellow flags, later on resulting in the only safety car being deployed for this round, which continued to guide the cars around the circuit, for what we thought was for the remainder of the race. Luckily, we were provided with an eventful finish it with one nerve racking lap on a green flag. 

Pradel was able to re-take the position after the safety car however what we thought was a good finish for him took a turn for the worse as he copped a 30 second penalty from the officials for overtaking Barry before the control line at the restart.

Nathan Gotch secured the fastest lap and yet another win, ending an eventful weekend at Sydney Motorsport Park. Toparis fell short again in 2nd and Pradel in 11th after the added time penalty, meaning that Barry’s weekend ended on a good note after being bumped up to 3rd.   Rowe ended a consistent weekend in 4th, ahead of Baker, who had a good tussle with Lynch early on.  Brincat recovered to 7th after stalling at the start.  Tim Boydle, Shayne Morrow and Mark Wilson rounded out the Top 10 for the weekend.

 

After 4 rounds of the Championship Nathan Gotch has a commanding lead.

Nathan Gotch                                           235 points

Costa Toparis                                           230

Doug Barry                                               185

Gianmarco Pradel                                    153

Greg Muddle                                             141

 

The next race for Formula Race Cars is 29 and 30 October at Sydney Motorsport Park.

 

 

Actually written by Greg Muddle.

2022 AGI NSW Motor Race Championship Round 3 
14th – 15th May, 2022
Wakefield Park

Click here

 

______________________________________________

 

Actually written by Greg Muddle.

2022 AGI NSW Motor Race Championship Round 2 
9 – 10 April, 2022
Sydney Motorsport Park

Click here

 

_______________________________________________

 

Actually written by Greg Muddle.

2022 AGI NSW Motor Race Championship Round 1 
26th – 27th February, 2022
Wakefield Park

                     

The 2022 season opened with a clean sweep to Nathan Gotch in the AGI Sport Dallara F307 Renault, taking victory with a faultless performance in tricky conditions.  The AGI team backed that up with Adam Gotch (Mygale F4 EcoBoost) taking second on the podium after a race-long battle with defending champion Greg Muddle (Dallara F399 Opel Spiess). 


Nathan Gotch out in front – all weekend.

Pre-Race

As usual, time was the enemy and a few cars we had hoped to see on the grid for the opener will now make their debut in subsequent rounds.  Nevertheless there was a solid field if 14 cars entered.

On paper three-time champion Nathan Gotch looked to be the driver to beat.  He was heading up a four-car entry from AGI who were also fielding three Mygale F4 cars for Adam Gotch, Tim Boydle and series debutant Mark Wilson, with the promise of another F4 car later in the season.  Phil Morrow rounded out the F4 ranks for their first outing as a championship class.

Defending champion Greg Muddle was again fielding the two black & white FRCA Dallara F301 Opel Spiess cars, Rod Baker hoping the second car has caught some reliability from its stablemate in the off-season. 

2021 runner-up Doug Barry was once again flying the flag as the sole Formula Holden – the Reynard 92D just keeps getting quicker and hopefully will be joined by a couple more of the big cars as the season progresses. 

Rob Rowe (Genesis Offices Dallara F310 Toyota) finished fourth in our last two championships and was looking for a flying start to the 2022 season to improve on that. Rounding out the Open Class was a trio of Dallara F304s:  Lawrence Katsidis in the SYDNEY PHOTO BOOTH Renault-powered car and Jeff Senior in his Dontae Life Toyota-powered car both had successful shake-downs in December and were joined by Rob Sviderskas making a return in his Opel Spiess powered car.

In the Cup Class the ever-reliable Glenn Lynch lined-up in his Dallara F397 Fiat that has been the mainstay of the category since its inception and he was joined by Shane Morrow with his JPM Plastering Dallara F397 VW.


F4 in formation –  Tim Boydle ahead of Phil Morrow and Adam Gotch during qualifying.

Qualifying –  Pole time: 1:00.448

1.Rob Rowe
2.Nathan Gotch
3. Adam Gotch                                   

The field made its way onto the circuit in cold and damp conditions, which were only made more difficult when Rod Baker’s car popped an oil-filter seal and laid a trail of oil around the circuit as a result of which the session was red-flagged. 

At that point most cars had completed only one flying lap, at best, and it would have been a lottery for grid spots if the session had been time-certain.  Fortunately, the officials allowed a full 15 minutes of track time, and it took most drivers the full session to get on top of the conditions, the top 6 all completing their fastest lap as they were greeted by the chequered flag.

Making the most of the improving conditions it was Rob Rowe who won pole position beating out Nathan Gotch by 0.5 seconds in the first session of the championship.  Tricky conditions are a great leveller, and it was good to see Rob fire the opening shots of the campaign.

Adam Gotch was third quickest and fastest of the F4’s, ahead of Glenn Lynch in fourth, a great effort to out-qualify a number of the open class cars. 

Qualifying on the third row were last season’s champion and runner-up, Muddle and Barry, both spent most of the session trying to come to grips with grip, or the lack thereof, but both were well placed to pressure the front-runners when racing started.  Of the remaining Open Class cars, Jeff Senior was the best of the rest in 7th, with Lawrence Katsidis 9th, Rob Sviderskas 10th and Rod Baker’s one lap earning him 13th. 

In Formula B Tim Boydle was the next best to Adam Gotch with a very credible 8th ahead of Mark Wilson in 11th and Phil Morrow in 12th.

Shayne Morrow had starter motor issues that kept him off the circuit for this session but were sorted before racing commenced.


Rob Rowe (Genesis Offices) topped qualifying.

Race 1 – Fastest Lap: Nathan Gotch 1:02.229

1: Nathan Gotch
2. Adam Gotch
3. Greg Muddle                

Conditions were still cold and slippery but dry enough for slicks.  There was little grip to be had in the warm-up and one driver found the grass, resulting in a delayed start and extra warm-up lap – everyone appreciated the chance of a practice start and extra warm-up, so thanks to driver X (we’ll keep him nameless to save embarrassment) for taking one for the team.

When the lights finally went out for the start the two AGI cars got the jump on Rowe, with Doug Barry firing into 4th ahead of Lynch, Muddle and Boydle getting into the mix. 

The early laps saw Nathan Gotch establish a good lead over his brother Adam who had his hands full defending his position from Rowe. This continued into the 5th lap when Rowe made a move around the outside on the approach to Turn 2 but there was contact which left him stranded on the outside of the circuit. 

The early racing behind the leaders saw Barry holding 4th position comfortably.  Behind him, Muddle had made an early move on Lynch, and eventually shaken off Boydle.  Katsidis was on a charge up from 9th to 6th, placing him ahead of Boydle, Baker, having a good run from the rear of the grid, Senior and Lynch who had been jostled back through the field.

With Shayne Morrow spinning at the top of the circuit and Rowe stranded at the bottom the safety car was called out, and everyone was given a breather as Rowe’s car was towed in. Morrow got himself out of the bog but was lapped and sitting behind the leader as the cars circulated. 

A long recovery process meant that at the restart we had a 3 lap sprint and the two AGI cars jumped away quickly from Barry, the big car suffering more than the others from tyres cooling off, leaving him vulnerable to Muddle who was able to pass as they ran up the hill on the second last lap.  Barry’s tyres eventually came back on, but Muddle drove a defensive last lap to keep both Barry and Katsidis at bay. 


Contact in Race 1

The safety car had left Boydle vulnerable to Baker, the F3 able to account for the F4 on the second last lap to give him 6th position ahead of Boydle, Lynch, Sviderskas and Phil Morrow, although Lynch was subsequently given a 30 second penalty for passing under yellows and was relegated to 10th in the standings. 

Mark Wilson was also up with this pack and looking to make a move late in the race but had a last lap ‘moment’ pushing hard on the downhill run and had to settle for 11th.  Shayne Morrow was the last of the finishers, with Jeff Senior retiring with a misfire and Rowe having been towed back to the pits.

 

Race 2 – Fastest Lap: Nathan Gotch 1:01.748

1: Nathan Gotch
2. Greg Muddle
3. Adam Gotch                  


Wet enough for umbrellas here, but dry enough for slicks when the cars rolled out.

Sunday morning was again damp and cold and looked considerably worse than Saturday, a misty sort of drizzle convincing most people to go with wets.  Even sitting in the dummy grid that seemed the right call, but once on the track it was basically dry – but at least it was a level playing field with everyone making the same call.  13 cars rolled out with only Jeff Senior absent, the misfire diagnosed as a bent valve.

Nathan Gotch again got the jump from brother Adam, Barry, Muddle, Baker and Katsidis.  Muddle pulled back places from Barry and Gotch on consecutive laps passing under brakes at Turn 11 entering the main straight, but by that stage the lead car had skipped away to a significant lead.  Baker challenged Barry at the Turn 8 hairpin but ran wide, conceding a spot to Katsidis and doing some front wing damage in the process.

Behind the lead pack Sviderskas had made a great start to move into 7th, holding out Boydle until he took the place back on lap 3.  Boydle kept that position until a spin at the hairpin on lap 7, which unfortunately also tangled up Sviderskas and eventually brought out the safety car.


Raining at the other end of the dummy grid too, but real men don’t need umbrellas.

Behind these two there was an epic battle developing between the Morrow brothers and Glenn Lynch.  In the early stages it was Phil Morrow in front, but by the time the safety car emerged it was Lynch from Rob Rowe, nursing some front wing damage that was inhibiting his charge through the field, Phil Morrow, and Shayne Morrow.  Mark Wilson was struggling with a car that wasn’t quite firing and found himself a lap down and sitting between the front two cars under safety car conditions.

When racing resumed Nathan Gotch got a good jump as Muddle sat behind Wilson until the control line.  Muddle in turn opened a comfortable margin to the chasing pack of Adam Gotch, Barry and Katsidis.  Although they closed in the last lap the jostling for third prevented any real attack on second. Katsidis was all over Barry but unable to do anything about it.  Baker trailed off with a collapsed rear wing but was able to hold off the fast-closing Rowe who was lapping considerably quicker once he had cleared Lynch.

The battle for minor places continued after the re-start, both Phil Morrow and Shayne Morrow managing to pass Lynch early on, but Lynch regained both places with a late lunge as the two Morrow cars fought for place.  At the end there was less than a second separating Lynch, Phill Morrow and Shayne Morrow as they crossed the line for 8th 9th and 10th respectively. Sviderskas continued on a lap down after briefly pitting to assess damage, and Wilson followed home in 12th position.  Boydle circulated for a couple of laps after the recovery but had extensive front wing damage and retired.


Nathan Gotch leads the cars up the hill at the start of Race 3.

Race 3 – Fastest Lap: Nathan Gotch 58.586

1: Nathan Gotch
2. Adam Gotch
3. Greg Muddle                     

For the first time in the weekend truly dry conditions greeted the drivers for the Trophy Race, which saw 12 cars start, Shayne Morrow once again unable to leave the dummy grid due to starter motor problems.

Muddle got the best jump and then missed a gear-change, allowing the two AGI cars, Barry and Baker to lead the charge up the hill on lap one.  Baker had been the 2nd quickest car on track in the morning despite his mis-adventures but was a bit too enthusiastic on the opening lap, running wide at Turn 4 and allowing Muddle, Katsidis and Rowe to take back positions.  Lynch, Phil Morrow and Sviderskas followed, ahead of the two F4’s of Boydle and Wilson.

In the early stages Adam Gotch was doing a reasonable job of hanging on to brother Nathan, and they opened a gap to Barry and Muddle who were engaged in a close battle for third.  Muddle eventually made a late braking move on Barry into Turn 11 and was surprised not to see the Reynard filling his mirrors on the exit, but Barry had broken a gear selector on the downshift and cruised into pit lane to retire.  Katsidis was next, engaged in what was to be a race-long battle with Rowe, the two cars slowly pulling a gap on Baker and Lynch.

Tim Boydle was on the move, accounting for Morrow on lap 3 and then chasing down Sviderskas to move into 8th on lap 6. That decided the order at the back of the field, with Boydle, Sviderskas and Morrow holding position 8 to 10 for the remainder of the race and Wilson retiring early with a recurrence of the power issues experienced earlier.

While Nathan Gotch had established a comfortable lead Adam Gotch had his margin over Muddle reduced over several laps.  Gotch defended an attempt to pass into Turn 2, but eventually was out-braked into Turn 11. With only two laps to go that should have been over, but Gotch’s car was quicker out of the hairpin, and he made the most of that on the final lap to take second place back, the F4 having just enough grunt to hold Muddle out by 0.17 seconds on the sprint to the line.

Rowe had passed Katsidis mid-race for 4th but the contest for position was not over. Katsidis took 4th spot back on the penultimate lap but, like Muddle ahead, was unable to defend a last lap lead.  Lynch followed home in 6th, Baker was struggling with a flat-spotted tyre and had to settle for 7th, the last car on the lead lap.

That concluded a great weekend for the AGI Team and sees them sitting 1-2 in the Championship, with Nathan already building a clear points gap.  Greg Muddle had a solid start to his championship defence, in the top three all weekend.

Good consistent results for Lawrence Katsidis and Rodney Baker see them 4th and 5th respectively.  Both Rob Rowe and Doug Barry showed good speed but were frustrated by DNF’s – expect to see both well in the mix when we resume racing.

Next Round – Sydney Motorsport Park on 9 & 10 April

Short Bursts

Club Pointscore …This year have introduced a Club Pointscore that rewards drivers for effort and not just results, recognising that not everyone has the machinery to be at the pointy end and that putting together a great weekend is about more than standing on the podium – improving lap times, making up track position, keeping it on the black stuff are all part of the challenge.  The points system rewards all of these as well as class results. 
See the points table at the end of this report.

Rodney Baker scored heavily for driving from rear of grid to 6th in race 1 and for maintaining that throughout the weekend.  Perhaps that’s an overly generous reward for a failure in qualifying (should we dock points for dropping oil everywhere?) but it was a good performance to make up those places.  Tim Boydle improved his times in every session over the weekend and produced a ‘personal best’ lap time in the final race, as well as taking second-place in the F4 class in three out of 4 sessions.  Both really good efforts that aren’t rewarded in championship points but see them at the top of the Club Pointscore. 

Big Banana Pole Position…Excellent effort from Rob Rowe in taking pole, despite the car running a standard Camry engine (or some such, your correspondent wasn’t listening to the long tale of woe about the missing horsepower).  Rob of course was elated, and deservedly so.  His initial suggestion was that we should declare the Championship after that one session – s a compromise we agreed on a new award in his honour, The Big Banana Pole Position, each time a banana coloured car qualifies in the #1 position. 

Blast from the past …Good to see Glenn Lynch near the pointy end, qualifying in P4.  It’s been a while since he’s been up there (Round 4 2019, so not that long ago but that was a very small field of cars).  The last time Lynchy qualified in P4 at the opening round of the season he won the Championship! 2011, P4 at Wakefield Park behind Muddle, David Choon’s F396 (a car still wasting away in a Canberra garage, sadly) and Michelle Guyer’s ‘Does my bum look big in this?’ March (in its last recorded outing, another sad state of affairs). Glenn’s time that day was a 63.341, slower than this round’s 63.151 and in far more favourable conditions, so the car hasn’t lost any speed.  While two of those cars are lost both the Muddle and Lynch cars are still going around, more or less successfully. 

Clean sweep   Nathan Gotch’s three-victory weekend was the 9th time he’s achieved that feat over the 11 years of the championship.

Rubber hits the road… In good news for Doug Barry and bad news for everybody else, a brand new set of Avon tyres for the Formula Holden should arrive in time for the next round at Sydney Motorsport Park.  Doug has been waiting several months for the rears to be shipped and we should all be worried about how fast that car will be on new rubber. 

New members…  Good to see new member Nathan Beer sizing up the competition at Wakefield Park, although it would have been better to see him there with his car, a Tatuus Formula Renault, which will be a welcome addition to the field once it gets through the log-book process.  Just one of a bunch of new cars we hope to see over the course of the season. Going one better, Mark Wilson joined us on the black stuff and acquitted himself well in difficult conditions.  The Mygale was a bit temperamental over the course of the weekend, hopefully AGI can sort that out before the next outing.

Looking Back   Lynchy’s qualifying performance was a flashback to our debut round in 2011.  The more things change the more they stay the same – we almost had 20 cars that day (Ron Coath managed to slice his hand open and was a non-starter so only 19 made it on track) and we’re still hopeful of hitting that magic number again (we’ve haven’t managed it since 2013).  For the history buffs here’s the list of cars that competed that weekend:

 

Greg Muddle

Dallara F399

 

Denis Lesslie

Ralt RT34

David Choon

Dallara F395

 

Darren Choon

Dallara F397 FR

Michele Guyer

March 87B

 

Warwick Robertson

Dallara F396 FR

Glenn Lynch

Dallara F397

 

Terry Robertson

Dallara F395 FR

Edward Gavin

Cheetah Mk8

 

Rob Sviderskas

Reynard 923

Andrew Wlodek

Dallara F304

 

Bob Wootton

Reynard 913 FR

Kevin Lewis

Cheetah Mk8

 

Gordon Hardy

Reynard 923

Robert Choon

Dallara F301

 

Dave Morrow

Richards 201

Al Palmer

Cheetah Mk6

 

Oliver Parkinson

Dallara F301

Greg Hunter

Elfin 700

 

 

 

Only three of those drivers were on the grid this time around – Greg Muddle, Glenn Lynch and Rob Sviderskas – however a couple more will return at Sydney Motorsport Park.

In addition to the Muddle and Lynch cars, the Parkinson Dallara (Aaron McClintock) and the Darren Choon Dallara (Shayne Morrow) are still going about, Edward Gavin is planning to run the immaculate Cheetah Mk 8 at Sydney Motorsport Park but sadly many of the other cars are unlikely to ever see the light of day again.

Top Tens

 

 

Actually written by Greg Muddle.

2021 AGI NSW Motor Race Championship Round 3 
11th – 12th December, 2021
Wakefield Park

After a lengthy COVID interruption, the AGI Formula Cars Championship completed its shortened season with a final round in challenging conditions at Wakefield Park. Torrential rain in the preceding days had an impact across the whole weekend, with the cars not venturing out on slicks until the Sunday, and even then there was still water across sections of the track. The honours for the weekend went to a non-championship invitee, Trent Grubel, having his first shake-down in the newly landed Dallara F312 that he intends to campaign in the National series in 2022. While Trent set the pace the battle for the championship played out behind him, with the AGI Sport cars to the fore – triple champion Nathan Gotch was back in the Dallara F307 Renault and at the pointy end as expected, but his efforts were upstaged by the impressive Gianmarco Pradel, having his first competitive outing in the Mygale F4 and ultimately taking the round win. Behind the AGI cars, Greg Muddle in his Dallara F399 Opel Spiess brought a healthy points lead and was able to do enough with minor placings to secure the 2021 Championship.

2021 Champion Greg Muddle coming down the hill
(nose first, we won’t mention his attempt to come down the hill tail first in the trophy race…)

Pre-Race

With two rounds cancelled due to COVID and another taken over by the V8 Supercars month-long circus at Sydney Motorsport Park, the hastily put together final round for the season saw Formula Race Cars down on numbers, but nevertheless there were 13 cars entered and quite a bit to generate interest. Phil Morrow was making his debut in the Mygale F4 and had with AGI support for the weekend. The technical assistance was no doubt helpful, but the chief advantage was being parked in style on pitlane while those in the cheap seats had to deal with water inundation.

Adam Gotch was due to appear in the AGI Mygale F4, but at the last moment the seat was given to Gianmarco Pradel, a youngster with some karting experience but still green in wings and slicks cars. The SYDNEY PHOTO BOOTH Dallara F304 Renault of Lawrence Katsidis was back after much holmes-work had been done, as was Jeff Senior’s DONATE LIFE Dallara F304 Toyota with the addition of a Motec ECU. All the championship contenders were present, Muddle holding a healthy lead after two rounds leading the consistent Rob Rowe’s Genesis Offices Dallara F308 Toyota and Doug Barry (Doug Barry Specials Reynard 92D F4000). There was also the threat of Nathan Gotch, back in the AGI Sport Dallara F307 and on paper most likely to take a maximum points yield from the weekend, so the other contenders couldn’t afford any slip-ups. 

Qualifying

The rain had stopped overnight, but despite what was basically a ‘dry’ track for much of the lap there was still plenty of water on the main straight and rivers across the track at turns 1, 2, 5 and 8. All competitors were out on wets and the conditions were best described as ‘tricky’. There were a couple of spins, including Glenn Lynch turning the Dallara F397 Fiat around at Turn 2 in a very awkward moment for Nathan Gotch, but everyone managed to complete the session, with the exception of Rod Baker (Dallara F301 Opel Spiess) who failed to make the black stuff due to a starter motor failure.

It may have been dry elsewhere, but at this part of the track it was decidedly wet.

Grubel didn’t manage to break the minute which gives an indication of how tricky the conditions were, and there were no surprises that he and Gotch shared the front row. The big surprise was Pradel in third, with series leader Muddle just edging out challenger Rowe for the other second row spot. Katsidis headed off Barry for the third row, the big F4000 unsurprisingly being bit of a handful in the conditions. Jeff Senior completed a trouble-free run in 8th which was a relief after all the dramas over the last two years. Shayne Morrow (Dallara F397 VW) was able to hold out Phil Morrow for 9th in the family duel. Phil in turn was able to take the honours as leading Mygale gentleman-driver ahead of Tim Boydle, and Glenn Lynch was uncharacteristically at the back of the field, struggling with a set of wets that Muddle may (or not) have sold to him a decade or so ago, so why wouldn’t they still be fresh?

Race 1

By the afternoon the track had dried out considerably, but the conventional wisdom was that the water across the circuit still made wets the best bet. All competitors started on wets except Baker, who had nothing to lose off the back of the grid and had managed, temporarily as it turned out, to resolve the starter motor problem.

Gotch made the most of a difficult situation, the pole box being perhaps the wettest part of the grid (for the rest of the day the first two rows were left vacant), but his experience saw him get the better of Grubel. Likewise, Muddle was able to get the jump on Pradel, and those four were able to gap the rest of the field in the early stages of the race. Phil Morrow was quick off the line and able to capitalise by slotting into 6th behind Rowe in the early stages, but Barry duffed it completely and was relegated to the back of the pack. Grubel was pushing hard but Gotch was able to keep him at bay for the first three laps, with Muddle and Pradel holding on in the initial stages. Grubel was able to find a way though on the fourth lap and opened up a comfortable gap by about a second a lap from thereon. Gotch picked up the pace and was also able to open a gap to Muddle, who had his mirrors full of Pradel and eventually ceded the place on lap 5.

Behind the leading cars Rowe had his hands full with Katsidis, who had recovered from a poor start and was able to displace Phil Morrow for 6th by the third lap. Despite hounding Rowe all the way to the flag Katsidis was unable to make any further progress, although both of them closed the gap considerably to Muddle. Barry had given himself a tall order by failing to get off the line, but he had accounted for Boydle and Shane Morrow by the end of lap 2 and then Lynch, Senior and Phil Morrow on each of the following laps. By this time he was in 7th behind Katsidis, but the F3 cars ahead were less of a handful in the conditions and that was as far as he was likely to progress, leading home Senior who had a quiet second half of the race following Barry after getting past Phil Morrow mid-race.

By this stage Phil Morrow had fallen from 6th to 9th and had some eager drivers behind him, but he was not going to concede any further places, and had elbows out to hold Shayne Morrow and Glenn Lynch at bay for several laps, the three cars separated by less than half a second at the finish. Boydle completed the finishers a lonely last having managed to rotate the car mid-race and lose contact with Morrow. Baker’s car pulled out with two laps to go, in the rush to get the starter motor working re-fuelling had been overlooked and he was left a couple of litres short.

Turn 2 on the first lap of Race 1 – Gotch leads the field away.

Race 2

Warm conditions on Sunday morning, but again the water at Turns 1, 2 and 8 were the focus. Conditions had improved significantly so it was always going to be slicks, however with water at the fastest point of the circuit the officials generously gave the drivers an extra warm-up lap to assess conditions – massively improved but still somewhat slippery at 190kmh though the water at Turn 1.

Gotch once again had a good start, but Pradel’s Mygale had better grip in the initial stages and out-manoeuvred the senior AGI car to take the lead on the first lap. Grubel had stalled, so that left Muddle in 3rd ahead of Rowe, Katsidis and Barry, with Phil Morrow again making a good jump to put himself ahead of Senior. The two AGI cars put on a brilliant display out front, Pradel using the conditions and his race craft well to keep the quicker car behind for the first 11 of the scheduled 14 laps.

Meanwhile Rowe was giving Muddle a hard time, eventually finding a way past under brakes at turn 10, and thereafter managing to pull out a good gap over his championship rival. That left Muddle ahead of Katsidis, who looked well capable of closing the gap and challenging for position until he had a spin at one of the water hazards. This did minor front wing damage but did not stop him recovering and resuming the race. He wasn’t the only one caught out in the water at Turn 8, Shayne Morrow was also caught out a couple of laps later and had an infield excursion, but fortunately was able to recover to complete the race.

By this stage Grubel had recovered several place so the running order was Pradel, Gotch, Rowe, Grubel, Muddle, with the leading 4 cars all down in sub-60 second times. Rowe was pushing particularly hard and unfortunately managed to turn his car around coming onto the main straight, eventually parked up at a difficult angle a couple of metres down the pit entrance road and unable to restart. With Lynch also in difficulty and cars unlikely to be recovered quickly the officials put out the chequered flag early at lap 11, allowing Pradel to hold out for his first win, leading home gotch by less than a second and indeed it may have been closer as the Dallara engine gave out in the effort to the line.

With Rowe gone Grubel was elevated to 3rd, ahead of Muddle, Barry, with Senior showing good pace and hounding him to the line to claim 6th ahead of the fast finishing Katsidis. Phil Morrow led home Boydle and a muddy Shayne Morrow. Lynch was a DNF, having pitted midway through the race, clearly unhappy with the pre-race preparation that the FRCA emergency-relief team had done in his absence (the cars for the race ahead are in the dummy grid, and still no Lynchy! I think we may have chosen the wrong tyre option – there was a choice of used and useder and in the end we chose the ones that best matched the livery of the car. He was quicker on the other set in the later race).

Trent Grubel getting some good racing miles under his belt ahead of a National series tilt in 2022.

Race 3

Several casualties from Race 2 meant just 10 cars lining up for the Trophy Race. The AGI Dallara had a hole in the side of the block, and Shayne Morrow’s car while still running was also losing considerable amounts of oil after his rallycross excursion. Tim Boydle also had parked his Mygale as a precaution, also with oil presenting in places it was not wanted. The water situation had improved, with only a thin (but slippery!) covering as the cars accelerated out of the Fish Hook.

Muddle had the best jump of the lead cars but Pradel was able to hold him out into turn 2, and then Grubel was able to get a better run up the hill but the front three looked racy as they came back down, only to be greeted by safety car flags. Baker’s car was stranded on the grid, having been baulked by Rowe stalling in front of him and the fickle starter motor not dealing sympathetically with the situation. Senior had got the best start of the rest and found himself in 4th, ahead of Barry and Phil Morrow, with Katsidis getting a poor start again, albeit better than Rowe’s (and Baker’s). Racing resumed, and Pradel held briefly but the F312 had too much mumbo in the improved conditions.

Pradel ran wide at turn 2 which gave muddle some hope but again, just as things were looking interesting the safety car flags were out again, with Katsidis having a frustrating day and turning the car around. When racing resumed Grubel pulled away but Pradel had his mirrors full of Muddle, who was looking strong until he looped the car at the start of the run down the hill and threw away his opportunity. That left the front two cars with a relatively easy run to the line. Senior had held 4th for the first half of the race but eventually conceded spots to both Barry and Rowe, with Barry holding onto 3rd by the smallest of margins.

Muddle had eventually recovered and looked to be cruising to 6th, but Lynch was not going to let the opportunity go and pulled a move on the last corner to take the place. Muddle was the last car over the line, with Morrow having pitted a couple of laps before the end.

Despite the less than stellar last result Muddle had done enough in the earlier races to claim the 2021 Championship, ahead of Doug Barry and Nathan Gotch. The short season has been interesting, and in just 9 races we’ve seen 6 different race winners (Muddle-2, Gotch-2, Pradel-2, Aaron McClintock, Noel McDermott, Graeme Holmes), impressive debuts from McDermott and Pradel, and ominously Barry’s big Reynard just keeps getting faster and faster. The 2022 Season promises to be big – a number of new cars are in the wings, perhaps this could be the season where we consistently put 20 cars on the grid, which would be great. And we don’t have long to wait.

The new season kicks of on the weekend of 26-27 February at Wakefield Park, we look forward to a great year ahead and a full year of racing.

 

Actually written by Greg Muddle.

2021 AGI NSW Motor Race Championship Round 2 
10th -11th April, 2021
Sydney Motorsport Park

The 2021 AGI NSW Formula Cars Championship once again delivered close and exciting racing, Round 2 continuing the trend of three drivers sharing the honours across the weekend.  Debutant Noel McDermott (Anglo Motorsport Dallara F304 Opel Spiess) stormed to a fine first-up victory, and Greg Muddle (Dallara F399 Opel Spiess) squared the ledger by winning the second race. But when it mattered it was the experience and guile of Graeme Holmes (Dallara F304 Opel Spiess) that won-out in emphatic style, taking home the David Choon Memorial Trophy just as he did when it was last run in 2019.

With Round 1 winner Aaron McClintock sidelined with a broken engine, Muddle’s consistency over the weekend saw him take the championship lead, but this round saw strong challengers emerge that will make the rest of the season a gripping battle.


Muddle was in the mix all weekend and a consistent points haul sees him at the top
of the Championship.  But from the top there is only one direction……

Pre-Race

Another solid entry list of 16 cars presented for this round.  We were glad to welcome back familiar old faces from ‘south of the border’ in Graeme Holmes and Rod Anderson (Reynard 893) and to have Phil Morrow back in a car (Reynard 923 VW) rather than wasting his talent spectating. Three was also a sense of excitement with Noel McDermott and the Anglo Motorsport team making their first appearance.

The AGI Team was back to 3 cars – Nathan parking the F307 Dallara and resuming a seat in the Mygale F4 that Nick Filipetto had driven in round 1.

Friday saw a few drivers have dramas:  the Rods – Anderson and Baker (Dallara F301 Opel Spiess) – battling cranky engines, Phil Morrow finding a few gremlins with the Reynard after a long lay-off, and Shayne Morrow having to replace a broken axle. Aaron McClintock heard a bit of a knock… which unfortunately turned terminal and ended his weekend early. 

Qualifying

Perfect sunny conditions welcomed competitors as the rolled out late in the morning for qualifying.

As McDermott was on debut most people figured there would be a settling-in period to get familiar with the car, so he did not figure heavily in predictions for qualifying. However, he made a major statement with a 1:29 lap midway through the session, the only person to go sub 1:30 all weekend, and then put it back in the garage, leaving the rest of the field to work out the minor placings. Muddle had second until Holmes pulled out a last lap special, and the front three looked to have a bit of a gap over the rest of the field. 

Doug Barry (Reynard 92D Formula Holden) was the next best, the Big Dog once again showing its huge potential. Rob Rowe (Dallara F308 Toyota) was building consistent laps and finished 5th, and Rod Baker’s pushed into 6th with his car somewhat unexpectedly running problem-free for the whole session!

Positions 3 to 7 were close and that was promising for some good racing, the car in seventh being Adam Gotch, who won the honours for quickest Mygale from brother Nathan, the two F4s separated on the grid by Glenn Lynch (Dallara F397 Fiat) and Ron Coath (Dallara F307 Mercedes).

Behind these four Tim Boydle was the best of the rest, slightly disappointed at not getting down to his target time (although he did manage to knock that off later in the weekend).  Shayne Morrow was slightly off his Wakefield pace in 12th ahead of Rob Sviderskas.

Rod Anderson’s car had continuing mis-fire issues that, unlike Baker ‘s car, had not miraculously cured itself with a good night’s rest, and called it quits after qualifying.  Phil Morrow was unable to get the car out for qualifying but, after a return trip north for parts and a protracted negotiation with the officials, was permitted to start in the race.

Race 1

McDermott acquitted himself well with his first race start but had to concede the first lap lead to the fast-starting Holmes, with Barry 3rd and Muddle 4th and having to aggressively fend off Adam Gotch off the line. To compensate (yet another) poor start Muddle had a big lunge at Turn 2 with little effect – in the course of one corner he was 4th on entry, 2nd at apex and 4th on exit.  Behind Muddle, Rowe was trying something similar, which resulted in contact with Adam Gotch but fortunately both were able to continue, although Gotch stopped the following lap with an unrelated issue.

McDermott did not waste long in challenging Holmes, managing to pass boldly into Turn 6 on the second lap.  From that point he opened up a comfortable lead which he carried the full distance and earn his first race win with FRCA.  Pole. Win. Too easy this wings ‘n’ slicks thing!!

Muddle had a good look at Barry’s rear wing for a couple of laps before venturing another move at Turn 2, this time more successfully.  He managed to close the gap slightly to Holmes, but despite a 5 second penalty for a start infringement Holmes was just able to hold 2nd place.

Rowe re-gained his 5th place by passing Nathan Gotch on the main straight at the start of lap 2, but by that time the front 4 had gapped him and he spent his race chasing down a gap that wouldn’t quite close.

Baker passed Nathan Gotch for 6th into Turn 1 on the second lap only to concede the place by running wide. Gotch continued to have Lynch, Baker and Coath in close pursuit, Lynch making a couple of attempts to pass at Turn 1 before finally making it stick.  Lynch then steadily opened a gap over Gotch, Coath and Baker who was suffering from the return of his engine misfire at the back end of the race.

Tim Boydle had a steady race to complete the top 10 and be the last car on the lead lap.

BLENDLINE TV Race 1 (click here):
(Formula Cars are at about the 50 minute mark)


Turn 2 on the first lap of Race 1 – it all looks so spread out and under control from this angle.

Race 2

Warm and sunny conditions again for Sunday. 

The start was untidy, Coath and Boydle finding themselves in the wrong places on the grid and then getting the launch wrong – Coath going early and Boydle not at all.  At the front McDermott had a bit of a roller that earned him a 5 second penalty and Rowe also stalled.  Barry had another good start, so away from the line it was McDermott, Barry, and Holmes.  Muddle made a move on Holmes at turn 2 but it was Nathan Gotch who went big under brakes, taking them both and going from 5th to 3rd. Lynch was in the mix and Adam Gotch was the big mover in the field, into 7thfrom the back of the grid.

The late starting Boydle was trying too hard to make up space, looping the car in Turn 2 and getting beached on the ripple strip. This brought out the safety car, although Muddle was able to just sneak in a move on Gotch at Turn 15 before the flags came out.

Two laps behind the safety car and then McDermott led the field away in what was a 4 lap sprint race. Holmes had been buried in 5th but quickly pulled ahead of Nathan Gotch.  Muddle responded to the threat by passing Barry through Turn 1 the following lap to put a car between himself and Holmes.  Muddle was closing the gap to McDermott, but even though the race ended before they could sort the issue on the road the 5 second penalty gifted the race win to Muddle.  Holmes had passed Barry and was also within the 5 second range elevating him to second ahead of McDermott with Barry in fourth.

Adam Gotch was continuing to progress through the field the field. Working his way past Lynch on lap 3 and then following Holmes past brother Nathan on the following lap to finish in 5th

The big winner from the safety car was Rob Rowe.  Although he was in 13th place after stalling on the line the bunched up field gave him plenty of opportunity to progress, jumping to 8th on the first lap after the re-start, and then chasing down Lynch with a nice move around the outside at Turn 5 on the penultimate lap and finally rounding up Nathan Gotch on the final lap to claim 6th.  Nathan Gotch was relegated to 7th, a poor reward after pulling the best move of the weekend earlier in the race, ahead of Lynch in 8th.

Coath and Shayne Morrow were next on the road, but both copped penalties – Coath for the jumped start and Morrow for failing to notice a black flag.  That elevated Baker to 9th, having had mis-fire issues again but nevertheless enjoying good tussles with Rob Sviderskas and Shayne Morrow during the race.  Coath was classified 10th ahead of Sviderskas and Shayne Morrow with a 30 second time penalty. Phil Morrow suffered further gearbox issues and failed to finish.

Post-race there was drama for the Anglo Motorsport team, the scrutineers deeming the driver to not be safely under the line of the roll-over protection.  So, two major issues were emerging – Noel is too tall as well as being too quick, on both counts nothing a few inches off at the ankles wouldn’t solve.  But some determined work re-fitting the seat would see McDermott back in action for the feature race.


It is hard to keep a low profile when you’re out in front.  Noel McDermott riding high after his race win,
unfortunately a little too high for the Scrutineers
.

The other driver in trouble with the officials was Shayne Morrow who had been black-flagged for passing too early on the re-start, and then compounded the issue by failing to see the black flag.  The stewards took a dim view of this and produced a big fine.  For all of us it’s a reminder to check for flags (start line and Turn 15 exit) as part of our race routine. 


Just in case you haven’t seen one before, that’s what a black flag looks like.
That’s about a grand’s worth of flag, so its worth looking out for it.

BLENDLINE TV Race 2 (click here):
(Formula Cars are at about the 35 minute mark)

Race 3

The Trophy Race saw Doug Barry make another sensational launch and leading the field away ahead of Holmes, pole-sitter Muddle having to be content with third, ahead of the fast-starting Mygale of Adam Gotch, McDermott, Rowe, Nathan Gotch and Baker, with the car finally sounding like it was firing on all cylinders.

Holmes made a move on Barry on the back straight between Turns 15 and 16 to take the lead and stayed in that position until he received the chequered flag.

Muddle was looking to do the same, but the big Reynard was proving harder to pass.  He then had a further problem in the form of McDermott on his tail.  Some defensive lines held McDermott at bay for a couple of laps before he made his way into 3rd and then 2nd on lap 5.

Rowe was also progressing well and looking to challenge Muddle, but spun at Turn 6, falling to 9th place.  It was a precursor to a major turning point in the race.  McDermott had looked to be a potential challenger to Holmes, but he too had a spin at Turn 6, re-joining behind Rowe and ultimately only able to recover to 8th place.


That’s all anyone saw of Graeme Holmes
 as he completed a clinical defence of the David Choon Memorial Trophy.

By this stage Barry had opened up a handy gap on Muddle, and although that may have closed marginally late in the race, there was still a safe margin as he drove to his best placing with FRCA and crossed the line in second.

The midfield battle was keenly contested, and with the demise of McDermott and Rowe fourth place was at stake. Adam Gotch looked the most likely, having challenged Rowe early in the race, but Baker was in the mix and pulled a big move under brakes into Turn 2 on lap 8 to put himself into 4th.  He was able to hold that all the way to the line, ahead of the two Gotch Mygales and Glenn Lynch, having a typically strong run in the world’s highest mileage Dallara Fiat.

McDermott and Rowe followed, with Shayne rounding out the top 10.  Tim Boydle had a strong run in the Mygale, getting into the 1:36’s and having a race-long contest with Morrow and Rob Sviderskas.  Ron Coath spent the whole race chasing the field after stalling at the start and was only a lap away from picking off both Boydle and Morrow when the flag came out.


NATSOFT full results Race 3 (click here):

BLENDLINE TV Race 3
(Formula Cars are at about the 28 minute mark)

With his victory in the trophy race Holmes also pulled the most points for the weekend, ahead of Muddle, Barry, and McDermott.

The Championship standings after 2 rounds:

With several drivers expecting to be back in action for the next round at Sydney Motorsport Park, July 31 – August 1, we are looking forward to our biggest even in a number of years, there’s plenty of time to get cars ready and join the fun. 


Doug Barry cruising down the main straight.  Wrong gears, bad fuel pressure, old tyres….
Doug: enough with stories about how much faster the Big Dog could be,
please – you’re scaring the rest of us who are struggling to keep up already!

____________________________________________________________

Actually written by Greg Muddle.

2021 AGI NSW Motor Race Championship Round 1 
27th -28th February, 2021
Wakefield Park

The season opener lived up to all the pre-season hype – great racing for our first live-streamed event on Blendline TV, three different race winners, and great battles all the way down the field.  Nathan Gotch (AGI Dallara F307 Renault) took home the trophy with a solid win in the feature race, but over the weekend it was the reigning champion Aaron McClintock (Dallara F301 Opel Spiess) who got the job done consistently and he leads the championship from two other consistent performers in Rob Rowe (Dallara F308 Toyota) and Adam Gotch (AGI Mygale F4).


Victory for Nathan Gotch in the opening round of the season.

Pre-Race

A solid entry list of 16 cars was promising, but unfortunately we were down to 14 after Friday mishaps when Lawrence Katsidis (SYDNEY PHOTO BOOTH Dallara F304 Renault) shredded another timing belt and Jeff Senior (Donate Life Dallara F304 Toyota) kicked another cat – we must be getting close to the point where there’s nothing on the car he hasn’t rebuilt.

There were plenty of regular faces in the field, including Aaron McClintock, having his first run in the Dallara since his championship winning drive in 2019, and Denis Lesslie (Tru-Blue Trailers Dallara F304 Renault) making his first appearance in a couple of years.

The AGI Team had expanded its stable to 4 – Nathan Gotch ‘upgrading’ to the F3 Dallara, Adam Gotch switching to the ex-Luis Leeds Mygale F4 and two other drivers coming on board:  former bike racer Tim Boydle making his debut on 4 wheels and former FRCA Champion Nick Fillpetto making a welcome return to racing, both in the beautifully turned out AGA Mygale F4s.

Elsewhere Greg Muddle and Rod Baker fronted with a pair of freshly liveried ’01 Dallaras courtesy of Jeremy and the guys at ProWraps and Graphics.  They certainly looked fast but there are no points for looking sharp on Friday.


Qualifying

A brief 10-minute free practice before qualifying certainly helped blow out any cobwebs, but despite near-perfect weather it still wasn’t easy to get the feel of the track in qualifying – as attested by the fact 11 of the 14 drivers set their fastest time on their last or second-last lap.

Nathan Gotch unsurprisingly topped the time-sheets, but the margin to the two 2019 championship rivals – McClintock and Muddle – was smaller than expected.  McClintock held 2nd for most of the session, before Muddle stole the front-row spot in the closing laps. 

Adam Gotch was unable to replicate the pace that saw him take pole at our last outing, but he had the F4 punching above its weight in 4th, narrowly ahead of Rob Row in the Dallara F308 Toyota and Nick Filipetto, with Doug Barry looming large in the big Doug Barry Specials Formula Holden in 7th.  Baker Baker, Coath and Lynch completed the Top 10.

QUALIFYING RESULTS

   

1

Nathan Gotch

Dallara F307

0:58.2435

 

2

Greg Muddle

Dallara F399

0:58.6377

 

3

Aaron McClintock

Dallara F301

0:58.7211

 

4

Adam Gotch

Mygale F4

1:00.0960

 

5

Robert Rowe

Dallara F308

1:00.1078

 

6

Nick Filipetto

Mygale F4

1:00.1490

 

7

Doug Barry

Reynard 92D

1:00.6704

 

8

Rodney Baker

Dallara F301

1:01.5443

 

9

Ron Coath

Dallara F307

1:01.8044

 

10

Glenn Lynch

Dallara 397

1:02.1642

 

11

Tim Boydle

Mygale F4

1:04.0373

 

12

Shayne Morrow

Dallara F397

1:06.3749

 

13

Denis Lesslie

Dallara F304

1:07.1556

 

14

Robert Sviderskas

Dallara F304

1:08.9570

 

           

 

Race 1

Nathan Gotch led the field away, with Muddle dropping to 4th behind McClintock and Adam Gotch, but racing was briefly curtailed when a safety car appeared to deal with the cars of Ron Coath and Glenn Lynch that both failed to leave the line. 

When racing recommenced, Muddle quickly passed Adam Gotch and the front three settled into a rhythm, with a small but seemingly unbreachable gap between each of them.  Most of the interest focussed on the battle behind them, Rowe sandwiched between the two F4s of Adam Gotch and Filipetto, with Baker trying to keep on the pace.

Nathan Gotch seemed destined for a comfortable win until an electrical problem ended his race on lap 8, handing the lead to McClintock who at that stage still had a comfortable gap over Muddle.  Things got interesting when the last lap board came out and the leaders came across lapped traffic.  Muddle had a big dive on back markers at the Fishhook and then another at Turn 10, while McClintock found it harder to find a way through, and in the end Muddle stole a surprise victory to kick off the championship.

In the other main battle Adam Gotch held off Rowe for third, and Barry found good pace mid-race to dispose of Baker and Filipetto, to be challenging Rowe at the chequered flag. 


Muddle on his way to an opportunistic win in the opener.

RACE 1 – 10 LAPS

   

1

Greg Muddle

Dallara F399

11:09.4240

2

Aaron McClintock

Dallara F301

11:10.6331

3

Adam Gotch

Mygale F4

11:22.2821

4

Robert Rowe

Dallara F308

11:22.9126

5

Doug Barry

Reynard 92D

11:23.1275

6

Nick Filipetto

Mygale F4

11:24.5382

7

Rodney Baker

Dallara F301

11:33.1280

8

Shayne Morrow

Dallara F397

12:02.6545

BLENDLINE TV Race 1

 

Race 2

Warm and sunny conditions for greeted the drivers on Sunday morning and a full field of 14 fronted the starter, although Lynch had retired the usually reliable Dallara F397 Fiat and brought out ‘Goldfinger’, his spare car, for its first appearance in a couple of years. 

McClintock got the job done off the line to lead Muddle, Rowe and Adam Gotch.  There was plenty of early action: Doug Barry passing Gotch for 4th before having to retire the big Reynard; Baker passing Filipetto and chasing down Gotch; and Rob Sviderskas, who had a great jump from the start into 7th and making it as high as 6th when Fillipetto pitted with clutch issues.

Nathan Gotch was the big mover in the field, getting to second by mid-race and then closing significantly on McClintock when he came into lapped traffic.  Gotch was closing quickly, but McClintock responded with his fastest laps in the closing stages of the race and was able to hold on for the win.

Muddle pulled a small gap to Rowe and Adam Gotch.  Baker had been chasing down Gotch but his engine developed a misfire and he cruised into 6th.  Coath had the better of a race-long battle with Shayne Morrow, and Tim Boydle managed to make good progress from the back of the field to eventually chase down Rob Sviderskas to claim 9th place.


Baker and Morrow both made big improvements in their lap times in Race 2

RACE 2 – 12 LAPS

1

Aaron McClintock

Dallara F301

12:01.7687

2

Nathan Gotch

Dallara F307

12:02.8712

3

Greg Muddle

Dallara F399

12:13.3097

4

Robert Rowe

Dallara F308

12:22.8047

5

Adam Gotch

Mygale F4

12:23.5464

6

Rodney Baker

Dallara F301

12:42.5396

7

Ron Coath

Dallara F307

13:00.5214

8

Shayne Morrow

Dallara F397

13:01.3995

BLENDLINE TV Race 2

 

Race 3

McClintock got the jump off the line, but Nathan Gotch won the drag up the hill on the first lap, taking the lead into Turn 3.  Behind these two Rowe jumped into 3rd, but Muddle pulled the place back under brakes at the end of the back straight on the first lap.

Adam Gotch had the fast-starting Nick Filipetto on his tail, with Coath and Doug Barry settling into a good battle for 7thafter Shayne Morrow retired his car with oil pressure issues. 

The race settled into good battles in these pairs, with the only change being Doug Barry managing to pass Ron Coath mid-race

.
McClintock leads the field away in the Trophy Race

RACE 3 – 14 LAPS

1

Nathan Gotch

Dallara F307

16:00.3430

2

Aaron McClintock

Dallara F301

16:00.7466

3

Robert Rowe

Dallara F310

16:09.3662

4

Adam Gotch

Mygale F4

16:09.5099

5

Nicholas Filipetto

Mygale F4

16:10.5294

6

Douglas Barry

Reynard 92D

16:13.1434

7

Ron Coath

Dallara F307

16:17.5512

8

Glenn Lynch

Dallara 397

16:22.4671

BLENDLINE TV Race 3

 

McClintock finished the weekend with a win and two seconds, to take an early lead in the Championship, ahead of the consistent accumulators Rowe and Adam Gotch.

2021 AGI NSW FORMULA RACE CARS CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS

 

Driver

Car

Points

1.

Aaron McClintock

Dallara F301

84

2.

Robert Rowe

Dallara F308

66

3.

Adam Gotch

Mygale F4

63

4.

Greg Muddle

Dallara F399

62

5.

Nathan Gotch

Mygale F4

57

6.

Doug Barry

Reynard 92D

34

7.

Nick Filipetto

Mygale F4

34

8.

Rodney Baker

Dallara F301

30

9.

Ron Coath

Dallara F307

28

10.

Rob Sviderskas

Dallara F304

26

11.

Shayne Morrow

Dallara F397

24

12.

Denis Lesslie

Dallara F304

22

13.

Tim Boydle

Mygale F4

20

14.

Glenn Lynch

Dallara F397

12

 

Actually written by Greg Muddle.

2020 NSW Motor Race Championship Round 5 
12th -13th December, 2020
Wakefield Park

The 2020 season finished with an unusually late round mid-December at Wakefield Park.  Despite a small field FRCA again managed to turn on action-packed racing, which is a good portent for 2021: how exciting will it be with twice as many cars?  With several drivers keen to get back into action in 2021 it’s looking tantalising.

2020 closed out with Greg Muddle taking the honours, but with three different drivers topping the results in four sessions, and another taking fastest lap honours: it was a close-run thing all weekend.  The brace of AGI Mygales had everybody talking about their Friday pace, and that form carried-on into the rest of the weekend. Unfortunately neither AGI Mygales quite got it over the line for a win but it was very close.  Both F4’s took it to the F3 cars all weekend, with the tight and twisty Wakefield Park layout playing the their strengths.

But without doubt the highlight of the weekend was a special comeback win for Lawrence Katsidis, who took a fine win with a cool drive on Saturday afternoon.

Greg Muddle on the way to the round win.

Qualifying

We are all familiar with the freezing cold of Wakefield park, but it was surprising to find it that way in mid-December, overcast and a biting wind.  9 cars rolled out for qualifying, we would have had double figures except Glenn Lynch was unfortunately a late withdrawal – not quite as late as some of his late arrivals on race days!

We did however have three drivers returning to the fray – Jeff Senior had the Donate Life Dallara F304 Toyota primed for a proper run after a long series of false starts; Shayne Morrow had the JSM Plastering Dallara F397 VW back in action; and Katsidis with a clean bill of health in the SYDNEY PHOTO BOOTH Dallara F304 Renault.

Muddle (Dallara F399 Opel Spiess) had the quickest time deep into the session with a 58.9 second lap, but two quick laps at the end by Adam Gotch (AGI Sport Mygale F4 EcoBoost) saw him go half a second quicker to grab pole for both preliminary races.

Behind Muddle there was a blanket covering the next three cars – Katsidis ahead of Nathan Gotch in the second of the AGI Sport Mygales and Rob Rowe (Genesis Offices Dallara F308 Toyota). All the top five looked like they could be in the mix for race wins on the weekend.

Doug Barry (Reynard 92D F4000) had no issues apart from warming up huge tyres on a huge car (he uses F3 rear tyres on the front of his car) but managed to edge out Ron Coath (Dallara F307 Mercedes) and Jeff Senior in another closely matched set of cars in 6th to 8th.  Shayne Morrow rounded out the field, and nobody reported any problems:  we were good to go racing.

Adam Gotch put the AGI Sport Mygale F4 on pole and had a chance at a win in all three races.

Saturday Racing

The temperature had improved marginally but the wind had been replaced with misting showers, although they had all cleared by the time, we took to a cold but dry circuit for the 12 laps of Race 1.

Adam G got the jump on Muddle to take the early lead, with Katsidis, Nathan G and Rowe in tow.  Senior made an impressive first up start to get the Dallara off the line in fine style and then used his Formula Ford nous at turn 2 (F/Ford lesson #1: be on the inside because the damage radiates out) his inside line proving quicker than Barry’s outside line. Coath stalled on the line and settled into a race of chasing the cars in front.

Muddle dogged Gotch for two laps before out-braking him into the last turn onto pit straight.  A small gap opened, with a further gap to Katsidis and Nathan G as they fought over third.  But Muddle was unable to press home the advantage, and from mid-race Adam G started to slowly and surely put the pressure on.  On lap 9 he was able to close considerably as Muddle made slow work of lapping Morrow, and this set him up for some pay-back late braking into the last corner. 

Muddle was not easily dropped, and two laps later was able to edge past Adam on the main straight.  However, the duelling between the two lead cars had allowed Katsidis and Nathan G to close in, so there was now an almighty scrap going on with four cars in the action.  Katsidis put the pressure on and grabbed second with two laps to go, after Adam had some hang-time off the kerb at turn 2 while looking for a way past Muddle’s car.

WINNER! Lawrence Katsidis pushing hard through Turn 2 during morning practice.

Once again Muddle failed to seize the advantage and drive away, and Katsidis put in a huge last lap, to take a maiden victory.  Behind this pair Adam held advantage over Nathan in the F4 battle, but only marginally ahead of the fast-charging Rob Rowe, who had been within sight of the front cars for most of the race without managing to get fully in the thick of it, but then set the fastest lap of the race when he was within sight of a podium.

Barry came home in 6th ahead of Senior, having reclaimed the spot on the third lap but by that time unable to close the gap to the car in front, and Coath also chased hard for most of the race without being able to close the gap.  Morrow had a solid mistake-free run despite being a lap down.

Katsidis was elated with the win – the stress of racing and the excitement of winning proving less hazardous to his health than the simple act of getting out of the car… and going base over apex onto the tarmac after tripping on the cockpit shroud. Good thing drivers wear helmets, or we could have had an injury.

 

Sunday Racing

Conditions were overcast and cool for the Sunday morning race, again over 12 laps.

This time it was Muddle who got the jump, or at least got the best of 4 poor starts from the cars on the front 2 rows, so that he led the field up the hill for the first time.  Adam G slotted into second, with Nathan and Rowe contesting wheel-to-wheel into turn 3, with the Mygale winning out. This relegated first race winner Katsidis to 5th, ahead of Coath, Senior and Morrow, with Barry at the rear having bogged down at the start.

Muddle leads the field away on the first lap of Race 2.

Like the first encounter, Muddle was able to make the most of early grip and opened a small gap; and like the first encounter Adam G started to close the gap steadily mid-race.  However, there were a couple of little missteps in Gotch’s chase, culminating in some off-road work at the top of the circuit on lap 9, which gave Muddle a comfortable 2 second gap over the chasing pack and relegated Adam G to 5th.

Muddle was able to drive away from Nathan G for the race win as Gotch was fully occupied with Katsidis and Rowe filling his mirrors.  Adam G had fallen back to within striking distance of Coath and Barry, who had had a race-long tussle.  Coath made the most of Mercedes power on the short run from the last corner to the flag to take fifth place from Gotch, with Barry trailing in 7th.  Senior and Morrow both completed the distance, Morrow managing to take 3 seconds off his times in another good drive.

Things had warmed up for the afternoon feature race that was run over 13 laps. Based on results from the two preliminary races Muddle and Katsidis shared the front row in front of the two Mygales.

Muddle got the jump and things were looking sweet from the cockpit of the Dallara – a job well done for someone who is starting is often variable at best – until the grey flashing by signalled Adam G’s takeover of the lead.  Game on!  Gotch had got a blinder of a start and was racy from the outset.

If you leave a gap, I’ll just drive right through it – Adam Gotch jumps to the lead in the Trophy race.

Muddle chased hard over the first two laps to close the gap and was all over Gotch when the safety car flags came out on lap 3, Rowe having spun at turn two and beached the car on the inside of the circuit.  Katsidis held third from Nathan G, Barry, Coath, Senior and Morrow.  Barry was finally in a good place to take it to the smaller cars but struggling with gearing in the low-speed corners that was negating his power advantage.

Gotch brings the field down inti the Fishhook corner.

Adam G made a good tactical move on the re-start and gapped Muddle, but a couple of laps later it was nose to gearbox again, Muddle finally making a move under brakes into the ‘Fishhook’.  Gotch was looking for a quick counterpunch but got out of shape at the kink onto the back straight, running off the road and allowing Katsidis through into second.

Katsidis chased Muddle hard all the way to the line as they traded fastest laps, but Muddle was able to hold a short gap all the way to the chequered flag.  Adam G had his hands full battling Nathan in the second AGI car, and both were shadowed all the way to the line by Barry in the Reynard, but they retained that order to the finish.  Coath trailed off late in the race after having set his best lap times of the weekend, with Senior not too far behind and Morrow rounding out the finishers.

All cars came home in one piece, several drivers scored PB’s across the weekend, and little more than a second covered 8 of the 9 cars.  And there was some really close racing.  While we will all be glad to see the back of 2020 at least we closed off that chapter with some encouraging signs for the season ahead. 

A happy Christmas to all, and we look forward to seeing you back at Wakefield Park on February 27 to kick off the 2021 Championship.

 

Actually written by Greg Muddle.

2020 NSW Motor Race Championship Round 4 
15th November, 2020
Sydney Motor Sport Park

Our unusual season continued with its second one-day round conducted at Sydney Motorsport Park in November.  This time Rodney Brincat, who chased hard to no avail in the previous round, was rewarded for his efforts with three wins from three starts.  Once again, we had a small but eclectic mix of cars, and once again this produced some exciting racing.

3 wins from 3 starts, Rod Brincat was untouchable

Qualifying

With COVID-19 risk slightly more manageable we had a few more starters for this round, although with the one-day format being unfriendly to out-of-towners and making for quite a hectic day we were still not at normal capacity.

In warm and sunny conditions Greg Muddle (Dallara F399 Opel Spiess) and Rod Brincat (Dallara F304 Opel Spiess) were ready to resume their epic battle from round 1.  Brincat led the timesheets from early, and eventually finished with a 1:32.6 to take pole.  Muddle was working his way slowly into the session and had moved into 4th when an input shaft failure on lap 4 halted any further progress for the weekend.

Behind Brincat the battle for qualifying places was intense, with a second covering the next 7 cars.  Our F4 field had doubled – Nathan Gotch joining brother Adam in the boosted cars that are proving to be fast and reliable – and it was Adam that had the better of Nathan by 0.2 seconds late in the session to grab the other front row spot.

Behind Muddle, Rob Rowe (Dallara F308 Toyota) was consistently working his times down and just pipped Rod Baker (Dallara F301 Opel Spiess) for 5th, Baker pitting early to sort out some problems in the cockpit. Before he did, he managed a respectable time to be ahead of the big noise of the field, Doug Barry’s Reynard F4000, and also Ron Coath, having his first outing of the season in the Dallara F307 Mercedes.

A brace of F3’s qualified on the 5th row – Glenn Lynch in the well-travelled Dallara F397 Fiat qualifying ahead of Phil Morrow’s Dallara F304 Opel Spiess, last year’s title contender being a little off his usual pace.

The field was completed by the ‘historic section’, or the ‘red brigade’, triple-champion Aaron McClintock having his first FRCA outing in the Richards VW AF2 car and Rob Sviderskas choosing the Elfin 622 Toyota from his fleet for this round.

Looking good, but still a couple of gremlins to sort out, Aaron McClintock
in the Richards AF2. 
It’d be great to have a few more AF2 cars back on the track.

Racing

Race 1 saw Brincat make a perfect getaway to set up a lights-to-flag win, comfortably setting the fastest lap along the way and clear of all the action.  The two Gotch Mygales got away nicely, but behind them there was a bit of a mess, Coath stalling and Baker grabbing an incorrect gear, which allowed Morrow in particular to capitalise.  Baker recovered a place with a nice move on Lynch at Turn 15. So, behind Brincat at the end of the first lap it was Adam Gotch over Nathan, Phil Morrow charging through to 4th ahead of Rowe, Barry and Baker and Lynch defending 8thfrom McClintock.

Despite the first lap charge Morrow had to bide his time behind the duelling Mygales. Nathan put a nice move on Adam at Turn 15 on lap 2 to take 2nd, but wasn’t able to draw away, despite Adam having to contend with Morrow hot on his tail.  Adam managed to hold out for 7 laps, with Nathan ceding 2nd to Morrow a lap later.  By this time the gap to Brincat was too large to close, and Morrow settled for a comfortable 2nd.

Behind this group there was an epic battle building between Rowe, Barry, and Baker.  Rowe conceded places to both either side of the start line on lap 3 but settled in behind them, biding his time. Barry was using the strengths of the F4000 – big brakes into corners and big squirt out of them – which was sufficient to frustrate baker in the F3 which was nimbler in the twisty bits.  After several laps chasing, a failed attempt to try his luck under brakes at Turn 2 saw Baker back on track some distance behind Rowe.

Further back Lynch was trying hard, but unsuccessfully to shake of McClintock.  With Baker’s ‘moment’ they were closer to the action in front and that seemed to inspire a bit of an increase in tempo.

Glenn Lynch chased hard all day, and had an inspired run in the feature race.

Baker managed to close within striking distance of Rowe, which was now a contest for 5th with Barry having retired on lap 8.  Baker successfully made his move on lap 10 in the run to turn 6.  Rowe wasn’t ready to let that go and continued on the tail of Baker into the final lap, looking for a chance.  That came when Baker ran wide on the approach to Turn 15 – Baker managed to gather it up amid a cloud of dust, but it left him exposed.  Unfortunately for Rowe he got on the juice too early on the exit trying to capitalise and looped it, leaving Baker clear into 5th

That left Rowe exposed to the cars behind him – Coath, who had been fired up by his mistake on the line and was the second quickest car on the track at this stage; and Lynch who was still charging hard.  Coath pipped Rowe in the charge to the line but had copped a start infringement penalty so the final order was Rowe 6th, followed by Lynch, Coath and Sviderskas rounding out the finishers, with McClintock having retired the Richards with a broken header pipe. 
 

Race 2

Brincat was quick away from the line and cleared out for another lights-to-flag victory. Morrow was again spectacular from the back of the grid, slicing through to 3rd at the completion of the first lap and he had made that 2nd by the turn in to turn 1, with a nice move on Adam Gotch, who led brother Nathan, Coath, Baker Lynch, Rowe and Sviderskas as the cars completed lap 1.  Baker had the rear of the car let go in turn 1 for another moment of off-track excitement, and although he was able to continue undertray damage hindered his progress.

Although Morrow had shown great pace to get into second, pulling away was much harder prospect and the race settled into an interesting tussle between the F3’s of Morrow, Rowe and Coath and the two Gotch F4’s.

Adam held doggedly to 3rd, firstly fending off his brother and subsequently Coath, and he ultimately was rewarded for his efforts with an elevation to 2nd following a Morrow spin late in the race, courtesy of oil from Baker’s car. Coath was able to hold off Nathan Gotch to claim 3rd.  Rowe was disqualified after a late exit from the dummy grid transgressed the starter’s orders, and so Lynch finished 5th ahead of Morrow, Baker and Sviderskas.

Race 3

With both Coath and Baker added to the list of non-starters it was a small field of cars that rolled out in late afternoon for the feature race.  On form this should have been an easy assignment for Brincat, but when the lights went out the pole-sitter went nowhere, opening up the prospect of a win for everyone else.

Phil Morrow cuts under Adam Gotch into Turn 2

Morrow had another lightening start, but the two Mygales did enough to hold him out, and when the cars came back into view at Turn 3 it was Adam in the lead from Nathan, Morrow, a charged-up Lynch fending off Rowe. Brincat was off the line 17 seconds in arrears. These five were in a conga line for the first three laps until Morrow retired.  That elevated Lynch to third behind the Mygales, who weren’t pulling away, and although Rowe looked fast in the newer car Lynch was not ready to concede a place.

The middle of the race Rowe starts to make his move, passing Lynch on Lap 5 and then getting both the Mygales on lap 7.  The question was whether he’d made his move early enough, because Brincat had been closing at the rate of a couple of seconds a lap, and at the same time Rowe found clear air Brincat was sizing up Lynch at the other end of the pack.

The answer was ‘no’: Brincat was in the lead by lap 8, and although Rowe kept good pace to follow him across the line once Brincat saw the front he was never going to let it go.  These two were followed home by Nathan Gotch, Adam Gotch , Lynch and Sviderskas rounding out the finishers, in a race that had four separate leaders and Adam Gotch, who held the lead for more than half the race ending up outside the top 3.

 

Actually written by Greg Muddle.

2020 NSW Motor Race Championship Round 3 
2nd August, 2020
Sydney Motor Sport Park

Well its been a crazy coronavirus year so far. Finally, so late in the year, Formula Race Cars looked to be getting back to business in a curtailed season, but in the last week before the event it mostly went to custard and a small bunch of guys who were mostly only there to make up the numbers found themselves as the central players in one of the oddest rounds in our championship history (which is incidentally in its 10th year this year), and certainly the most unusual mess of a qualifying session.  In the end it was Greg Muddle (Dallara F399 Opel Spiess) who bagged three wins, hounded all the way to the line by Rod Brincat (Dallara F304 Opel Spiess) making a successful return to the track.

Greg Muddle having a good weekend

Pre-Race

A week or so out from racing things were looking very positive – 15 entries, which would have been 16 if Rod Anderson were able to escape quarantine in Lockdown Victoria; and an eclectic mix of cars – F2, F4, F4000 and an a whole bunch of F3’s impersonating bad FM radio (“All the hits from the eighties, nineties and noughties”), almost all eras covered.  The FRCA dream of wings ‘n’ slicks of every type.

But then the meeting was turned into a one-day event to ensure we didn’t breach the Public Health Order limiting the permitted number of people on site – and a couple of our longer-distance travellers understandably pulled the plug, so we were down to 13.  And then as more and more coronavirus hotspots emerged in Sydney a number of competitors made the call that there was too much health risk and we were down to 8.

If you think it looks menacing here you should see it in your mirrors.
Doug Barry starting to get some mumbo out of the Big Reynard.

Qualifying

Fortunately all cars made it through Friday unscathed, mostly by staying under covers in their respective garages. Jeff Senior, who has had a wretched run with the immaculate but cantankerous Dallara F304 Toyota, had struggles with issues again but optimistically was there as we rolled out pitlane in clear but cold conditions.

Rolling out was something we would get a lot of practice doing.  Before any of us had put in a hot lap – something that’s not easy to do at 8.15am in the middle of winter – Doug Barry managed to loop the big Reynard F4000 and turn 2, despite the most careful application of minimal throttle.  The red flags came out and we all came back into pitlane.

When Doug was back in motion we were allowed back out on track, but on the first return lap Jeff Senior’s Dallara decided it was over being friendly and went back to being the b*tch-that-won’t-run, stopping completely at Turn 2 and bringing out the red flags for a second time.

With Jeff’s car recovered we rolled out for a third time. Most of us managed to be on what was if not a hot lap then at least a nervous, skatey, luke-warm sort of lap, when Adam Gotch in the Mygale F4 gave it a little more throttle than the conditions allowed out of turn 5 and found the inside wall between 5 and 6 with both ends of the car.  So then the red flags came out again.

By that stage it was all over red rover, and everyone was curious as to what the timesheets would look like with so little running. 

As it turned out slow-conditions specialist Lawrence Katsidis in the SYDNEY PHOTO BOOTH Dallara F304 Renault prevailed to take the first pole of the season, with an amazing 3:18.9047 lap (average speed 71 kmh per Natsoft), with only Rod Brincat and Adam Gotch inside the 130% rule (Ed: well it is 2020!).  Lawrence’s lap did include nearly 90 seconds stationery in pitlane, but let’s not get too fussy with the facts. Baker out-qualified team boss Muddle, Barry followed and Rob Sviderskas didn’t get a time in.

Purple in sector 2 – ‘Lightening’ Lawrence Katsidis attacks his pole lap

For the second race, it was first-timer Adam Gotch taking pole honours under the new format (2nd race grid based on 2nd fastets qualifying time) ahead of Katsidis and Brincat, the only three drives to record 2 complete laps.

Racing

With the sort of professionalism you expect from AGI, despite the quick turnaround and the skeleton staff the Mygale made it to the grid for the first race, but sadly Jeff Senior’s car was out for the duration.  

Race 1 saw Muddle lead Brincat and Katsidis home. Baker ran third early on but let that slip to Katsidis on the 4th lap, and Adam Gotch brought the Mygale home in 5th ahead of Rob Sviderskas in the Dallara F304 Opel Spiess.  Doug Barry retired Reynard in the early stages with clutch issues.

Rob Sviderskas (L) and Rod Brincat (R)

Rod Baker was making good progress before the stater motor failed

Race 2 saw further depletion of the field, with both Baker (starter motor) and Katsidis (sinuses) out for the remainder of the day.  Muddle repeated the approach in the earlier race, opening a comfortable gap to Brincat and easing home, with Doug Barry having successfully fixed his earlier issues coming home in third ahead of Gotch and Sviderskas.

Pole first time out – too easy! Well, at least easier than getting off the line, Adam Gotch picked up a brace of false start penalties.  So few cars, so little for the grid marshalls to do…

The final race saw Muddle and Brincat evenly matched off the line but Brincat prevailing and a cheeky Rob Sviderskas sticking his nose in for a 3-way run to turn 2.  Doug Barry had the Reynard on song and was soon up to 3rd, with his sights firmly on the two F3’s in front, and looming large in their mirrors he was giving them cause for concern, but once again too much boot out of 2 turned the big beast around, although this time he recovered to finish 3rd.

The small field took the gloss off what was a genuinely good race.  Muddle passed Brincat with an audacious outside move at turn 1 but was never able to shake Brincat in a dice that lasted 9 laps and saw the cars finish three-tenths of a second apart.  While Muddle had the chequered flag it was Brincat  who recorded the fastest lap of the weekend – something that’s not usually done on the 2nd last lap of the Sunday afternoon race – almost a full 3 thousandths of a second quicker than Muddle.  Gotch ended on top in a see-sawing battle with Sviderskas for 4th. Positions changing several times over the course of the race.

Brincat leads Muddle, soon to be the other way around

So where to from here?

It’s all a bit difficult to predict corona-wise but hopefully we will see the situation improving by the time of our next race meeting at Wakefield Park in just under 2 months’ time on the 26th & 27th of September.

We’re not likely to see entries open for another few weeks so nobody needs to make decisions any time soon.  We will need to have at least 12 cars enter to keep the promoters happy, and after a couple of embarrassing fields we’ll need a reasonably firm commitment prior to entries opening to get our block-booking for the carports.

There is no doubt that with racing taking a back seat for many people at the moment, and rightly so, this will continue to be an odd season (although hopefully not so odd that we see another sub-80kmh pole lap at Wakefield), we look forward to improved conditions and a few more familiar faces joining us as the season progresses.   

 

 

Actually written by Greg Muddle.

2019 NSW Motor Race Championship Round 5 
26th-27th October, 2019
Sydney Motor Sport Park

Aaron McClintock (Dallara Opel Spiess F301) clinched his third NSW State title with three flawlessly consistent drives, staving off the challenges from Greg Muddle (Dallara Opel Spiess F399) and Phil Morrow (Dallara Opel Spiess F304) in the finale to a season that gave us plenty of close racing, multiple winners and the closest title contest in years.  McClintock was able to diffuse the title threat behind him, but was unable to do anything about the driver ahead on the road – Garnet Patterson (Dallara Honda F308) making his return to F3 in style and claiming a clean sweep for the weekend.


2019 Champion Aaron McClintock

Qualifying

1. Garnet Patterson, Dallara Honda F308, 1:25.91
2. Aaron McClintock, Dallara Opel Speiss F399, 1:28.42
3. Greg Muddle, Dallara Opel Speiss F399, 1:29.34
4. Rob Rowe, Dallara Toyota F308, 1:30.21

Formula Race Cars were the second category onto the circuit on Saturday morning, but already the air temp was in the high twenties on a sunny but windy morning.  15 cars rolled out for qualifying, an improvement on previous rounds, and that included two drivers making their long-awaited first appearance of the season:  Doug Barry in the big Reynard 92D Formula Holden, and Rodney Baker in the world’s-longest-engine-rebuild Dallara Opel Spiess F301. 

Patterson banked a quick lap early in the session before the heat and traffic were an issue, and although he could probably have gone even faster it was easily enough to put him on pole with a sizzling time two seconds better than his nearest rival. 

McClintock and Muddle both settled into solid times after scrubbing in their tyres, both probably a little disappointed that conditions were against a quicker lap but from positions 2 and 3 on the grid the championship battle was on track.  Rob Rowe continued his strong recent form and put the Toyota-powered car onto the second row.

Glenn Lynch (Eagle Transportation Dallara F397) was the cat among the pigeons, the Classic Class car which won Lynchy the inaugural FCA championship in 2011 bettering a number of later model cars to claim 5th place on the grid.  He headed up a group of 5 cars that were separated by less than a second, including round 1 winner Graeme ‘Captain Underpants’ Holmes (GKH Powdercoating Dallara Opel Spiess F304) and championship contender Phil Morrow (Dallara Opel Spiess F304) in 6th and 7th respectively.  Rodney Baker slotted into a respectable 8th – having battled with oil leaks all Friday the session proved they weren’t fixed but it didn’t prevent him from setting a competitive time in his first outing for 2 years.

Ron Coath (Dallara Mercedes F307) qualified 9th ahead of Lawrence Katsidis (Sydney Photo Booths Dallara Renault F304), both drivers a bit off their best times but finishing the session without any significant problems.  Rod Anderson (Reynard VW 893) had the honours of being the quickest Reynard ahead of Doug Barry, who was taking things easy in his first championship race meeting and was quite a bit slower than what the car promised from his times at the previous week’s Supersprint.  Rob Sviderskas (Dallara Opel Spiess F304) slotted in between the two Reynards in 12th.

Shayne Morrow (Dallara VW F398) and Denis Lesslie (True Blue Trailers Dallara Renault F304) had both had heavy workloads on the Friday chasing car set-up, but both managed to complete qualifying without any problems, Shayne pipping Denis for 14th by a couple of tenths of a second.


After a frustrating wait, Rod Baker made a good showing in qualifying.

Race 1
1: Garnet Patterson
2: Aaron McClintock
3: Greg Muddle

Hot early afternoon conditions greeted the 14 cars that rolled out for Race 1, Rodney Baker unable to complete further work on his car’s oil leaks in time to make the start.

At lights out Patterson was away cleanly ahead of McClintock, but Muddle was under threat from both Morrow and Holmes through Turn 1, with Holmes eventually claiming 3rd and Muddle not settling the dispute with Morrow until they emerged from Turn 3.  Rowe pounced to claim 5th, relegating Morrow to 6th, the normally fast-jumping Lynch dropped two spots to 7th and the big mover was Sviderskas who climbed 4 spots into 8th.

Muddle passed Holmes with the benefit of a tow down the front straight first time around, getting the job done through Turn 1 despite a little bit of an anxious moment when the back stepped out.  Once again, Rowe took advantage of the action in front, making a move on Holmes to claim 4th.  Further back there was plenty of interest behind Sviderskas, with Coath making his move on lap 2 and Katsidis doing the same on lap 3.  This left Sviderskas under threat from Barry in the Formula Holden, and with everyone still trying to work out the places of comparative advantage and disadvantage for the big car compared to the F3’s there was contact in Turn 2, which resulted in a parked Formula Holden and a Safety Car coming out mid-race.

Not for the first time, the appearance of the ‘SC’ sign caught a couple of drivers unawares, with the result that Messrs Coath, Katsidis, Anderson and Lynch were asked to appear before the Clerk of Course for afternoon tea, and when the officials had done their business Lynchy emerged with a 30 second penalty.

Barry was fortunately able to get his car going again, so the safety car period was brief, and it saw championship contenders McClintock and Muddle line astern behind the lapped car of Denis Lesslie.  With Patterson driving away at the restart and increasing his lead all the way to the chequered flag the interest was going to be in the battle for second, but McClintock was about half a second a lap quicker and had the better run with lapped cars to easily hold out.

Behind the front three, Morrow was able to capitalise at the restart to jump both Rowe and Holmes into 4th, and defended that position all the way to the flag, keeping his championship hopes alive.  Rowe was comfortably in 5th but then had issues with the rear of his car, giving away places to Holmes, Coath, Lynch, Katsidis and Anderson.  Coath held on for 6th place vigorously defending Lynch, (not that it mattered, because of the subsequent penalty) ahead of Katsidis. Rowe re-passed Anderson for 8th, with Lynch relegated to 10th ahead of Doug Barry, who improved his times by a few seconds per lap late in the race, and Denis Lesslie, the last of the cars to finish.

Shayne Morrow had a try-too-hard moment coming out of Turn 2 late in the race and finished parked on the outside of turn 2, and Rob Sviderskas, although not sustaining any damage in the earlier contact, parked the car late in the race with fuel issues.



The only view anyone had of Garnet Patterson in Race 1…and 2, and 3…

Race 2
1: Garnet Patterson
2: Aaron McClintock
3: Greg Muddle

Sunday morning was a few degrees cooler, but track temperatures were still hot. Once again 14 cars rolled out, Rowe having been able to repair his car, the only car missing was Baker, this time making it to the dummy grid only for the starter motor to go on strike. 

The start was nearly identical to Race 1 at the front, with Patterson leading McClintock, then Holmes taking a place from Muddle.  The normally lightning Morrow had an axle failure on the line, ending his chances in the championship.  Behind the lead cars Katsidis was able to get the jump on Coath, and the fast-starting Rowe was able to make up places ahead of Lynch, Barry, Anderson and Sviderskas.


It gets busy on Lap 1… Coath (48) defends into Turn 5 but Katsidis (5) is preparing to pounce

Muddle was desperate to get on the back of McClintock and tried a late move on Holmes into the Turn 9 hairpin – it didn’t work for Muddle and it didn’t really work for Holmes either, as he’d had a fairly major brake lock-up in the process and badly flat-spotted his front right tyre.  Muddle got the main straight tow again from Holmes and pulled 3rdplace on lap 2, and the front three cars settled into a race order that was to hold all the way to the chequered flag:  Patterson with a comfortable and widening lead over McClintock; and McClintock with an enticing but unbridgeable gap to Muddle, all but sealing the championship in the process.

Behind the front four Katsidis had the advantage, and Lynch capitalised on a Coath error on lap 2 to move ahead of both Coath and Rowe into 6th. With Coath trailing off, these three drivers set their sights on the ailing car of Holmes.  Katsidis was first to arrive, but was unable to challenge as his car ran out of fuel.  Rowe got past Holmes, but on the last lap suffered the same fate!  Lynch’s car – whether out of respect for its previous owner or fear of suffering the same fate – settled in behind Holmes for a very respectable 5th position, ahead of the fast-closing Doug Barry, who had again managed to drop his lap times significantly.


… and it doesn’t get any easier, Doug Barry lets Ron Coath know he’s there,
while Rod Anderson and Rob Sviderskas scramble to join in the action

Coath had dropped into the clutches of Anderson early in the race, and together with Rob Sviderskas the three drivers staged a race-long battle.  Anderson kept his position on the road but lost both spots on account of a jump-start penalty, lifting Coath to 7th and Sviderskas to 8th, having pushed out close to personal best lap times along the way.

Lesslie had a better run and, despite also incurring a jump-start penalty, held out Shayne Morrow for 10th place.


Doug Barry lets Ron Coath know he’s there, while Rod Anderson and Rob Sviderskas
 scramble to join in the action

Race 3
1: Garnet Patterson
2: Aaron McClintock
3: Greg Muddle

With McClintock only needing to start to win the Championship he effectively sealed the deal as the cars rolled out of the dummy grid for the last race.  We were down to 13 starters – Coath had been nursing a shoulder injury all weekend and elected not to further aggravate it and Katsidis parked his car with a suspect timing belt.  Baker finally made it to the start, albeit electing to start from pit lane just to avoid any issues if his car failed to get off the line.

At the start a familiar pattern emerged – Patterson, McClintock, Holmes and Muddle, with Muddle having to wait until the first tow down the main straight to reclaim third.  Patterson drove away to victory, Muddle was closer to McClintock but was unable to do anything about the gap and had to settle for third behind our new Champion.

Holmes held 4th and settled into a fairly lonely drive for the length of the race.  The main action was behind, with Lynch having to deal with several threats: from Doug Barry in the early stages, ceding his spot on lap 2 before Barry dropped off the time sheets; and then from the rear-of-grid starters Phil Morrow and Rob Rowe.  Morrow had carved his way through the field to be on Lynch’s tail by lap 3, but once he passed Lynch was unable to open a significant gap.  Rowe had a harder time getting by Sviderskas and Anderson and didn’t get through to 7th place until lap 6, and while he was closing rapidly on Lynch the race was perhaps a lap or so short for him to mount a serious challenge.

Baker had started from the pit lane and set about picking off cars, passing Morrow and Lesslie on lap 2, and then passing both Sviderskas and Anderson and settling into 8th place by lap 8.

Shayne Morrow had another ‘off’ at Turn 2, this time choosing to check the view from the inside of the circuit, and Anderson, Sviderskas and Lesslie all retired their cars in the latter stages of the race. 

So with the season completed we congratulate Aaron McClintock on a splendid Championship victory.


Close, but no cigar: Muddle was able to fly past Captain Underpants but wasn’t able to catch Superman.

The full points score can be found here.

The new year will come around quickly, we’re hoping to have some regulars return to our ranks next year as well as some new drivers joining, it will be difficult to beat this season for on-track action but with a big field of Formula Cars in 2020 we’re certainly hoping that we can match it. 

 

 

Actually written by Greg Muddle.

2019 NSW Motor Race Championship Round 4 
7th-8th September, 2019
Wakefield Park

A Saturday set-back for series leader Aaron McClintock was just the opening his rivals needed to
set-up the series for a gripping finale at Sydney Motorsport Park in October, with Greg Muddle claiming three victories, and Phil Morrow banking a solid haul of points to narrow the gap to McClintock in the championship chase.

Those who chose to practice on the Friday had the best of the weather for the weekend, doing their laps in perfect conditions (bar the odd Radical doing what Radicals do). Lawrence Katsidis (Sydney Photo Booths Dallara Renault F304) was beset by fuel issues caused by deteriorating foam, but having cleaned that out by gate-close time 10 F3’s were tucked away neatly ready fire up in anger the following day.

When the following day rolled around it wasn’t all that pleasant to say the least – temperature barely in positive territory and wind gust of up to 50 kmh, and most of the cars weren’t that keen to fire up (they knew it wasn’t going to be any warmer on the track!).  The biggest issue was with Aaron McClintock’s championship-leading Dallara Opel Spiess F301, which ate a second starter-motor in two race meetings.  A spare was available – in Sydney – which meant McClintock would be missing from the grid for qualifying and race 1.


Muddle leading Morrow (6) and Rowe (4) at the start of the Trophy Race

Qualifying

1. Greg Muddle, Dallara Dallara Opel Spiess F399, 1:00.80
2. Phil Morrow, Dallara Ope Speiss F304, 1:01.50
3.Rob Rowe, Dallara Toyota F308, 1:02.50
4. Glenn Lynch, Eagle TRansport Dallara Fiat F397, 1:04.65

Occasional showers in the morning did nothing to improve conditions, but although there were plenty of wets brought out for an airing they were not required for this session.  The cold conditions meant grip was difficult to come by, and the wind played havoc at various points of the circuit, particularly braking into turn 2. 

For Muddle the upside of flat-spotting tyres at the previous round was new rubber for this session, and although they took most of the session to warm-up it did help him to his second pole position for the year, albeit not breaking the 60-second mark, the slowest qualifying session for several years.  Morrow and Muddle swapped quickest laps throughout the session, which put both the championship rivals on the front row.

Rob Rowe wasn’t far behind continuing his run of improving qualifying performances, but not quite enough to get on the front row.  Glenn Lynch’s F397 is impervious to conditions, and it saw the F397 elevated to 4th in qualifying. 

Behind the front 4 Ron Coath – back in the Dallara Mercedes F307 after a gearbox reconstruction – struggled to get any heat into his new rubber and had to settle for 5th, ahead of Katsidis who was having residual fuel problems which was easily repaired for Race 1.  Rob Sviderskas (Dallara Opel Spiess F304) and Denis Lesslie (Dallara Renault F304) completing the qualifiers, and Shane Morrow (Dallara VW F397) missing qualifying through an administrative error.


Shayne Morrow drove well all weekend, once he got his paperwork in order


Race 1
1:Greg Muddle
2: Phil Morrow
3: Rob Rowe

The conditions hadn’t really improved after lunch, perhaps it was slightly warmer, and so the drivers were granted an extra warm-up lap to try and find some grip.  Eight cars rolled out, with McClintock still retrieving the spare starter and Lesslie failing to leave the dummy grid due to a cantankerous car that didn’t want to fire. Katsidis was caught off-guard by a properly powering engine and spun the car at turn 4, doing some wing damage that forced him to retire early in the race.

At lights out Morrow got the jump on Muddle and led to Turn 2 where he made sure of it by closing the gate quite clearly.  Muddle had to settle in behind for the run up the hill, fending off Rowe and Lynch.  Morrow held the lead until Muddle passed under brakes at the end of the back straight (Turn 10). 

Muddle crossed the start line at lap 1 in the lead, and it stayed that way for the rest of the race, opening up a 5 second gap to Morrow which closed slightly in the middle of the race but was out to that by the end, with Muddle becoming the 5th race winner of the season.

There were two big battles going on behind the leader.  Morrow and Rowe were at it for all 16 laps, Rowe charging hard enough to set the fastest lap of the race – indeed the only car to break the minute – but Morrow with holding him at bay with race craft and a wide set of elbows.  At the chequered flag after 16 circuits there was only two-tenths of a second separating them.

Rob Sviderskas pressed on in the Dallara, with times improving from the morning and holding out Shayne Morrow, by a very narrow margin, to claim 6th place.


Race 2
1:Greg Muddle
2:Phil Morrow
3: Rob Rowe

Conditions improved overnight as the temperature threatened 6°C, but at least the wind died down.  With McClintock (Dallara Opel Spiess F301) and Lesslie both repaired the full field rolled out for the second race on Sunday morning.

Eventually the results would record the finishing order unchanged from Race 1 and Rowe again the fastest car on the circuit, but Race 2 was far from a carbon copy.  When the lights went out pole-sitter Muddle lurched then stalled, requiring some quick reaction from Rowe to avoid him.  Morrow led the field away, with Coath and Rowe jostling for second ahead of Lynch and Sviderskas, with a recovering Muddle making a lunge from far back to claim 5th place into Turn 2, aided by the fact Sviderskas had to content with a fogged up visor. 


The start of Race 2, Morrow gets the jump and Muddle goes…nowhere

Out the other side of the corner Rowe spun, leaving Morrow ahead of Coath and Lynch. Muddle was looking to make up lost ground and dived under Lynch into ‘the fish-hook’, only to notice yellow-flags on the way out, courtesy of a safety car that had been deployed when Lesslie’s car failed to get away from the line.  This also allowed Rowe to catch up to the back of the train for the re-start.

At the restart, Coath read Morrow’s start well and was looking to challenge early up the hill out of Turn 2, but he was a little bit too eager on the loud pedal and for the second time in the race we had a spinner at that corner, to be followed almost immediately by Lynch doing the same thing.  Coath’s spin gave Muddle a clear run at Morrow, and on lap 3 he was again able to execute an inside pass at Turn 10 to take the lead. 


Lynchy was briefly in 3rd after the restart, before spinning

Morrow was followed closely by Katsidis, with Sviderskas sitting in 4th ached of a cautious McClintock who was still feeling coming to grips (or should that be no grips?) with the conditions, not having had been out on Saturday.  Rowe was quickly back to 6th, courtesy of the two spinners, and continued his charge through the field passing Sviderskas and McClintock on consecutive laps to and then setting off after Katsidis. 

While Muddle was opening a comfortable gap Rowe was charging, passing Katsidis on lap 8 and setting up another duel with Morrow, which culminated in an unsuccessful last lap lunge into Turn 10, a bit of a tap, and another 0.2 second margin in Morrow’s favour.

Behind the front 3 Katsidis held 4th position for a well-deserved finish, ahead of a fast-closing McClintock. Lynch was the better of the recovering spinners in 6th, heading off Coath, Sviderskas and a fast-finishing Shayne Morrow, who came within a couple of seconds of catching the car ahead.

Rowe followed at some distance, ahead of Lynch, Mansell, Anderson and Coath the last of the finishers.


Race 3
1: Greg Muddle
2: Aaron McClintock
3: Rob Rowe

For Sunday afternoon’s Trophy Race it was still cold enough to demand the second warm-up lap but clear and sunny, the best conditions all weekend.

Muddle got the jump, finally, and led the field from lights to flag, able to open up a comfortable gap courtesy of the jockeying for position going on behind him, and getting the times down to a respectable 58.3 along the way, with grip levels significantly improved from the previous outings.

Morrow also got a good start, but was immediately under pressure from McClintock, with Rowe and slotting in behind.  Katsidis followed at a small gap, mirrors full of Lynch and Coath.

Lap 3 saw two key moves – McClintock displacing Morrow for 2nd, giving him the opportunity to chase Muddle; and Coath moving past Lynch to put pressure on Katsidis.  At the same time Lesslie retired his car, which was still running rough.

Muddle had the bit between his teeth and by mid-race was safe from McClintock.  McClintock also had a comfortable margin, but had a quick Row behind him, having finally managed to pass Morrow after 2-and-a-half races of trying to figure out a way around the red car.  Morrow had a lonely second half of the race but had a secure grip on 4th, and solid points in the championship.

Coath passed Katsidis for 5th, and then on lap 10 Katsidis spectacularly planted his car in the kitty litter at the end of the main straight courtesy of a brake failure.  This unexpectedly brought out the chequered flags 2 laps early, a victory for Muddle ahead of McClintock, Rowe, Morrow and Coath, with Lynch off the pace in 6th, Sviderskas a lap down having done his best times early in the race, and Shayne Morrow having had a couple of off-tar excursions trying to get the Dallara to go harder.

McClintock retains a lead in the Championship going into the final round to be held at Sydney Motorsport Park on the 26th and 27th of October, but it’s nowhere near as comfortable as it was, with Muddle and Morrow closing in and Rowe still a mathematical chance:

In the Class-based Championship it’s even closer, with 6 drivers in contention:

    
“With great power comes great responsibility”.  Spiderman or Voltaire?  Discuss.
Loz Katsidis finds his braking system unable to cope with the great amounts of power now being produced by the Renault.

 

Actually written by Greg Muddle.

2019 NSW Motor Race Championship Round 3 
3rd-4th August, 2019
Sydney Motorsport Park

Formula Race Cars put on another spectacular display in their third outing of the season at Sydney Motorsport Park.  Queenslander Shane Wilson, having his first run of the season in the immaculate Wiltec Dallara VW F310, took the honours on the Sunday, but behind him a number of other drivers signalled that they were ready to take the battle up to series leader Aaron McClintock.

An improved field of 13 cars took to the circuit, with the only casualty from Friday practice being Lawrence Katsidis in the SYDNEY PHOTO BOOTH Dallara Renault F304, attacked by electrical gremlins. 

In the Classic Class, Rod Anderson (Reynard 893 Toyota) was having his first run of the season and newcomer Shayne Morrow was making his debut in the Dallara VW F397 Formula R car (old school, with carbies). 

Of the regulars, Rob Sviderskas parked the Elfin 622 in favour of the Dallara Opel Spiess F304 after a long engine rebuild; but Ron Coath was again in the old Dallara Toyota F396, the gearbox rebuild on the F307 not completed in time.  

In amongst all the F3 cars was youngster Christian Mansell in the AGI Sport prepared Mygale F4. The F4, powered by a 1600 cc Ford EcoBoost turbo engine, was a great addition to the field, giving up a bit in outright speed to the F3 cars but Christian was right in the thick of things all weekend.

Qualifying

1. Shane Wilson, Dallara VW F310, 1:26.17
2. Aaron McClintock, Dallara Opel Spiess F301, 1:27.70
3. Graeme Holmes, Dallara Opel Spiess F304, 1:28.88
4. Rob Rowe, Dallara Toyota F308, 1:30.24

Racing was delayed by 45 minutes as we waited for the fog to lift, but by the time the Formula Race Cars took to the circuit it was in near perfect conditions on a sunny winter day. Shane Wilson was expected to head the timesheet, and so it was, getting down to a very respectable time in the 1:26’s, a clear second and a half ahead of the rest of the field.

Championship leader Aaron McClintock was pushing close to his best times in putting the F301 on the front of row of the grid again – 3 from 3 – and getting the better of Round 1 winner Graeme Holmes.  Greg Muddle’s Dallara Opel Spiess F399 was slightly off the pace battling with front suspension issues, but he looked to have a spot on the second row of the grid locked up until Rob Rowe pulled out a flyer on the last lap of the session.  Phil Morrow completed the top 6 in his Dallara Opel Spiess F304, with Rowe, Muddle and Morrow covered by less than half a second.

Christian Mansell in the Mygale F4 had the better of the rest of the field, with a clear gap to the Classic Class cars, headed as usual by Glenn Lynch in the Eagle Transport Dallara Fiat F397.  Lynch headed Anderson, Coath and Shayne Morrow, ahead of Rob Sviderskas completing a successful first run in the Dallara Opel Spiess F304.

Ross McAlpine again had a difficult time with the tempestuous Mygale Mercedes M10, parking it for the weekend with an incurable engine miss.

Race 1

1: Phil Morrow
2: Graeme Holmes
3: Greg Muddle

A shortened race program on Saturday afternoon due to the morning’s fog delay saw the field set for a short sprint as they lined up for Race 1 in sunny but cooling conditions in the late afternoon.

At lights out Wilson stalled and Muddle missed the start completely, but McClintock got away well from 3rdto take the lead ahead of Morrow, who got an absolute flyer from 6thto run past Rowe and Holmes to claim 2ndposition. Wilson recovered quickly enough to take 4thback by turn 2, heading Rowe and Mansell, with Muddle recovering a place from Lynch.  Muddle passed Mansell into turn 6, but then the Safety Car was deployed as two cars – Andeson and Shayne Morrow, had failed to get away from the line.

With two more circuits behind the safety car this turned the race into a three lap screamer, and it was an action packed three laps. McClintock lead the pack away, but with Wilson eager to make places he tried a tight line out of turn 2 only to spin and relegate himself to the back of the field.  McClintock headed Morrow and Holmes through lap 4 and half of lap 5, but then dropped a wheel off the circuit coming into the braking area for turn 9, resulting in some air time and a big spin, in what is thankfully an area with generous run-off.  This elevated Morrow to the lead, ahead of Holmes and Muddle.


With President McAlpine sidelined, McClintock kindly took over his grass mowing contract.

The last lap and a half Morrow’s defence was a measure for everything Holmes threw at him, a lunge on the line leaving Holmes about a tenth of a second shy and giving Morrow a well-deserved first race win in the series.  Muddle followed in third, with insufficient time to bridge the gap to the front two, ahead of Rowe, arriving at the finish line with McClintock right up his exhaust.

Mansell finished 7thahead of Lynch, with a small gap to a strong battle for 9thfalling in favour of Sviderskas ahead of Coath.

Race 2

1: Shane Wilson
2: Graeme Holmes
3: 
Aaron McClintock

A busy night for competitors repairing some significant damage Phil Morrow and Rowe’s cars as well as repairs to the Anderson Reynard (axle) meant that we had a full field of cars front for race 2 on Sunday.

Holmes got away quickly, and Muddle made a better effort than in the previous race, able to pass Phil Morrow in the run into Turn 2.  McClintock was also able to make up places into 3rd, and by the end of the lap Wilson had also managed to makes his way from 10thto 4th, putting our newest race winner Morrow back to 5th.

Wilson was able to take 3rdfrom McClintock on lap 2 and 2ndfrom Muddle on lap 3, but Holmes proved to be a more difficult proposition, and the two settled into a battle for the lead over several laps.

Behind these two Muddle was suffering with more front end balance issues, and after the first couple of laps a series of lock-ups and a badly flat-spotted front left tyre left him vulnerable to McClintock and Morrow.

Behind the front 5 cars Glenn Lynch was able to keep Rob Rowe at bay for the first half of the race before conceding 6th, and he had built sufficient gap to hold off Mansell in the F4.  A good scrap was developing between Sviderskas, Anderson and Coath, with Sviderskas holding the advantage early before giving up the place to Anderson and then pitting mid-race with an engine miss. Shayne Morrow was making progress with his new car until clutch problems forced him to park it mid-race.

At the front, Wilson was still harassing Holmes but needed to get past as McClintock was closing the gap rapidly, and after a little ‘love tap’ into Turn 2 finally managed to force the issue into Turn 4 on lap 8 of the 9 lap race, opening up a small but safe gap to Holmes, who held off McClintock by a few tenths at the chequered flag. Morrow, Muddle (with the front right now down to the canvas) and Rowe followed at some distance, ahead of Lynch, Mansell, Anderson and Coath the last of the finishers.

Race 3

1: Shane Wilson
2: Aron McClintock
3: 
Graeme Holmes

Sunday afternoon’s Trophy Race was a 12 lapper and this time it was Wilson who got the best of the start, with Morrow again getting a flyer from the second row, to head McClintock, a slow to get away Holmes and Muddle into Turn 2. Rowe managed to pass the fast starting F4 of Mansell as the 6 F3’s settled into a familiar pattern.

McClintock was keen to get onto the back of Wilson and managed to pass Morrow on lap 2, but Morrow had other ideas about Holmes and Muddle joining him, holding them both out until lap 4. Muddle and Holmes were hard at it (there were plenty of lock-ups) with Muddle somehow passing Holmes around the outside at Turn 2 only to give up the hard fought place by Turn 4 on the same lap. 

Wilson had opened up a small gap on McClintock, but the F301 driver wasn’t giving up much to the newer cars. Holmes was hot in pursuit but there was a fairly stable gap of a few car lengths, and the two of them were slowly pulling away from Muddle lap by lap.

Morrow had lost ground with the lead cars and soon found himself under attack from Rowe, who managed to pull himself up into 5thon lap 7.  Morrow was able to return the favour the following lap, and set out after Muddle, closing the gap to only a few seconds by the chequered flag.

Row may have lost the place, but he didn’t lose interest and laid down a number of personal best laps in the closing stages of the race, times that were more than competitive with the lead cars which bodes well for the rest of the season.

Mansell had the better of Lynch this time, and Coath and Anderson were at it again, this time Coath having the better of the battle early, before Anderson passed on lap 5 and Coath parked the car after a spin on lap 8.

A recurrence of the engine issue saw Sviderskas miss the race, and the earlier clutch issue meant that Shayne Morrow was also a non-starter.

 A gripping round meant that none of the championship contenders – which at this stage looks like McClintock, Morrow, Muddle and Holmes – were able to press an advantage, but McClintock retains a handy lead in the Championship going into round 3, which will be held at Wakefield Parkon the 7rdand 8thof September.

For all the 2019 Championship points tables click here.


After detailed investigations, the FRCA Technical Committee reported no irregularities for the weekend.

 

Actually written by Greg Muddle.

2019 NSW Motor Race Championship Round 2 
25-26th May, 2019
Wakefield Park

Formula Race Cars had their second outing of the 2019 NSW State Championship at Wakefield Park, as the Goulburn circuit celebrated 25 years of racing, and it proved to be a perfect weekend for Aaron McClintock, scoring three wins from three starts and surging to the lead in the Championship.

With Round 1 winner Graeme Holmes sitting this one out we were deprived a reprise of the intense battle we saw at Eastern Creek, but McClintock put on a faultless display all weekend and capped it off with a flag to flag victory in the Trophy Race.

Out in front – like he was all weekend. Round winner Aaron McClintock in his Dallara F301.

Qualifying

1. Aaron McClintock, Dallara Opel Spiess F301, 57.34
2. Greg Muddle, Dallara Opel Spiess F399, 58.15
3. Lawrence Katsidis, Dallara Renault F304, 59.12
4 Rob Rowe, Dallara Toyota F308, 1:00.71

Saturday saw sunshine, but not a great deal of heat in the track, as a small field of 7 cars took to the circuit for qualifying.  Disappointingly Jeff Senior had pulled the plug on his Dallara-debut earlier in the week due to mechanical problems, and Rob Sviderkas had packed away the Elfin on Friday with water issues.  Ross McAlpine’s Mygale Mercedes M11 was parked, Ross and Paul Nagle continuing what was a marathon effort to get the Mygale to drink its fuel properly, still hopeful of hitting the track but as the other cars rolled out most of the Mygale was up on stands.

On the track it was Aaron McClintock who set the pace, some AGI Sport magic with the set-up clearly doing the trick, and a pole position never looking in doubt, Aaron eventually getting down to a very impressive 57.3 second lap time.  That was enough to see him clear of Greg Muddle by 0.8 seconds, the reverse of round 1 where Muddle had a 0.8 second gap on McClintock.  For the second round in a row it was an ’01 front row lock-out.

Behind the two ‘old school’ cars Lawrence Katsidis was shaping up as a threat in the SYDNEY PHOTO BOOTH Dallara F304, bringing the times down steadily throughout the session and looking capable of dipping into the 58’s.  Rob Rowe was building on his solid debut at the previous round and had the Genesis Offices Dallara F308 Toyota much closer to the action, joining Katsidis on the second row.

Phil Morrow’s Dallara Opel Spiess F304 qualified 5th.  Having made a late gear ratio change before qualifying Phil seemed to have found the right set-up.  He needed to, because the two ‘Classic Class’ cars of Glenn Lynch and Ron Coath were both pushing hard and ended up within a couple of tenths of Morrow’s times. Lynch, in the Eagle Transport Dallara Fiat F397, managed 6thahead of Coath, who was running the Dallara Toyota F396 for the first time in several years while his F307 underwent repairs, “just to make up the numbers” but looking pretty competitive regardless.

The local fun police snuck in cows fitted with noise meters.  Muddle quietly ascends to Turn 3.

Race 1
1. Aaron McClintock, 2. Greg Muddle, 3. Lawrence Katsidis

With the afternoon warming up fractionally, conditions for race 1 were probably the best our cars saw all weekend.  Seven cars fronted for the 12-lapper, McAlpine’s Mygale still stranded as repairs continued.

The cars gridded with Muddle incorrectly on the inside, a gift from McClintock that he was not able to take advantage of as McClintock got a perfect start and led the field away. Katsidis pulled a great ‘dive-bomb’ into turn 2 to briefly steal 2ndfrom Muddle, but was unable to hold the position in the run up the hill and settled into 3rdahead of Rowe, Morrow and Coath. Coming back down the hill the cars were greeted with the ‘SC’ board designating a safety car, as Lynch was still stranded on the grid, with what turned out to be broken axle bolts.

Lynch’s car was cleared quickly, and at the restart McClintock got a good jump only to be baulked by a re-appearance of the ‘SC’ board at the start line, which momentarily caused some confusion for the front cars about they were meant to be racing or not. That was quickly sorted, and McClintock got back on the gas, steadily opening the gap to Muddle by a half a second a lap.  Katsidis continued to give Muddle some hurry-up, but that gap also started to open up mid race.

No wonder he can’t see out if his right mirror, there are two fingers in the way. 
Rob Rowe is quickly getting the hang of the Genesis Offices F308 Dallara.

Behind Katsidis, both Rowe and Morrow were pushing each other, and by mid-race both had managed to dip their times into the low 59-second mark.  This saw them close the gap to Katsidis quite rapidly, and by the time the flag appear the three cars were covered by only half a second, Katsidis leading Rowe and then Morrow across the line, but with Morrow the quickest of the three.  Coath completed the race as last car home in 6th.

 

Race 2
1. Aaron McClintock, 2. Greg Muddle, 3. Lawrence Katsidis

Sunday morning brought a dip in temperature and although the sun was out it wasn’t doing much by way of heat.  Conditions would prove slippery for the first couple of laps in the 14 lap race.  Eight cars rolled onto the circuit for the first time in the weekend McAlpine’s Mygale having been pieced back together and the broken bits on Lynch’s car easily repaired.

McClintock took advantage of starting on the correct side of the grid this time, and led again toward turn 2, with Muddle careful to block any inside dive from Katsidis.  Morrow had started well and had an inside run, but found himself running out of room as Rowe turned in – unable to avoid a light contact, both cars were turned around.  So at this stage of the race there were 2 separate incidents for the officials to deal with: two cars turned around at turn two, and McAlpine’s Mygale on the main straight having stalled.

Somewhat surprisingly both incidents cleared without needing a safety car, although as the leader came down the back straight the safety car (which is positioned on the back straight during race starts) was still clearing the circuit.  McClintock was somewhat distracted by this, leaving an opportunity for Muddle to pass into turn 10 and take the lead.  Across the line for the first time it was Muddle, McClintock, Katsidis, Lynch and Coath, with a large gap back to Morrow and a further gap to Rowe, both of them recovering from their earlier mishap.

Muddle led for a couple of laps before out-braking himself into the ‘Fishhook’ trying too hard to pull an early gap on McClintock.  He recovered quickly enough to hold second place, but had lost touch with McClintock who, as he had in race one, maintained and then opened a comfortable gap.

Gate wide shut.  Morrow worked hard to find a way past Coath in Race 2.

While Muddle and Katsidis followed in a somewhat processional manner, the battle was heating up behind them. Lynch was under threat from Coath, and both were being steadily hunted down by the two quicker cars of Morrow and Rowe behind them. Morrow was first to arrive, but Coath adopted an ‘elbow’s out’ approach that kept Morrow at bay. Morrow eventually got through at turn 10 on lap 11, then repeated the same move on Lynch the following lap.  But far from having an easy time of it, both Coath and Lynch hung onto his tail as Rowe also joined to make it a 4-car train. 

It looked as if this would be the finishing order until Lynch had a gear selection problem on the last lap, giving away the two hard-fought spots to Coath (5th) and Rowe (6th) on the final corner.

Rowe stalking Coath to the finish line, with race winner McClintock watching the fun in the background.

Race 3
1. Aaron McClintock, 2. Greg Muddle, 3. Phil Morrow

With two relatively comfortable wins for McClintock in the preliminaries the result in the Trophy Race looked rather predictable, and although the result turned out that way Muddle was determined to make him earn it.  For the first 13 laps the two cars were never more than a half second apart. The two drivers swapping quickest lap repeatedly and were still pushing hard deep into the race, Muddle setting the fastest lap of the race on lap 12 and McClintock responding with his own quickest time on lap 13. It looked set to go down to the wire until McClintock had a better run with lapped cars on the final lap to record the win.

The final podium spot was also tightly contested, Morrow had opened a seven second gap on Rowe over the first 4 laps, Rowe still coming to terms with what a Dallara can do on cold tyres. From there Rowe steadily closed the gap, to the point where there was a very close last lap and Morrow took the podium place by two-tenths of a second.

McAlpine finished in 5th, having had no track time all weekend the car was nowhere near where Ross would have wanted it but the times came down steadily across the course of the race, finishing ahead of Lynch who was the last car still running.

Katsidis retired early in the race with a ‘fluffy’ engine, which had first materialised toward the end of race 2 and was no better at the start of race 3.  Coath had a large ‘lose’ on cold tyres coming down the hill on lap 1 and also retired.

A late but welcome arrival, McAlpine was finally on the track in Race 3.

So with a clean sweep of round 2 Aaron McClintock moves into the Championship lead going into round 3, which will be held at Sydney Motorsport Parkon the 3rdand 4thof August.

For a full list fo the 2019 Championship standings go to: http://frca.net.au/standings/

A moment of quiet reflection: Glenn Lynch thinks about adding a set of CV bolts to his 20,000km warranty claim.

Special thanks (as always) for the fantastic images to Riccardo Benvenuti at www.pricelessimages.ifp3.com

 

Actually written by Greg Muddle.

2019 NSW Motor Race Championship Round 1 
6 – 7th April, 2019
Sydney Motorsport Park

The 2019 NSW State Championship kicked off at Sydney Motorsport Park with the inaugural running of the David Choon Memorial Trophy, in honour of our late friend.  David won the first ever state series event under the FRCA banner, and the trophy race is a fitting memorial to a keen competitor.

With a valued prize, perfect conditions, and a new season ahead of us, it was disappointing that there wasn’t a larger field of cars, but what the grid lacked in quantity was well made up with quality.  Class certainly won through: Graeme Holmes made a welcome return to the winners circle with three race victories; but he had to work hard most of the weekend.  In what augurs well for the 2019 season there were several drivers in the mix, making for close and exciting racing. With 2018 Champion Nathan Gotch, and the might of the AGI Sport team, not competing the full season in 2019 it presents a golden opportunity for a number of drivers to challenge for the championship.

Round 1 winner: Graeme Holmes

Qualifying

1: Greg Muddle, Dallara Opel Spiess F399, 1:29.06
2. Aaron McClintock, Dallara Opel Spiess F301, 1:29.90
3. Graeme Holmes, Dallara Opel Spiess F304, 1:30.25
4 Ross McAlpine, Mygale Mercedes M11, 1:30.77

Warm and sunny conditions greeted the drivers, however the newly re-surfaced Sydney Motorsport Park had all the rubber washed away with a wet Friday and overnight storms, so the track produced some relatively slow times.

Greg Muddle made the best of the session by putting the old F399 on pole – a nice symmetry in a meeting where we were celebrating our maiden round winner that our maiden pole-sitter returned to the top of the timesheets, with what proved to be the fastest time of the weekend.  It should also be noted that this was Greg’s 100th race start with FRCA – his pole position a fitting way to celebrate this significant milestone.

Aaron McClintock made it an ‘All-01’ front row, proving that you don’t always need the latest kit to be competitive (note to those thinking about going wings ‘n’ slicks racing – there are some cheap 01’s for sale at the moment, so this could be you).

Graeme Holmes wasn’t far behind, making it a 1-2-3 for cars with Opel ‘Holmes-power’ – certainly the best engine around.  He was joined on the second-row by Ross McAlpine having a nudie run in the Mygale – an un-liveried car that is, not an un-apparelled driver.  At this stage of the weekend Ross was looking a threat.

Third row was fought out between the two Dallara ‘04s of Phil Morrow and Lawrence Katsidis, with Phil’s Opel powered car shading the SYDNEY PHOTO BOOTH Renault powered car by the slightest of margins.  They were well clear of a slightly disappointed Ron Coath in the Dallara Mercedes F307. Ron having struggled throughout Friday practice with gearbox issues – being unable to get down to the sort of times which he and his car are capable of during this session.  Ron was joined on the 4throw by Glenn Lynch in the Dallara Fiat F397.

The field was rounded out by our newest competitor, Rob Rowe in the Genesis Offices Dallara Toyota F310. Rob was well short of valuable seat-time but had a respectable first outing and looked good in the car.  He was joined at the back of the field by Rob Sviderskas, exercising amazing patience in the wait for new pistons for his Dallara and in the meantime running the Elfin 622 Toyota – which makes very nice noise but it old enough to be a grand-father to some of the other cars in the field.

Race 1

1: Graeme Holmes,
2: Aaron McClintock
3: Phil Morrow

A late afternoon start but still in warm and sunny conditions which were perfect for the spectators. And good for racing too… except for the major engine detonation in the previous race that saw an oil trail from half way down the main straight through to the braking zone for turn 2!

When the lights went out Holmes got the jump from the second row, and although Muddle gave up position to McClintock off the line he was able to hold the line into turn 2 to retain second place. From there the three drivers put on 8 laps of pure entertainment, rarely being gapped by more than a few car lengths.  Muddle was under serious threat from McClintock, and they changes places several times.  Holmes wasn’t getting much respite from this – when Muddle was in second he was challenging down the front straight; when it was McClintock’s turn he was asking questions up the back straight.  But Holmes had all the answers.

Muddle had the best pace at that stage, but unfortunately the spectacle was interrupted on lap 8 when Muddle was pushing a little hard through turn 5 and ran out of talent – looping the car in front of McClintock who was able to take avoiding action but it cost him a bit of time on Holmes.  McClintock managed to narrow the gap lap by lap, but the race was perhaps a lap too short – Holmes holding a winning margin at the flag of less than a tenth of a second.

Behind the front cars Morrow made a good start to head McAlpine with Katsidis in close quarters for the first section of the race.  McAlpine was expecting the car to ‘come on’ after the first few laps, but unfortunately that never eventuated, later discovering some set-up issues with the rear ride-height which were something of a handicap to performance. So while Morrow pumped out consistent laps a gap opened to McAlpine, who fell into the clutches of Katsidis, the later making his move into 4thplace on lap 10.

Coath had a consistent but lonely run in 6thplace, with Rowe not far behind until he had a spin at turn 6 late in the race, eventually finishing a lap down.

Sviderskas parked the Elfin early, having issues with getting the car to rev to the required rate; and Lynch failed to get the car off the line (it’s difficult in 3rdgear) and parked himself in the grandstand receiving refreshments from the crowd.

Race 2

1: Graeme Holmes,
2: Aaron McClintock
3: Greg Muddle

Sunday morning saw very similar conditions and we were ready for a repeat of the previous day’s spectacle, albeit with Muddle having to come through the pack to do so.

Holmes had the best of the early stages, establishing a lead from McClintock, Katsidis (later penalised for a jump start) and Morrow.  The joker in the pack was Rowe who was up to 5th, with Coath following and Lynch giving up a place to Muddle mid-way through the lap.  McAlpine had experienced difficulties getting the car away from the dummy grid and consequently was forced to start rear of grid.

With Holmes opening a small gap on McClintock the action was further back.  Muddle and Coath swapped places twice between turns 14 and 15 on the first lap, before Muddle finally made the move stick on the entry to turn 1.  He then rounded up Rowe; followed by was a series of similar turn 1 moves to pass Katsidis and Morrow on the subsequent laps.  Coath was not being left behind however – it took a couple of laps but he too passed Rowe, and then Katsidis, before running down Morrow on lap 8.

What a difference a day makes – Ron Coath in fine form on Sunday

At the front Holmes held a small but comfortable gap on McClintock all the way to the finish, with Muddle unable to make any headway in 3rd. Coath finished strongly in 4th, finding 3 seconds improvement in lap times over Saturday. Morrow was having clutch difficulties and slipped back, allowing Katsidis to move up to 5thin the closing stages. Lynch followed behind Morrow, benefitting from Rowe having had another mishap at turn 6.

Sviderskas finished a lap down, still struggling with the Elfin’s rev-range, and McAlpine parked the non-performing Mygale in frustration half-way through the race.

Race 3

1: Graeme Holmes,
2: Ron Coath
3:Aaron McClintock

Rob Rowe being stalked by Lawrence Katsidis (Race 3)

Having won the first two races, Holmes was looking for a trifecta in the Trophy Race but McClintock and Muddle again loomed as serious threats.

Unfortunately that only lasted as far as the second corner:  McClintock having a spin mid-corner and Muddle, already with his hands full down the inside of the corner trying to regain position from Coath, looping his car in avoidance. By the time both of them re-joined their chances were gone. McClintock was able to recover to charge through the field to 3rd but Muddle unfortunately succumbed to a broken rear wing, which was pretty unlucky given there was no contact whatsoever in the incident.

While Holmes pedalled away somewhat surprised at his good fortune, there was plenty of action behind him. Coath had the best run though the turn 2 parking lot and established himself ahead of the fast-starting Rowe, with Morrow, Katsidis and Lynch following, and Muddle and McClintock tailing the field at the end of lap 1.

Rowe held Katsidis at bay for 5 laps, with Morrow in attendance but increasingly struggling with to get power down due to the continuing clutch issue. On lap 6 Katsidis passed Rowe, and McCintock also started his assault on the mid-field pack, passing Morrow.  He gained a further place on the following lap with Rowe having his now customary ‘off’ at turn 6.

Holmes cruised to the win with a big margin, with Coath holding onto 2ndby a couple of tenths over the fast finishing McClintock, who had rounded up Katsidis on the final lap. The consistent Lynch finished in 5th, ahead of Rowe and Morrow, who nursed his car to the line.  Muddle finished a weekend that had started with some promised with a black flag one lap from home having pitted earlier in the race.

So at the conclusion of round 1 Graeme Holmesis the inaugural winner of the David Choon Memorial Trophy, and holds the series lead going into round 2, which will be held at Wakefield Parkon the
25thand 26thof May– celebrating 25 years of racing at Wakefield Park.

For all the 2019 Championship points tables click here.

In memory of David Choon.

 

 

Actually written by Greg Muddle.

2018 NSW Motor Race Championship Round 2 
26 – 27th May, 2018
Wakefield Park

Wakefield Park was the venue for Formula Race Cars’ second appearance of the season in the 2018 NSW State Championship, and Nathan Gotch in the AGI Sport Dallara Renault F307 was able to master the cool conditions to produce another maximum points performance and extend his championship lead. While Gotch was a class above the rest of the Championship field, it was his battle with the non-championship Dallara Honda F311 of Spike Goddard that put some heat in the weekend – a cracker of a race on Saturday afternoon going to Gotch, before Goddard cleaned up on Sunday, with the two trading quickest laps across the weekend.


Goddard leading the pack in the Trophy Race

Qualifying

1: Nathan Gotch, Dallara Renault F307, 55.77
2: Spike Goddard, Dallara Honda F308, 58.04
3: Ross McAlpine, Mygale Mercedes M-11, 58.71; 4

Shane Wilson, Dallara Opel Spiess F305, 58.91 The mid-morning qualifying allowed the temperatures to creep up to around 12 degrees, but with the sun out and the track clean the conditions were right for some quick times provided you could find some grip. Gotch had the best of the early part of the session, from Goddard, Shane Wilson
(Wiltec Dallara Opel Spiess F305), Greg Muddle (Dallara Opel Spiess F399) and Ross McAlpine debuting his new ride, the ex-Harvest Mygale Mercedes M-11. Ten minutes in, and we all got the chance to cool down again courtesy of a red flag when Graeme Holmes (GKH Powdercoating Dallara Opel Spiess F304) found the Turn 2 sand trap, a result of continued brake problems.

With some confusing signals in pit-lane leading several competitors back to their carports and quitting the session at that point, those who were actually paying attention had an ideal opportunity to put in three quick laps after the re-start. Gotch’s existing time was already good enough for pole, but he managed to lower that by a further 2 seconds, getting down to the 55.7’s. McAlpine also benefited, diving down into the 58’s and leap-frogging Wilson into third.

Behind Wilson, Muddle headed up Andrew Wlodek (Dallara Honda F307) and Lawrence Katsidis (SYDNEY PHOTO BOOTH Dallara Renault F304) who, having put his troubles of the last round behind him, was looking quick. Ron Coath (Dallara Mercedes F307), had brake troubles in the first part of the session, but managed to drive around that and pull out a respectable time in the closing part of the session, which put him ahead of Holmes on the grid.

Coath and Holmes just shaded the time of Phil Morrow (Dallara Opel Spiess F303), rounding out the Top 10 but looking quite capable of competing with the cars a couple of rows ahead as they were in a closely bunched group. Glenn Lynch (Eagle Transport Dallara F397 Fiat) was again doing a stellar job in the oldest Dallara in the field, qualifying ahead of Denis Lesslie (Tru Blue Trailers Dallara F302 Renault), who was still coming to terms with the new car, and Rob Sviderskas (Elfin 622) rounding out the field.

The lovely Elfin hadn’t been on track for quite some time, and gave away quite a bit in sophistication and speed to the F3 cars, but it was great to have Rob there boosting the numbers – just a great pity that there weren’t a few other older cars out there running around with the Elfin.

Simple, elegant, and those pipes are a work of art – Rob Sviderskas in the Elfin 623

Race 1

1: Nathan Gotch,
2: Spike Goddard
3: Shane Wilson
4: Ross McAlpine
5: Lawrence Katsidis

When the lights went out Goddard got the jump on Gotch and led the field away, with plenty of jockeying for position into Turn 2. Katsidis had a blinder and had his car into 5th outside Muddle as they exited the turn together, which saw Muddle getting on the throttle a little bit earlier than the cold tyres liked, with the result that he turned the car around in the middle of the following pack. Fortunately everyone managed to scatter.

Behind Goddard, Gotch was pressing hard, and they were both gapping the following pack of McAlpine, Wilson, Katsidis and Wlodek. Holmes’ woes continued, dropping to the back of the pack, but Morrow’s fortunes were better, and after a steady start he gained a place passing Coath on the second lap. Out front of the pack Goddard and Gotch were steadily dropping their times, into the low 57’s by lap three and into the 56’s a couple of laps later, but they were never more than a few tenths apart. Unfortunately those times put them behind lapped traffic, and at the end of lap 8 Gotch made the most of Goddard’s misfortune, as Goddard was baulked in his run onto the main straight it allowed Gotch to run past into the lead, a position he was able to defend for the final lap to take victory.

Although the front two had sprinted away from the pack there was plenty of interest for 3rd, and while McAlpine was able to establish a bit of a gap early on Wilson was strong at the back end of the race, making the most of his opportunities to pass McAlpine on the last lap. Katsidis had chased the pair hard for most of the race, and was only a couple of seconds behind in 5th at the chequered flag. Wlodek had a fairly solitary race in 6th, but behind him Morrow, Coath and Lynch put on a good battle for the minor placings. Holmes couldn’t recover to anything better than 10th. 

Millimetre perfect – no wonder he’s quick! Nathan Gotch shows us how it’s supposed to be done.

Race 2

1: Spike Goddard
2: Nathan Gotch
3: Shane Wilson
4: Andrew Wlodek
5: Greg Muddle

Sunday morning’s conditions were again cool but clear, and all 13 cars lined up again for the second race. The first two rows were away clearly, with Goddard to the lead again ahead of Gotch, McAlpine and Wilson. Katsidis was away poorly, courtesy of a misfire that was to persist throughout the race, allowing the fast starting Coath to slingshot into 5th, ahead of Wlodek and Morrow. This trio were soon joined by two cars coming from further back – Holmes and Muddle, both eager to get somewhere nearer the back of Wilson’s car.

However it was Wlodek that made the first move, getting ahead of Coath on lap 2, leaving Coath to defend against Holmes, with Muddle closing on Morrow. That move was made easier when Morrow looped it in turn 2 on lap three. Half a lap later the field was under safety car condition courtesy of McAlpine slowing to a halt – very unfortunate for him as the he was showing impressive cold-tyre pace. Not everyone saw the safety car sign, and there was a little bit of mayhem in the process, Holmes managing to make up a place unnoticed and Lynch managing to avoid the wrath of the officials by not quite completing a passing manoeuvre (even though it was recorded that way on the lap chart).

At the restart it was Goddard Gotch and Wilson out in front, with Wlodek defending doggedly against Holmes, Coath holding position in front of Muddle and Lynch defending against Katsidis still firing on three cylinders. Lesslie, Morrow and Sviderskas were somewhere else, not quite on the back of the safety car train at the restart. Goddard managed the race well leading all the way to the flag, but the eventual gap was less than half a second, and Gotch again managed to get down into the 55’s to set the fastest lap. Wlodek managed to hold Holmes at bay for 5 laps, but was finally out-braked on the 11th of 12 laps to concede 4th place.

This should have seen Holmes comfortably home, except that on the final lap the car inexplicably drove off into the sand trap at the final corner on the last lap. Outside the car that might have looked like Graeme once again testing the limits of physics with his braking, but inside the cockpit it seemed more like a jammed throttle. Either way, Wlodek was gifted 4th place. Muddle crossed the line a second behind him, having passed Coath but not without some effort. A good braking duel into the Fish-hook gave Muddle the place, but Coath made a strong attempt to regain the place under brakes At Turn 10. His challenge persisted all the way through Turn 2 and on the run back up the hill before the position was truly decided.

This left Coath defending 6th from Lynch, which he managed to do, crossing the line a few tenths ahead. Katsidis held 8th from Morrow, recovering from his spin to finish 9th and the last car on the lead lap, with Lesslie improving his times by a few tenths in 10th and Sviderskas also making minor improvements in 11th.  

Race 3

1. Spike Goddard
2. Nathan Gotch
3. Shane Wilson
4. Greg Muddle
5. Graeme Holmes

The trophy race over 14 laps was in cooling conditions on Sunday afternoon with all 13 cars again lining up for the start. The early order was Goddard from Gotch, Wlodek jostling with Wilson for 3rd ahead of Muddle, with both Coath and Lynch – noted good starters – looking for an opportunity. Wilson settled the battle for 3rd early in the opening lap, before Muddle also seized the opportunity late under brakes at the end of the back straight moving into 4th. At the end of the first lap Goddard and Gotch had once again opened a sizeable lead, from Wilson, with a gap to Muddle, and a further gap to Wlodek, with Lynch on his tail.

Holmes was the best of the two rear-of-grid starters ahead of McAlpine, but no further progressed than 10h. While the front 4 cars were running steadily but with increasing gaps, there was plenty of action for 5th. Coath managed to take the place from Wlodek on lap 2, but Katsidis and Morrow were on a charge – both passing Lynch on lap 2, then both passing Wlodek on lap 3, before Katsidis took Coath for 5th on lap 4 with a deep dive under brakes at Turn 2. All this was frustrating the progress of Holmes and McAlpine who were still in 10th and 11th on lap 3, albeit having switched places.

McAlpine disposed of Lynch and Wlodek on the following lap with before and after moves at the Fish-hook, but Holmes wasn’t quite as successful found the back of Wlodek’s car on the next pass lap at Turn 2, leaving Wlodek with a damaged rear wing and Holmes in the gravel, eventually leading to the deployment of the safety car.  

Lawrence Katsidis and a slight trace of tyre smoke got past Ron Coath in Race 3.

When the safety car departed there was a 6 lap sprint to the chequered flag, with Goddard and Gotch going all out as they had all weekend. Goddard opened up a secure margin – a second – but they were both charging hard to the flag, setting their fastest times on the last lap and Gotch setting a PB and the quickest time of the race. Wilson and Muddle were close for most of the remainder, but each time Muddle closed the gap Wilson found something a little bit extra, and he pulled a comfortable gap over the last two laps to finish a well-deserved 3rd.

Behind Muddle, McAlpine had found speed after the restart and steadily worked his way into 5th, courtesy of a series of late-braking moves at Turn 10, to finish ahead of Katsidis, with Coath holding out for 7th from the closely pursuing Morrow, and Lynch trailing in 9th. Lesslie finished two laps down but ahead of Wlodek, who despite a very non-aerodynamic set-up at the back of his car managed to circulate for points. Sviderskas unfortunately parked the Elfin with some (hopefully) precautionary concerns about the motor.

With Goddard not racing for points, Gotch was able to secure full points for the second round in a row.

Outright Points:
Nathan Gotch 75
Shane Wilson 63
Lawrence Katsidis 44
Andrew Wlodek 43
Ross McAlpine 41
Greg Muddle 41
Ron Coath 40
Phil Morrow 36
Glenn Lynch 35
Denis Lesslie 29;
Rob Sviderskas 21
Graeme Holmes 20

Class Based Points
Nathan Gotch 75
Lawrence Katsidis 44
Shane Wilson 63
Glenn Lynch 63
Phil Morrow 59
Greg Muddle 55
Andrew Wlodek 51
Denis Lesslie 51
Ron Coath 49
Ross McAlpine 43 
Rob Sviderskas 19
Graeme Holmes 29

Full points details here.

Short Circuit

– A stellar debut for Ross McAlpine in ‘that French car’ (is it even a real F3 if it’s not a Dallara?Surely it can’t be), and the decision not to buy the mowing attachment with the rest of the spares was a good one.  Ross was really quick, really smooth and really, really happy!  About the only false move was inadvertently hitting the pit-lane speed limiter during Race 2, which brought that race to an early end, but everything else went smoothly.

Of course ‘new car, new tricks’, and it an attempt to keep prying eyes away from all the aero Ross was parked up on pit lane instead of roughing it with the uncouth masses in the carports.  A touch of l’arrogant frog? Certainly the injunction against any pictures of the car in this race report seems a step too far! (Actually we’d love to have some pictures of Ross’ car but our photographer has decided he only likes Dallaras – when your photographer is named Riccardo Benvenuti you can see how that might happen).
 
– He may be the principal of Team Mr Knuckle Head – although he claims that someone
“changed his entry” – but take a look at the table above: Phil Morrow is looking strong in the race for the Class Championship – six starts, six finishes, nothing to do between races but contemplate how quick he might be if only his crew remembered to bring the computer cable and he could access the data.
 
– Wakefield Park: some people love it, some people hate it. And then there’s a small group of people that the track seems to hate back. Which brings us to Graeme Holmes’ disappointing weekend. Holmesy and helpers had a miserable time of it on Friday, having to replace a broken input shaft (the bumps on the back straight at Wakey can’t help), but by Saturday morning the car was ready to go racing. At which point the mystery brake problem that has plagued the car in recent times put an early end to the qualifying session. Race 1 provided no solutions but at least the car made it all the way to the chequered flag, but not at the speed to which it is accustomed.
 
Several platefuls of very ordinary Chinese food and a troubled nights’ sleep is not usually a great cure-all, but Sunday morning arrived fresh with promise. Graeme was quick to carve a way through the field before arriving at the rear of Andrew Wlodek’s wide-track F307, but after a few laps even the riddle of how to pass this car was solved. It all looked to be going to plan until the car screamed past the braking markers at Turn 10 – courtesy of a small tool that had been left in the cockpit jamming the throttle. Several kilos of gravel later, Graeme was again ready to do battle with the track in the trophy race, only this time the solution to the riddle was not there, the door was not unlocked with a gentle tap, and the fairy tale ending vanished in a cloud of dust. The track has done this to Graeme before, but it may have finally broken him: 
 
In the cockpit, no one can hear you scream.

Flashback 2013

Sadly, only 4 of the cars in picture are still running with FRCA, a number of the drivers have upgraded to new equipment which is great, but what a pity we don’t have some of these cars still going around. Near the back (obscured) is Lynchy, and 2013 is probably the last time he was not the leading Pre-99 car in a pack (I think he was a rear-of-grid starter that day, he may have been unusually late to the circuit, there’s no other way he would be that far back). Garnet Patterson having set a sizzling pace in qualifying (56.14) cleared out that weekend to win the Trophy from the Darren Choon and Graeme Holmes (when the track loved him).
 
 

Actually written by Greg Muddle.

2018 NSW Motor Race Championship Round 1
17 & 18 March 2018
Sydney Motorsport Park

The 2018 NSW State Championship kicked off at Sydney Motorsport Park last weekend with F3 Premier Series contender Cameron Shields putting on a master class in the Gilmour Racing Dallara Mercedes F311.  While the conditions were hotter than hot, Cameron barely raised a sweat in winning all three races, despite doubling up in the Formula Ford Championship (which he also won!).

However with Cameron not contesting the State Championship, the winner over the weekend was returning 2016 Champion Nathan Gotch in the AGI Sport Dallara Renault F307, who picked up where he left off and completed the weekend with a maximum points haul.

Nathan Gotch

Qualifying

1: Cameron Shields, Dallara Mercedes F311, 1:23.28
2. Nathan Gotch, Dallara Renault F307, 1:27.04
3. Spike Goddard, Dallara Honda F308, 1:27.39
4 Aaron McClintock, Dallara Opel Spiess F301, 1:27.41

The mid-morning qualifying session saw temperatures already in the mid-30’s, and it was no surprise that most competitors produced their best times early in the session before engines and tyres got too hot.  In less than ideal conditions Cameron Shields was within 0.3 seconds of Calan Williams ‘lap record’ (for State events) in the same car last July.  Not only was it impressive, it was good enough by more than three seconds over his rivals.

Nathan Gotch managed to secure a front row spot, narrowly ahead of Spike Goddard who was back in Australia from his international exploits and having his first run in a F3 car for several years, but clearly settling into the groove despite a lack of testing.  Close on his heels the 2017 Champion Aaron McClintock was also in hot form, also qualifying in the 1:27’s but with much older machinery.  Having seen the hot lap come up on the dash, Aaron parked the car knowing there was not too much more to be achieved.

The third row spots on the grid were filled by the usual suspects – Graeme Holmes (GKH Powdercoating Dallara Opel Spiess F304) and Greg Muddle (Dallara Opel Spiess F399) – who qualified ahead of a trio of F307’s:  Shane Wilson (Wiltec Dallara Opel Spiess F307), Andrew Wlodek (Dallara Honda F307) and Ron Coath (Dallara Mercedes F307).  Shane Wilson’s weekend appeared to be over on Friday afternoon when he was bumped off the circuit by a sports car in practice and the right rear of the car was heavily damaged, but an overnight delivery of parts from Queensland and a massive effort by his support crew saw the car repaired in time for qualifying.

Tenth place on the grid was the very familiar Eagle Transport Dallara Fiat F397 of Glenn Lynch, still motoring along rapidly with the longest continuous service engine in F3 history.

The remainder of the grid was made up of a cluster of Dallara F304’s:  Phil Morrow having his first outing in the ex-Gilmour Spiess powered car and Denis Lesslie having his first outing in the True Blue Trailers ex-McAlpine Renault powered car, both using this meeting to get familiar with the extra potential of their new kit; ahead of Lawrence Katsidis in the SYDNEY PHOTO BOOTH Dallara Renault F304 having its first outing back from an engine rebuild, and Rob Sviderskas in the Opel Spiess powered car, both of whom had problems in qualifying that kept them from their best.

Race 1

1:Cameron Shields,
2: Spike Goddard,
3: Nathan Gotch,
4: Shane Wilson
5: Greg Muddle

Brake issues saw Graeme Holmes pull out on the dummy grid and left us with 13 cars lining up in hot conditions – 60+ degrees on the asphalt.

When the lights went out both Shields and Goddard got good jumps but Gotch bogged down slightly giving up 2ndplace.  Muddle also got a good jump (something that couldn’t be said in any race report from 2017), keeping him in 4thwith Holmes missing and McClintock pulling off the track with what was to be a weekend-ending diff failure.  McClintock’s departure was extremely disappointing as his practice times showed he was capable of mixing it with the later model cars ahead.

Shields had already opened a sizeable gap on the first lap, a pattern that was to continue throughout the whole race.  Likewise Goddard had a small gap on Gotch which he continued to stretch.  Muddle led Wilson, Wlodek and Lynch, and behind them the order followed the fortunes of the start:  Katsidis, who had repaired the problem in the gearbox that had relegated him to the back of the grid in qualifying made a good start, ahead of Morrow (who had jumped), Sviderskas, then Coath and Lesslie who had both stalled when the lights went out.

Goddard ahead of the pack into turn 2, Shields has already cleared out

Unfortunately, not much was happening in terms of racing – people were chasing hard but unable to close gaps.  Morrow was the exception, taking a place from Katsidis on lap 2 and reeling in Lynch on lap 4.  Coath had also made up some ground and passed Sviderskas on the same lap, but by that stage he had lost contact with the cars further up the field.  Katsidis, after a slow start, was putting in some quick times and making up ground on Morrow, only to have the car stop on lap 7 as it ran out of fuel.  Morrow was running strongly but was being haunted by Lynch, who wouldn’t let him go.

Further up the field Muddle seemed to have a comfortable gap on Wilson, matching times lap after lap, but gave the spot away when he slowed with what was eventually found to be a loose air filter tube.

When the chequered flag came out on lap 13 there were large gaps between almost all car – Shields taking the flag ahead of Goddard, Gotch, Wilson, Muddle, Wlodek, Morrow (although with a 5 second penalty he was subsequently relegated a place), Lynch, Coath and a fast closing Sviderskas in 10th, with Lesslie rounding out the field.

Race 2

1:Cameron Shields
2: Spike Goddard
3: Nathan Gotch
4: Shane Wilson
5: Greg Muddle

Sunday morning saw no relief from the heat, if anything it was hotter, and 12 cars lined up for the first race.  Holmes had managed to sort his brake issue, but we were without McClintock (diff) and Sviderskas (oil seal).  Katsidis made a heroic effort to get to the dummy grid after replacing a flywheel, the second ‘car apart’ exercise of the weekend for the team.

The first two rows made good starts Wilson shading Gotch but settling into a familiar order of Shields, Goddard, Gotch, Wilson as they completed the first lap, a pattern that was to stay in place for the remainder of the race.

Muddle bogged down allowing the fast starting pair of Wlodek and Lynch to get ahead, and it wasn’t until he slipstreamed past Wlodek into turn 2 on lap 2 that he managed to get back to his starting position. Behind Lynch, Morrow settled into 8th, ahead of Holmes who was still checking out his brakes, then Coath ,who was again, uncharacteristically, slow away from the line and Lesslie. Unfortunately Katsidis pulled out early with clutch issues.

Holmes was providing most of the entertainment as he progressed through the field, accounting for Morrow and Lynch on lap 2, Wlodek on lap 3, and then passing Muddle on lap 5. At that point there was still some hope of chasing down Wilson, but a spin at turn 2 on lap 8 put paid to that and gifted 5thplace back to Muddle.  Wlodek, Lynch and Coath followed, with Morrow dropping a place due to fatigue (and having to deal with an unstrapped helmet!) and Lesslie completing the field.

Where did all these cars come from? Race 3 and Shields finally sees some other cars.

Race 3

1: Cameron Shields
2: Spike Goddard
3: Nathan Gotch
4: Shane Wilson
5: Graeme Holmes

Having won the first two races by a convincing margin expectations were that Shields would do the same again in the final race.  Eventually he did, but he made it slightly more difficult by stalling when the lights went out and falling to the back of the field.  Despite this, he’d made it back to 5thby mid-way through lap 1, driving around the battling pair of Wlodek and Muddle between turns 4 and 5, and had found his way to the front by the end of lap 3, before driving to a 15 second win.

With Goddard jumping to the early lead, Gotch edged ahead of Wilson and the fast starting Holmes, but Muddle again gave up places to Wlodek and Lynch off the line. He managed to reclaim these after passing Wlodek under brakes into Turn 15, enabling him to set out after Holmes.

Lynch was close behind, having also managed to find a way past Wlodek on lap 2. Behind them Lesslie had made the best of the starts, to be ahead of Morrow, Coath and Katsidis, who unfortunately had no reward for all the effort on the clutch between races and eventually withdrew after 2 laps.

With Shields clearing out there were several battles emerging:  Gotch was unable to shake Wilson; Muddle was closing on Holmes; Lynch and Wlodek were inseparable; and Coath was chasing down Morrow and Lesslie, who traded places several times in the early laps.

Behind Shields, Goddard had a relatively easy race to claim second.  Gotch held out Wilson to claim third, but there was only a couple of seconds in it at the flag.  Muddle was taking a few tenths a lap from Holmes until he tried to go a little bit too deep into Turn 2 and took an excursion onto the grass, after which he had to settle for a comfortable 6th.  Lynch held Wlodek all the way to the flag, but there was only 7 hundredths of a second in it.  Coath claimed 9th, and Morrow held on to 10thahead of Lesslie by just over a tenth of a second.

Muddle used Race 3 to check out the sign the ARDC installed for Holmes at Turn 2

With the two young guns Shields and Goddard not racing for points, Gotch was left our clear winner for the weekend:

Outright points: 

Nathan Gotch  75
Shane Wilson  63
Greg Muddle  55
Andrew Wlodek  45
Glenn Lynch  43
Graeme Holmes  36
Ron Coath 36
Phil Morrow  35
Denis Lesslie  30
Rob Sviderskas  11 
Lawrence Katsidis  10
McClintock  5

Class Based points:

Nathan Gotch  75
Greg Muddle  71
Shane Wilson  63
Glenn Lynch  63
Phil Morrow  59
Andrew Wlodek  57
Ron Coath  51
Denis Lesslie  51
Graeme Holmes  46
Rob Sviderskas  19
Lawrence Katsidis  10
McClintock  5

Short Bursts:

  • “If I didn’t have bad luck, I wouldn’t have had any luck”. A deeply philosophical Loz Katsidis contemplates the combined effects of clutch, flywheel, gearbox pinion, frustrating fuel and 12 months out of the seat, and looks forward to burning some hot laps at Wakefield next round, with some luck.
  • Despite all the conspiracy theories, 5 competitors survived targeted scrutineering without having their fuel bladders checked, and while the issue continues to hang there as a possible issue the early signs are encouraging: state scrutineers don’t appear to have had any instruction to enforce the rule.
  • Greg Muddle spent a fair amount of time in the Clerk of Course office for having the loudest car in the category. Having tried the crossed wires at the end of the exhaust (they make 0.6 dB difference at Eastern Creek on a hot and humid day, for those who are interested) more radical surgery was required on Saturday evening. A large amount of stainless steel wool and some Kevin Lewis supervised re-engineering saw the car quietened sufficiently to compete on Sunday.
  • As usual there were plenty of instances of FRCA members helping out their fellow competitors in their hour of need, but for simple brilliance in the “see problem, solve problem” department it is impossible to go past the appearance of Icy Poles after the first race on Sunday morning. Thanks Katrina, that was soooo good!
  • As usual, there was plenty of talk about potential new cars – from Asia, from Italy, even from Victoria – and hopefully we’ll see at least one of these emerge in the near future. If you’re aware of anyone looking for a car then the ex-Robert Choon 01 is back on the market again in SA at a sensible price; and President Ross is aware of most of the other possibilities and might give you the tip (at least for the ones he’s not contemplating for himself).
  • A big ‘Thank You’ from the Category Rep to all those competitors who booked garages as soon as entries opened, it was great having that settled so far in advance of the race meeting and not having anyone miss out.

    A successful first outing for Denis Lesslie, and putting it away in one piece is always good too.
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