Wrapping Up the MG Car Club Sydney Round of 2019’s CSCA Sprints

Images thanks to John Lindsay John Lindsay and Seth Reinhardt

Round six of the 2019 CSCA super sprint series was one of our own, hosted by the MG Car Club Sydney at Sydney Motorsport Park on Saturday the 14th of September. Scroll along for a report thanks to our sporting team Max Wasson and Steve Perry.

CSCA 2019 Round 6, hosted by the MG Car Club Sydney

Sydney Motorsport Park North ‘Druitt’ Circuit, Saturday the 14th of September

By Max Wasson

The sixth round of the 2019 CSCA series was run by MGCC Sydney in good conditions. Nice and sunny, not too hot.

First off, I would like to thank the volunteers who made the day a great success, especially Wendy and Gary Maher who did a great job all day. Steve Perry has completed a full account of the volunteers and their duties.

Our club had only six entries for the day in a total of 74 entries from other clubs.

Chris Scheffer did an excellent time in his MX5 Turbo Mazda. It looks like he has it well sorted. Greg Smith also did well on the day coming in 35th overall. Richard Caller (in Geoff Morse’s MGB Special) only got six laps with a very good time before his clutch let go in turn 3.

Tim Sullivan in his MGBGT V8 also did well. Gary Maher got in 31 laps on the day getting his value’s worth. My BMW M2 did me proud on the day – it is probably much faster than me.

The racing went well all day. The Lotus club could not get enough and I think they would be there until midnight if allowed. The highest count was by an Exige S that did 52 laps!

There were a couple of failures on the day. Andrew McLaughlin in his Honda-powered Sylva put out a big smoke screen that almost blacked out the track. Bruce Grant in his lovely V8 supercharged Jaguar S Type had a big off on the back of the track after the chicane. A lot of damage to the front and rear. Bruce was alright, it shows how the safety cell in modern cars work well to protect the people in them.

Looking forward to seeing as many members competing at the final CSCA Supersprint run by Triumph Sport Owner’s Club at Wakefield Park on 10th November 2019.

Max

Results: CSCA Round 6 (Total of 74 competitors)

Entrant	Best time	Class result	Outright result
Chris Scheffer, MX5 Turbo	1:15:16	4th	15th
Max Wasson, BMW M2	1:18:06	4th	33rd
Greg Smith, MGB GT	1:18:44	2nd	35th
Richard Caller, MGB Special	1:20:75	5th	49th
Tim Sullivan, MGB GT V8	1:24:39	5th	61st
Greg Maher, Escort MK1	1:25:81	5th	67th

Sporting Report Part B

By Steve Perry

MGCC Sydney has held their annual CSCA supersprint round for 2019 at Sydney Motorsport Park with sincere thanks due to our many club volunteers and officials who worked hard to make this event possible and a success.

We had 28 volunteers and around 10 professional officials (Fire and rescue, paramedics & time keepers), making 38 people plus catering & ARDC track personnel required on the day to run an event for around 74 drivers.

Event Management

Nick Goring (Motorsport Supporter) as the Clerk of Course (ultimately responsible for the safe running of the event on the day)

David Atkins from MG Newcastle as Chief CAMS Steward (ensuring the event was run as per CAMS requirements)

Wendy Maher as the 2nd CAMS Steward (working with David ensuring the event was run as per CAMS requirements)

Tony Pallas from the Jaguar Club (JDCA) as the Chief Scrutineer, with Gary Maher, Ian Frost from MG Sydney and Colin Goldsmith from Austin Healey Club (AHOC) Scrutineers (responsible with his team for the checking of competitor vehicle safety items).

Steve Perry from MG Sydney as the Event Secretary and Max Wasson as Assistant Event Secretary (responsible for entry processing, payments and all CAMS & ARDC track admin requirements)

Lisa Drayton and her assistant from Eldee Timing (responsible for time keeping and overall results reports)

A crew of five from Clark Motorsport Safety Australia (responsible for event attendance for crash rescue, tow truck and fire incident management)

One crew of two from Paramedical Services (responsible for ambulance and medical incident response management)

Steve Perry & Max Wasson, MG Sydney, (responsible for the volunteer duties allocation, radios, briefing and management)

Entry Office Admin

Max Wasson, Mark Robson & Lindsay Trevitt from MG Sydney, (responsible for CAMS and club licence checks and entry & scrutineering paperwork)

Starter and Dummy Grid

Geoff Pike from MG Sydney as the chief starter (responsible for authorised release of vehicles onto the track from the dummy grid)

Richard Rose & Mark Robson from MG Sydney (assisting Geoff Pike with car line up and scrutineering label checks)

Flag Marshals

(appointed in pairs to be responsible for the safety of drivers and themselves over nominated sectors of the racetrack)

Max Pegler and John Stevens (MG Sydney) – Start/finish line: (signalling end of session runs with the chequered flag)

Charlie Frew, (then Ian Frost) and Mark Robson  – Flag point 1: watching for driver behaviour, leaking fluids and reporting any incidents etc)

Col Harper and Herb Condon (MG Sydney) – Flag point 2: watching for driver behaviour, leaking fluids and reporting any incidents etc)

Tony Farr and sons Nick and Jeremy Farr (MG Supporters) – Flag point 3.5: watching for driver behaviour, leaking fluids and reporting any incidents etc)

 Ingo Weinberger and Steve Foldhazy (MG Sydney) – Flag point 4: watching for driver behaviour, leaking fluids and reporting any incidents etc)

Alan Heritage and John Boss (MG Sydney) – Flag point 15: Watching for driver behaviour, leaking fluids and reporting any incidents etc)

Bob Parkinson and Greg Fereday (MG Sydney) – Flag point 17: watching for driver behaviour, leaking fluids and reporting any incidents etc

All the volunteers, including an up and coming photographer John Lindsay, attended an officials safety and induction briefing at 8am, which also covered two-way radio protocol, and coverage on what to be looking out for on the track as the carriage-less horses blast past.

They then were issued with a two-way digital radio, a copy of my briefing notes, some water and a muesli bar for morning nibbles and, of course, flags – initially one red and one yellow flag until all the wags in the group pointed out that two yellow flags are required for double yellow incidents as I had covered in the Briefing. My omission test had worked! They must have been listening. (Either that or I just forgot to put out two yellow flags each). The flag marshals were then chauffeur driven out to their flagging positions in luxury transport (well, a Ute).

Max Wasson and I were most appreciative that everyone had turned up on time! The office paperwork volunteers and scrutineers under the chief scrutineer Tony Palls from Jaguar were there at 7am and the flag marshals arrived around 7:30am. (If we have late arrivals and we are unable to fill their flag positions on the track, the event CANNOT START!) So many thanks to all the volunteers for being punctual! Some early paperwork hiccoughs had to be overcome, and one driver could not find his CAMS licence for quite a while.

All were most cooperative and supportive of this event, and arrived in good humour. This helped make the day run very smoothly, and so our club was extremely appreciative of the donation of their valuable time for this event – well done!

A real thanks goes out to club member Wendy Maher who with husband Gary Maher, have both acted as Stewards for many car cub events over many years, however Gary swapped to help with scrutineering this time, and then competing himself in his beaut Escort.

All drivers should be aware of what voluntary work happens behind the scenes in the lead up to such events, and the many duties carried out on the day on your behalf to allow the safe running of an event purely for your enjoyment on the track in a safe manner, at minimal cost. Drivers should at least wave to officials on the track on your slow down lap in acknowledgement of this voluntary effort made on their behalf!

Of course if your car is unavailable for competition, drivers should be prepared to volunteer to assist others at an event or two while repairs are underway! Life should be about some give as well as take, especially as part of a not for profit car club!

My special thanks goes to our Club President Charlie Frew and Vice President Greg Fereday for volunteering for the day, and to Barry Eastmead from our club who either turns up at our sprints, and/or organises for several friends (such as Tony Farr and his sons Jeremy and Nick) to assist on the day, which is of great assistance to myself.

Our other regular supporters arrived in Ingo Weinberger, Lindsay Trevitt, Mark Robson, Geoff Pike and Bob Parkinson. Other regulars Brian McKenzie and Bob Grace were not able to attend this year. Bob had the best excuse of the year, as he contacted me from New Zulland whilst on holidays, saying he was not going to make it.

We also owe a special thanks to several notable past competitors in Herb Condon and Col Harper, and even John Stevens (past multiple Club Champion) and Max Pegler (past Sporting Secretary), as well as Alan Heritage & Steve Foldhazy who all helped us at the track, as they enjoyed watching competitors up close and seeing the various type & mix of cars running, as they are all motorsport drivers and enthusiasts. A fantastic collective experience exists with these blokes.

Many thanks and my sincere appreciation on behalf of our MGCC and all drivers, to all the volunteers for making the huge effort in getting up early and making the trek to SMP out at Eastern Creek. All of you ensured that our annual supersprint was a good success, and I trust you all enjoyed your day up close to the action.

We had a couple of tow-ins only, however, one car was involved in a big collision with the wall after the chicane causing some major damage unfortunately, driver was checked and OK. Many thanks to Colin Goldsmith from Austin Healey, for providing a scrutineering report following this incident.

We only had six drivers enter from our MGCC in supporting our event, and we thank them for the well needed support, while noting numbers are well down on past years, making the volunteers from our club well outnumber our competitors! What has happened to MG Drivers?

Thanks also due to Richard Caller (ARDC) for driving Geoff Morse’s MGB special while Geoff was away, and Tim Sullivan who squeezed in this event before heading away on holidays. The entries were also down from the other CSCA Clubs, and we almost covered this with entries from outside non-CSCA clubs. All had a good day in excellent weather and friendly air temperatures – almost perfect all day, with up to six runs or more available.

The lack of driver support for CSCA events will now have possible consequences in the club consideration for a CSCA round next year! MG Newcastle is still waiting on a new circuit at Raymond Terrace, and have not planned another venue, and Austin Healey will not be running a CSCA Round next year due to poor support. Times are a changin’ – we need more drivers!!

Look forward to catching up again with our MGCC drivers at the next CSCA Round run by the Triumph Owners Club at Wakefield Park. Not sure if my gearbox and engine will even be back together by then as the mechanics keep finding cracks and bends in gearbox parts and housing. We may have to try a new 5-speed box all together!

Thanks to all the Officials and Volunteers and the member drivers who all contributed to make this event happen!

Coming Events

1. Next Supersprint: Triumph ROUND 7 at Wakefield Park: Sunday 10th November 2019. Entries are NOT open as yet!
2. Regularity: The next NSW meeting will be the HSRCA Historic Meeting on the GP circuit at Sydney Motorsport Park over Nov 30th and Dec 1st June 2019

Drivers Remember:

1) AVGAS is to be replaced by a non-leaded fuel

2) Frontal Head Restraints (like HANS) will be compulsory from 2020 in non-registered cars (and at least a 5-point harness)

Steve Perry,
Supersprints – Give it a Go!