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Six races in massive weekend of racing
HERITAGE Touring Cars has entertained fans at Round 4 of its championship for Historic Group A and C touring cars at the Muscle Car Masters at Sydney Motorsport Park over the September 6-7 weekend.
With six races over two days of racing, the category was a major hit with race fans that gathered for the 10th annual Father’s Day event.
Use of all three variations of the SMP facility – the Druitt, Brabham and Gardner circuits – as well as variable weather made for an interesting weekend of racing.
Saturday saw three qualifying sessions, one on each circuit to determine the grids for each respective race on that layout.
The shorter ‘cut through’ Druitt Circuit hosted the opening race of the weekend and saw victory for Terry Lawlor’s GIO Nissan GT-R.
Racing legend Jim Richards cut his way through the field to finish second in his 1990 Australian Touring Car Championship-winning Skyline GTS-R with Craig Markland’s Caltex Sierra RS500 third from Anthony Compton’s ex-Glenn Seton Sierra and Paul Axiak’s ex-Tony Mulvihill/Barry Jones Commodore VK.
The top Group C finisher was Adam Workman’s ex-George Fury Nissan Bluebird Turbo in ninth place overall.
The 10-lap Group C Trophy Race was won by John Douglas’ ex-Berklee Mazda RX-7 from Fraser Ross’ XD Falcon, Ed Singleton’s STP Commodore and Workman’s Bluebird, who all featured in an entertaining scrap with their four very different types of machines.
The 10-lap Group A Trophy Race was claimed by Lawlor with Richards, Markland and Compton next followed by David Towe’s JPS BMW M3.
Sunday saw showers greet competitors again and the first five-lapper of the day was held on the long ‘Brabham’ circuit featuring the extra section of circuit added a few years ago.
Lawlor’s GIO GT-R took a very narrow victory by three-tenths of a second over Richards’ GTS-R Skyline with Markland again third from Compton and Mark Taylor’s VL Commodore. The top Group C finishers was again Adam Workman’s Bluebird.
The cars moved onto the traditional SMP layout – now known as the ‘Gardner’ layout – for the next race and again Lawlor took victory.
However, this time it was Markland who managed to get the Caltex Sierra to the line in front of Richards by just four-hundredths of a second!
Compton’s Sierra ran home fourth from Axiak’s Commodore and a strong drive from Matthew Windsor in his ex-John Farrell Mobil Commodore.
A severely fogged windscreen sent Workman’s Bluebird to the pits, opening the way for Fraser Ross to finish as top Group C car and ninth overall.
The sixth and final race for the weekend was the eight-lap Group C & A Trophy Race on the short Druitt circuit and Lawlor completed his fantastic weekend to win in drying conditions clear of Richards, Compton, Markland and Ross’s Falcon.
A wide and varied list of cars competed at the Muscle Car Masters event, including the racing return of Glen Featherstone’s ex-Larry Perkins/HSV-liveried Commodore VL.
Fans at Sydney Motorsport Park were able to get up close and personal with the cars and their drivers – a major appeal of the category that caters of fans of the ‘Legends of Bathurst’.
The Heritage Touring Cars will make one more appearance for 2014 with their final championship round to be held at the Sandown Historic meeting in Melbourne on November 8-9.
Image: Aaron Noonan
