Wrapping Up Round 3 of the 2019 CSCA Supersprint Series

Jaguar Drivers Club CSCA Round 3, Saturday May 25th – Sydney Motorsport Park (SMSP) – North Circuit, in the Combined Sports Car Association (CSCA) Supersprint Series.

By Stephen Perry

The third CSCA round of the year was run by the Jaguar Drivers Club of Australia (JDCA) in great conditions at Sydney Motorsport Park. Many of us enjoyed plenty of runs, in a well run and organised supersprint, with only one tow-in. A cool morning was followed by a clear and mild day only reaching a pleasant 25 degrees.

Our club had only four entries supporting this event in a total field of 87, which is a reasonable field turnout, but a few less than usual. Greg Smith ran in his ex-Group S MGBGT, Gary Maher ran his Ford Escort, Richard Rose competed in his new MX-5 and I competed in the MGCGT.

Geoff Morse (MGB special) was unavailable and Max Wasson is still recovering from some knee repairs. The family Scheffer were missing in their MX-5s, along with Bob Baldwin in his MGB. Garry Williams is selling or sold his MGB and Peter Richards was missing in his V8 roadster.

Drivers were able to get up to 37 laps on the day, with Greg doing 35 and I did 34 laps in Group 3 – with one early lap for me being short flagged a bit too early.

Great conditions encouraged good times. Richard Rose put in some very smooth and consistent laps in his new MX-5 chariot. Greg Smith put in some fast laps to beat his old time by 1 and a half seconds, which is quite a margin, by pushing harder and braking later, especially in turn 1 and was very tidy indeed. Greg is just getting quicker and quicker in his well-handling MGB, and this time a great effort just beat a very light and fast Lotus Elan!

I managed to reduce my best time by just under a second by wrestling the C with some better mid corner speed through turn 1, and also through the chicane. Not to be outdone, Gary Maher who was not feeling all that well with a persistent cough, tore up his old best time by taking off 5 seconds!!

A great effort by all MGCC drivers, but Gary gets the cake, as 5 seconds is a huge margin – well done Gary, and doing this is putting most of our older members to shame! You do not have to be young to enjoy your car and have a great day at the track; just ask Gary! His partner Wendy was back as a CAMS steward for this event (many thanks Wendy), and she would have had Gary talking about his good efforts all the way home I suspect!

We now have a big mix of cars competing in the CSCA series, which was originally set up for British Sports Cars, but now with very modern supercharged Lotuses (Loti), Nissan GTRs, Mitsubishi Evos, BMW M3, HSV Clubsport etc and at the other end, a faithful reproduction Ford GT-40 (ran 9th), an ex Peter Willmington Group A Jag XJS (ex Bathurst car, ran 15th), my ’68 MGCGT ran 31st, a racing V12 Jag E type (ran 32nd) and a marque sports big Healey 3000 placed in the top ten. This early 1960s Healey ran 6th outright against all the modern cars, even though most of this car is almost 60 years old!  Just shows old well prepared cars with a good steerer can still compete outright!

Stephen Perry

Alphabetical Results: CSCA Round 3 (Total of 87 timed competitors)

Thanks to all the officials and volunteers and the member drivers who all contributed to make this event happen!

Motorsport – Give it a Go!