Photos: Freelance Pix Round five of the 2023 Nankang Tyres Motorsport Australia NSW Motor Race Championship took place at Sydney Motorsport Park on the weekend with a successful day of racing across eight highly competitive categories.
Returning to the park’s Druitt Circuit for the first time since its opening in 2012, the day’s competition flourished on the high-speed track, with some categories seeing their frontrunners separated by the closest of margins.
This closeness was at its finest in Formula Vee, which saw winner Darren Williams put up an unbelievable fight to maintain first place, winning race one by only three hundredths of a second ahead of Jason Cutts.
While Williams finished the day in first, the race for runner up was hotly contested, with Goeff Bennett, Jason Cutts and Mathew Pearce finishing the second race with less than a second between them.
Formula Ford saw a similarly entertaining battle for top honours, with less than ten seconds separating Kaleb Belak, William Lowing and Thomas Kalamakis across the three races.
While Belak ultimately took out the top spot after finishing first in races one and three, Lowing ensured this was not an easy win, beating Belak in race three and finishing race two less than a second behind him.
Production Touring Cars played out in a similar fashion, with winner Chris Sutton and Simon Hodges battling closely for first.
Hodges was a clear frontrunner after winning races one and two, but an unfortunate DNF in race three saw him lose out to Sutton, who finally claimed first after following Hodges closely in second for the first two races.
And Jack Beeton’s path to victory in Formula Cars matched that of Sutton, claiming first overall after having lost two out of three races to Winston van Laarhove.
Not only did van Laarhove win races two and three, but he did so with exceptional pace, winning by more than 40 and 50 seconds respectively. However, a DNF in race one saw him miss out on crucial points from the outset.
For Superkarts’ Aaron Cogger though, a DNF in race two didn’t have as big as an effect, after he won three out of four races – giving him enough points to still claim the overall victory.
The DNF proved to be a small feat for Cogger, who returned in race three to effortlessly steal a 20 second win, followed by an astounding 45 second win, ahead of close second Adam Stewart, in the fourth and final race.
However, in the Improved Production Categories, there was never any doubt over who would come out on top, with the winners for both the Under and Over 2 Litre classes consistently winning all three of their respective races.
In the Under 2L category, this honour went to Kurt Macready, who masterfully held gaps of around 20 seconds in every race, while Steven Engel effortlessly maintained his lead with gaps of up to 50 seconds between him and second place in the Over 2L class.
While the Holden HQ category’s path was not so clear, Brett Osborn never strayed far from first, making his round victory an impressive, but not at all surprising one after his performance throughout the day.
Winning two out of three races, Osborn was certainly the frontrunner, and while competition from Luke Harrison and David Proglio was fierce, Osborn ensured he was never more than a second away from first.
The next round of the Nankang Tyres Motorsport Australia NSW Motor Race Championship will be at Sydney Motorsport Park on 28-29 October.
Keyword: NSW Motor Race Championship delivers fierce competition in Sydney