The Great Southern Street Machines Association has successfully held its Weekend of Speed with 23 drivers taking part in three-day event.
Starting off with the High Voltage Albany Windfarm Hill Climb on Saturday, the club had two groups of entrants complete the seven allocated runs at separate times before the same drivers took part in the Pendeen Sprint on Monday in a similar fashion.
Wedged in between the two speed events was the cars and coffees social event, where general public of Albany were able to check out the club members’ cars at different coffee shops throughout the town, while meeting the local social distancing requirements.
Competition wise, just over one second separated the top three drivers in the hill climb with John Webb posting the fastest time of 48.40 seconds in a Porsche 911 Carrera. On the same run, Rhyan Shapkaris claimed second place with a solid 49.22 second
run in his Baby Grand RS4.
Finishing comfortably inside the top three was Neil Herbet and his Subaru WRX, while Adrian Hornsey and Stephen Dougherty rounded out the top five.
The closest battle of the hill climb went to Glenn Badger and Martin Weir with both drivers’ fastest time being 51.66 seconds causing them to finish equal sixth respectively.
In Monday’s Pendeen Sprint, Herbet was once again at the front of the field after posting the fastest lap time, capping off a positive weekend for the Subaru driver.
Following the three-day event, Event Secretary Christine Sargent was proud of the combined efforts from the drivers, officials and event organisers to run Western Australia’s first competitive event since March.
“It was excellent, everything went along smoothly and everybody had a great time so we’re looking forward to the same event next year,” Sargent said.
“As a result of the COVID-19 restrictions, this year we had two groups of drivers come in at separate times, which ended up working better than we expected.
“It gave them a lot more track time and they all got more runs because there was less people in attendance. Everyone was really happy, so this has given us the opportunity to maybe change what we do in the future.
“We didn’t have a drivers’ briefing as it was done electronically beforehand, but when we presented our run times, we did an announcement and everyone respected social distancing which was great.
“It was just a really great event. All the drivers and officials loved it. A big thanks must go out to all the volunteers who helped make it possible.”