WASCC go public for July race meeting

Monday 13 July, 2020

Photos: Beardy Snaps

The West Australian Sporting Car Club (WASCC) has welcomed back motorsport fans for the first time since February as the club held a successful two-day event at Wanneroo Raceway.

Working closely with Motorsport Australia and its Return To Race guidelines, the race meeting saw almost 150 competitors across 10 categories compete in front of spectators.

While a number of the state’s regular categories featured over the two days, including Saloon Cars, Formula Ford and Vee, Historic Touring Cars and Sports Cars, the meeting also held two special events.

Both headline acts took place on Sunday with the GT Tander Cup running three races and the Excel Enduro wrapping up its four-race schedule on Sunday afternoon.

The Tander Cup was the first to get underway with Holden Commodore VE driver Steven Turpin comfortably claiming the Cup after two victories and finishing second behind Dom Coniglio in the opening race.

Despite Coniglio not scoring points in the remaining two races, Turpin was a deserving winner of the Cup as he was a cut above the rest over the course of the day – his consistency proving the difference.

“It’s amazing to win this,” Turpin said.

“I spent a fair bit of time with the suspension setup and other bits like that to get the car to handle much nicer, so I didn’t need to abuse it so much and it has paid off.”

The battle for Tander Cup runner-up honours was much closer as Adrian Scharenguivel’s second place in the final race secured a Holden one-two over Mark Jolly in the Ford Falcon.

In the event’s final race of the weekend, the Excel Enduro, Jake Passaris and Tom Hamlett put on an impressive display to win the 40-lap race by almost half a minute over Brock Kelly and Andrew Malkin.

The winners had had a fairly uneventful lead up to the enduro, with Passaris picking up the duo’s best result out of the three preceding races with third. However when the grand finale eventually came on Sunday afternoon, they turned it on.

Starting from sixth, the duo quickly worked their way up towards the front of the field, before battling hard for the rest of the race. Enjoying a short-lived lead midway throughout, once they were back on top with only 10 laps to go, they never looked back and stormed home to victory.

“It was really good, I didn’t think we had the pace. But we gained 12 seconds in the pit stop which was a good effort,” Hamlett said.

“I locked up a few times and thought that we would have been taken over.

“I got caught in traffic but made my way through it quite easily to build a nice gap. That last car I lapped really helped to seal the win.”

Following the club’s second race meeting in as many months, WASCC Chair of the Competition and Events Committee Peter Dyball was proud the club could find a way to allow fans back into the event.

“It’s great to be back racing,” Dyball said.

“We’ve been able to welcome back our spectators back in our park within view areas and allowed them to walk through the pit areas again to see competitors working on their cars and chat to drivers.

“To have spectators back is terrific and also our drivers can now have up to four pit crew with them which is a huge help to the drivers.

“The intensity to get these changes made to our Return To Race permit with Motorsport Australia was quite high, however as the restrictions in Western Australia changed versus other states, they have responded very quickly and we have worked together and that is how we ended up being allowed spectators and more crew back here.”