The 2020 Historic Sports and Racing Car Association (HSRCA) Summer Festival was clouded with unfavourable weather on the weekend as extreme heat threatened to derail the popular event.

Taking place at Sydney Motorsport Park, horrendous conditions soared above 40 on both days, forcing event organisers to make drastic measures to ensure it could continue, including a change from the Gardner circuit to the Druitt layout on Sunday.

Event secretary Janet King praised officials for continuing in their duties despite the difficult conditions.

“It was pretty revolting and there were a lot of cars and competitors that struggled with the heat,” King said.

“The officials however, really dug deep and stayed out there through the heat.

“There were very few incidents which was good to see and the category managers enjoyed the event.”

King was particularly grateful for the work in which Daniel Boaden, the venue operations manager of the Australian Racing Drivers Club (ARDC), did to ensure a smooth running of the event.

“I’d like to thank Daniel Boarden for the work he did with us across the weekend. He was absolutely delightful to deal with,” King added.

“He went above and beyond in ensuring that competitors and officials had access to water and air-conditioned suites which were located above the pit bay garages.

“He dealt with the caps and limitations we had on people coming into the circuit. He was front and centre in representing ARDC and the venue, he was an absolute delight to work with.”

As for the action on track, Formula Vee class put on a fierce contest with three different winners in four races as Stephen Normoyle and Anthony Paynter shared the honours in races one and two before Donald Greiveson won the remaining two races

There wasn’t much difference in the Supersprint category with Richard Carter being the only multiple race winner across the four, while Brad Tilley and Phillip Hoad were victorious either side of Carter’s two. 

Leslie Wright was a dominant figure in the Group LMO & Invited P class, claiming the first three races, including the Dawson Daimler Trophy feature race. Unfortunately he came up just short of a perfect weekend due to Wayne Wilson was victorious in the final race.

A jam packed field of 28 competitors made up the Group N category, Brad Tilley winning the first race before sitting out the final race, which allowed Greg Luca to take victory. In Formula Ford, it was a tale of two halves as Thomas Tweedie and William Lowing each won two races.

The Group S category held three races for the weekend with a special 22 lap feature endurance race allowing competitors to take co-drivers on board with them if they wished. Behind the wheel of a Porsche Carrera, Wayne Seabrook was victorious in both the first and endurance race before Douglas Barbour took the honours in the last race.

Daniel Nolan claimed overall round honours in the Group QR Sports & Racing division thanks to a second in race one and victories in the second and third heats. Ian Buddery and David Kent were the other race winners. 

The Regularity runs recorded different winners across the three encounters with Peter Shaw in his Elfin FJ Peugeot and Trevor Bly in his MG B Roadster sharing the honours.