The MX5 Club of NSW has enjoyed the perfect weekend at the 2020 Challenge Bathurst as the club picked up silverware in four of the five Regularity classes.

Having claimed class wins in the past two years, Stewart Temesvary led the club’s charge as he secured two class wins, while Glenn Thomas and John Karayannis took out top honours in their respective classes.

With only six Mazda MX5 cars entered from a total of 178, the club’s drivers were able to take it up to other more high-powered machines, which included the brand new Ford Mustang R-SPEC supercharged V8 machine.

Following on from the win, team manager Joe Kovacic was ecstatic with the victory and the team’s performance on one of the biggest grassroots stages. 

“Everyone was exuberant, they were all just stoked at the fact we had taken a clean sweep,” Kovacic said.

“We first realised that Stewart was going to win Class A & C, then Class B came along and discovered that Glenn Thomas was going to take it out and then we were absolutely stoked when John Karayannis won in Class D on his first attempt at Bathurst.”

Kovacic also spoke highly of his son Luke, also a Mount Panorama debutant, who despite not able to take victory in Class B was still able to post a record time.

“He ended up coming third overall for the weekend, however, he did get a record lap time which proves himself,” Kovacic added.

“To do a two minute and 44 second lap around Bathurst in a road register 118kw MX5 is a really good effort.”

An additional class created for Porsche cars only saw Simon Tate take the overall honours alongside the MX5 drivers.

Before the MX5 Club of NSW had the chance to strut its stuff on the iconic circuit, the event opened up with a supersprint session on the Thursday and Friday, which was just as entertaining for those involved.

The Supersprint Group GT class saw Vince Muriti take the honours in three of the four encounters, with Paul Tressider and David Wall pairing up in the second encounter to record the fastest time.

Last year’s Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge Australia winner Harri Jones was the dominant figure in Group A, recording the quickest time in five of the six sessions allocated for this category, while Jones’ rival from the one-make series last year, Ryan Suhle, was responsible for denying Jones a clean sweep.

Group B saw a mix of winners across six encounters with Adrian Flack and Jason Wright claiming the fastest time in one session each and Sam Shahin and Rodney Gordon scoring two apiece.