The Sporting Car Club of SA (SCCSA) has launched its 2021 season in style, with 60 people taking part in its multi-discipline event at Mallala Raceway.
While the club is usually focused on hosting the state’s circuit championships, the season launch was a way for the club to give back to members and allow some of its more entry-level focused competitors to get some track time.
Over the course of the event, all entrants had the choice of taking part in two of the four disciplines available, which included regularities, supersprints and races or a motorkhana organised by the Motorsport Australia SA and NT AutoTest Panel.
Competitors in the three on-track disciplines enjoyed a practice run and four sessions throughout the day, with some entrants completing up to 58 laps.
Competition wise, Garry Owen and Paul Turnbull were the first two drivers to experience success with each racking up the least amount of points in their respective regularity groups to claim top honours.
Adam Newton took out the open-wheeler supersprints with his fastest lap of 1:19.6555 coming in the first session, as well as being the only driver in the category to get under 1:20. His closest competitor was Keith Williamson who completed just two laps during whole day, but still got to within one second.
Mark Rosser in the Audi R8 LMS GT3 was fastest in the Tin Top supersprints, posting a 1:12.6985 lap during the third session of the day, while Porsche drivers Donald Costelloe and Ashley Gilles topped the timesheets in the other two sessions.
Rosser was again front and centre in the category’s four requirements, ending the day with three wins, while Hyundai Excel driver James Zeitz managed to notch up a victory in the remaining race.
In the open-wheel races, Andrew Ford steered his Reynard 893 to three wins over Newton, while the Supersprint winner managed to a victory of his own in the category’s fourth and final session for the day.
Event organiser Melissa Rees was thrilled with the inaugural season launch and believed it was important to focus on grassroots.
“The event was introduced to encourage car owners to get their cars onto the circuit. It also provided an opportunity for new drivers to complete their OLTs and for our more experienced campaigners to test and tune ahead for the season,” Rees said.
“The club had not held a regularity or supersprint for the last few years as we had been running state motor racing events, meaning there hasn’t been much at a grassroots level. We decided it was time to give our members what they had been asking for and it was great to see them at the track.
“There was plenty of fun had by all, so we hope to see this event continue on the calendar in the future, on top of offering more variety throughout the year.
“A big thanks to the Motorsport Australia SA & NT AutoTest Panel who held the motorkhana, and to all of the entrants, their pit crews and the officials team who worked hard throughout the event to ensure things ran smoothly.”
The Sporting Car Club of SA will host the first round of the Motorsport Australia SA State Motor Racing Championship, which begins at Mallala Raceway on 13 March.