The Sporting Car Club of SA (SCCSA) started its 2022 season of motorsport on a high after a successful first ever Twilight Trophy on the weekend.
 
Held at Mallala Motorsport Park, 52 competitors attended the single-day event which saw three disciplines on offer throughout the meeting.
 
One of the major headline acts for the event was the grand return of South Australian Time Attack which ran for the first time in a long time and saw 22 individuals get a minimum of four sessions throughout the day.
 
With four classes making up the Time Attack field, it was invited Ian Wilson in the TVR Tuscan who posted the fastest time across the four sessions, his 1:08.5488 lap time almost two seconds faster than the Open Class winner in Dan Day.
 
Finishing in third with a lap time almost three seconds behind Day was another open class competitor in Douglas Johnston, who edged out Clubsprint class winner Zexuan Gong in the Mitsubishi Lancer by just two tenths of a second.


Taking out the Club R class was Jordan Rohrlach, who claimed the class by just one hundredth of a second over Ben Wortley, while Paul Healey ended up third in class after his lap time was just two tenths slower than the Subaru WRX Sti of Rohrlach.
 
It was another Rohrlach in Benjamin who took out honours in the Street class, guiding his Volkswagen Golf R to a victory of six tenths over Luke Bosman Toyota Yaris GR.
 
The race meeting then wrapped up with a top 10 Time Attack shootout, which Wilson couldn’t take part in due to being in an invited vehicle, allowing Day to comfortably win by three seconds over Johnson, while Gong was a further two seconds behind.


Throughout the event, there were three categories that enjoyed four races each.
 
Blake Miller’s three Racing Cars wins in his Elfin 630 saw him take top spot over race one winner Mark Goldsmith, who lost any chance of winning after retiring in race four.
 
It was a similar story in the Historic Touring Cars as Josh Axford enjoyed three wins over race one winner Kym Burton who retired on the second race.
 
In the Saloon Cars, James Jaeschke steered his Holden Commodore VY to a clean sweep of wins at the expense of Joel Johnson and his Hyundai Excel, who finished second in all four races.
 
The final discipline for the meeting was the Supersprint with 10 competitors taking part.
 
Claiming the overall victory was Matthew Frith, whose 1:17.7588 in the second session was unbeaten for the rest of the day.
 
Frith only took part in the Supersprint’s first three sessions of the day, but still steered his Datsun to the fastest time in each session.
 

Taking out second for the day was Samuel Young in his Nissan 350 GT, who picked up his best time on the third session but could never break the one minute and 20 second barrier – his 1:20.3657 enough to seal second place.
 
Event organiser Melissa Rees was pleased with the club’s first event for the year.
 
"While we did not have as many numbers as we would have liked, it was still a fantastic day and many people enjoyed the spectacle," Rees said.
 
"It was great to have Time Attack run for the first time in SA for a long time and the Shootout was quite the show. While no-one bettered their fastest time, it seems a surreal speed to be travelling in the dark.

“A number of other competitors used the event as a shakedown for next month's Motorsport Australia SCCSA 2022 State Motor Racing Championship, which will also run as a Twilight event.
 
"SCCSA would like to thank all officials who did a fabulous job, under the direction of Clerk of Course Vince Ciccarello and Assistant Clerk of Course Adrian Flynn ran a great event.
 
“Also a big thanks to Nathan Green for organising the Time Attack competitors, it was great to see them back out on track.”
 
The Motorsport Australia SCCSA 2022 State Motor Racing Championship is another Twilight event that takes place at Mallala Motorsport Park on 12 March.