In an arduous 10-hour battle at Winton Motor Raceway, the Panorama Mountain Men once again topped the podium of a regularity event, this time taking the honours of the 2024 Alfa Club 10 Hour Regularity Relay.

114 drivers from 25 teams converged on the Victorian circuit in the middle of October, ready to contest the intense and unique competition hosted by the Alfa Romeo Owners’ Club of Australia.

Despite travelling from interstate, the Panorama Mountain Men of the MX-5 Club of NSW took out the Sandown relay earlier this year and are now two-for-two in the 2024 Victorian Regularity Relay series thanks to their latest win at Winton. No strangers to this competition, the team boasts an impressive track record, with four firsts and two seconds from their past six starts.

Second place at the 10-hour event was awarded to the Just Regular Guys team also from the MX-5 Club of NSW. Third place was taken by last year’s winners Maschi Di Alfa from the Alfa Romeo Owners’ Club of Australia. The top three finished within only a few seconds even after almost 10 hours of competition.

With no progressive results posted throughout the event, competitors were left guessing as to who the leaders were until the end of the competition.

“You just have to go and do your best and hopefully when they have the presentation, you’re towards the pointy end of the field,” said Stewart Temesvary, team manager and driver from the Panorama Mountain Men.

“You’re always wondering how other teams are doing, but you just go out and keep doing laps and hopefully achieving your goal, which is being as consistent as possible.”

With teams and drivers scoring points for getting as close they could to their designated lap times, regularity events are a battle of consistency and demand solid teamwork.

“We’re monitoring our performances and if there’s a driver who’s not keeping to the required rate, we pull them in, give them a break and send someone else out there,” said Temesvary.

“Effectively you need to be within one second of your nominated time to get a bonus. It’s a pretty fine margin.

“We start planning four to six months out from the event. We analyse previous results and then go with a goal of what we want to achieve, and then we work out how we can hit that. It all comes down to good strategy.”

“Our team would like to thank our dedicated pit crew, Gaynor and David Lawler as well as Paul Byers, who all travelled down from Sydney just to help us race.”

Rounding out the top five in the 2024 Alfa Club 10 Hour Regularity Relay were the Bubbleblue Motorsport team in fourth, and the Zoomstars in fifth.

Regulatory events are a fantastic way for drivers to hone their racecraft – focusing on lap consistency and navigating traffic, thanks long race times and large grid numbers.

Those interested in competing in a regulatory relay are encouraged to contact the Alfa Romeo Owners’ Club of Australia for a place in their 2025 event. Alternatively contact Motorsport Australia to find out more.