Hello and welcome to the July competition report.  On the 19^th June my fellow sprinters and I gathered on a crisp winter morning at Mallala motor sport park for round 2 of the MSCA Super Sprint series.  I thought the further north you go the warmer it gets, clearly this doesn’t apply to Mallala and ski gear was the choice of garment on the day.

It was 119 days since we last made the pilgrimage to Mallala for a Super Sprint and I for one was eager to get on track. Overall entrant numbers were good with 87 on the grid for the first session of the day.  AROCA representation was down from round 1, with 9 members in the field.  Chris Tilbrook came down from Clare in the Scadding prepared 156 and you couldn’t wipe the grin of his face, Chris finished the day with some consistent runs.   Andrew continues to get faster in the 156TI and finished the day nearly 2 seconds faster than round 1.  Much to my disappointment Neil Heywood dominated the slightly modified road registered class, I tried various tactics on and off the track to distract him but to no avail and I finished the day a distant second, well down Neil.  Keith Wong achieved a milestone just before lunch when he broke into the 1.19s in the Honda and he stayed in the 19s for the remainder of the day.  Paul Morris made steady progress with each lap of the track.  Paul and I had a great tussle is session 3, if only I had a little more horsepower.

AROCA was required to provide flag marshalling for the day and I was literally overrun by volunteers.  A big thankyou to the following, in no particular order, Steve Weedon, Bob Davenport, Joe Ricciardi, Paul Kloppers, Phil Reeves and Phil’s niece’s partner, coincidentally named Phil too.  Although they appeared slightly chilled at the end of the day they all had a smile on their face.  As a sprinter I’m forever in their debt as without them I wouldn’t be able to have the time of my life out there on the track.  We are required to provide flag marshals again at round 5 on the 23^rd October.  I’ll remind you again closer to the date.

Scrutineering continued to be a hit and miss affair.  My helmet failed to meet regulations at round 1 however it passed this time.  The regulations were changed in March, reclassifying my helmet. Fortunately I saw the CAMS technical bulletin on the website before buying a new helmet so it pays to keep an eye on the regulations throughout the year as they are subject to change.  A couple of my fellow sprints received unwanted attention from the scrutineers about expired safety equipment.  Fire extinguishers expire 3 years after the date of manufacture, which is stamped on the bottle. I always check the stamp when purchasing a new one to make sure I maximise the useful life of the extinguisher.  Safety harnesses have a limited working life so it pays to consult the CAMS manual to avoid having problems.

The fastest times for the day were as follows

* Competed in an Alfa Romeo

Motorsport events scheduled in June include

Until next month remember corner speed is everything.

Mark Thomas