Images thanks to Brett Stevens
Round two of the 2021 CSCA series, held on Sunday the 18th of April, saw us once again make the road trip south out of Sydney, stopping a little short of our usual destination in Goulburn for our second visit to the Pheasant Wood Circuit in Marulan. This round of the series was very kindly hosted by the MG Car Club Sydney.
While we’ve been enjoying lovely cool and fine weather since La Niña made its departure a few weeks ago, the day dawned extremely foggy. This made the early morning runs a little exciting, but soon lifted and conditions cleared to be all-but perfect for motor sport.
Pheasant Wood Circuit is the smallest of the three venues we regularly visit, and the turnout reflected that with a relaxed 43 drivers setting times during the day. Stephen Hooker went quickest once again, his little Jedi Mk. 4 very well suited to the tight, twisty and short circuit and helping him run away from the pack by more than six seconds on a 53.44.
Fourteen Club Lotus Australia competitors ran, making a great effort to all-but lock out the top ten and mostly occupy the same second of track time. We were very pleased to be joined by two new drivers in Hubert Chau and Lachlan Klumper, as well as Tina Cho and John Rutherford, who went out for their sophomore run after competing with us for the first time at Wakefield Park a few weeks ago.
Both Colin Rudd and Peter Deller cleared the one minute barrier at the sprint, with Colin claiming club honours and first M2 in second overall. He set a 59.86 in the Elise Sport 220. Colin and Peter have been very closely matched in recent rounds, and this time out it was Peter that followed Colin home, wrangling the big Commodore around the little circuit to scrape in under a minute on a 59.98 in third overall and first R3.
Gino Valdes was just a whisker slower and set the fourth quickest time, fastest P2, on a 1:00.04. He was very closely followed by Len Goodwin in the Elan 26R, who ran a 1:00.54 for first CD1. Paul Tilse took the Cayman GT4 around Pheasant Wood in 1:00.60 for sixth overall and M3 class honours.
Graham Allen and MG Car Club Newcastle driver Rick Vincent followed in a pair of Elises, with Graham running a 1:00.61 and Rick a 1:00.64. John Deller completed the top ten with a 1:00.78, the seven tenths of a second his brother had on him worth eight places on the short layout.
Quickest in R2 was Mark Meletopoulo, who ran a 1:00.87 in the Elise, while Chris Pearse produced a 1:01.22 in the Exige V6 to top the P3 class.
Hubert Chau is a new CLA member and enjoyed his first CSCA sprint and first run at Pheasant Wood on the day. He set a very strong 1:02.22 in his Subaru WRX. Melanie Valdes was not far behind, taking a break from all of her work behind-the-scenes to set a 1:02.36.
Lachlan Klumper is another new sprinter having their first run at Pheasant Wood, and took his Mazda MX5 to a 1:06.6 and fastest in M1.
Tina Cho and John Rutherford seem to have been bitten by the bug and were back in the thick of things following their debuts at Wakefield Park in March. Tina ran a 1:09.14 in her Subaru WRX, while John guided his Civic around the layout in a 1:14.40.
We’re thrilled to have so many new friends joining us at the track this year, and encourage anyone who’s interested to come along and see what it’s all about!
The CSCA series returns on Saturday the 8th of May and gets a little romantic for our third date, running in the moonlight (under some very, very bright lights) on Sydney Motorsport Park’s South layout. We look forward to seeing you there!
Enjoy these photos from the day, with huge thanks to Brett Stevens
