Sydney MasterBlast morphed out of the previous Muscle Car Masters and while it didn’t have the impact of the those Historic events, it did provide a wide range of motorsport-related activities that covered two days and went well into Saturday evening.
There was also an innovative night Hillclimb that utilised the Brabham circuit extension at Sydney Motorsport Park, Drifting, Tuned – for car enthusiasts on the main straight, and a popular pit walk.
On the GP circuit Jason Makris was the winner in Prototypes. It was his first-round victory in three years after he steered his Turbo Peugeot-powered Wolf Tornado to wins in Races 2 and 3. He took the round ahead of Race 1 winner Phil Hughes (Hayabusa V8 Radical SR8) and Scott Borman (Coyote V8 Wolf Extreme). Mark Brame was the best of the Radical SR3 class.
At Round 5 of the Toyota 86 Scholarship Series, Ben Stewart won the first, Lachlan Bloxsom won the second ahead of Ryan Tomsett, Stewart and Mason Harvey. In the last Tomsett edged out Bloxsom by 0.0034s. Alice Buckley was third in front of Salvatore Imbrogno, Stewart and Charlie Parker.
Chris Stillwell in the ex-Colin Bond Caltex Ford Sierra won three of the five Group C & A races. He DNF’d from Race 3 with loose wheel nuts and was second from the back of the field behind Rick Allen (ex B&H BMW M3) in Race 4. Adrian Allisey (Walkinshaw VL) was second twice, and Tony Alford (Nissan Skyline) was also prominent.
Aldo De Paoli was dominant in the Historic Touring with two easy wins before his Chev Camaro shed the timing belt. John Burke (Valiant Charger) and Spencer Rice (Alfa Romeo) had a second and third each. Burke won the last narrowly over Rice. David Noakes (Ford Escort) was next best while Greg Toepfer was the fastest in Nb but DNF’d one race with gear linkages issues.
Terry Lawlor (Shelby GT350) was never the quickest off the starts but wasted little time in finding his way to the front for four Group S victories. He beat Ray Narkiewicz (Chev Corvette) in the first two, and Andrew Purvis (Porsche 911 Carrera) in the next pair.
The Superkart weekend ended on a sad note with a race-stopping accident in Race 1 where Paul Campbell was taken to hospital and the meeting halted while a police investigation was undertaken. Mark Robin had wins in the first two outings and Lee Vella in the last pair.
Fastest in the Hillclimb was Peter Brown in his Pro Sport Mulsanne by 1.3s over Greg Boyle (Nissan Skyline GTR Sports Sedan) and Superkarter Aaron Cogger.
Images: Andrew Ryan