The 2022 Geelong Revival Sprint has been won by Michael Smith with a time of 10.28s on his 2014 Honda CBR1000RR, while Porsche Carrera Cup driver Nick McBride was the fastest car in the field. The results came as two- and four-wheel entrants were combined for the Top 10 Sunday Shootout for the first time.
Smith set his fastest time of the weekend on the final pass of the Geelong waterfront sprint and was the last of the fastest 10 competitors to run. The Honda rider was faced with a 10.36s to better as grey clouds and lower temperatures closed out the afternoon.
Smith’s 10.28 was his quickest of the event, having posted a best of 10.39s after his fourth run.
“We’re always gunning to be fastest!” Smith told Speedcafe.com after hopping off his Honda after his final run. When asked what made him faster, he responded: “Just the excitement I think! I had a pretty good set-up by then.”
The motorcycle mechanic and business owner from Melton, Victoria, was competing in his fifth Geelong Revival and said that he’d made only minor changes to the bike throughout the event. “A few little things [but] not much really. As you go along you get a little bit more confident with the thing, and happy with the track and of you go.”
With the motorcycle and car competitors combined in the Top 10, the sole four-wheeled entry to graduate was McBride in a road-going Porsche Taycan R.
One of several Electric Vehicle competitors, including a trio of Teslas, Bailey won the car class to make the final bout with a several 10.61s passed – slower than Saturday’s best of 10.36 achieved by Nick De Jong, but faster than McBride’s own 10.82s that earned him victory at the Geelong Sprints in March earlier this year.
Ahead of the final run, McBride saw the conditions as not favouring a faster pass. “I think [the conditions are] a bit worse because it has cooled down a little bit. I noticed on that last one the fronts kind of slipped again and the traction kicked in heavily, so the best run was the second-last one when we did the 10.61 – I don’t think we’ll be able to do much better than that today – but we’ll give it a crack”
The Porsche Centre Melbourne Taycan R did go faster on its final run to cement its position as the fastest car, but with a 10.50s time saw it finish third-fastest for the weekend – behind motorcycles of Smith and Aaron Phillips (10.36) – and faster again than McBride’s winning time back in March.
“It’s cool – just testament to these [cars],” McBride told Speedcafe.com. “This Taycan drove down from the dealership this morning; you can put your kids in the back, your golf clubs, and it’s just won the day, so it’s pretty cool.”
The weekend saw an eclectic mix of entries across the ages of motoring and motorcycling, including Graeme Whincup, uncle of seven-time Supercars Champion Jamie Whincup, in an ex-Bathurst Holden LJ Torana GTR XU-1.
“This is the first time I’ve run the car – this weekend,” Whincup told Speedcafe.com. “We ran at Calder last Wednesday to give it a shakedown – had no brakes! We put some new brake pads in it – we set the wheel alignment up looking down the side! It’s a good shakedown for the car and we’ll get a bit more serious in the next few weeks.”
The LJ was the car that Bob Jane drove to fourth place with John Harvey at Bathurst 1973.
“I bought [it] off Bob Jane about 12 years ago … through Miles Johnson I bought the car, and I started restoration, but COVID and so on – this is a 12-year project,” Whincup said. “It’s been a long, long time but it’s worth it. It’s a 202 – we’ve got an NC logbook so we can race it as an NC car, so it’s basically a standard engine that it ran at Bathurst … We put it back exactly the way it used to be.”
Nigel Tait of Repco Brabham fame also took on the event, the 80-year-old entering a car called ‘Lolita Mk I’. “It was the first car bought by a chap named by Henry Nehrybecki,” Tait told Speedcafe.com. “Nehrybecki went on to build the Mk II, but more importantly he went on to build the Matich SR4, which is mine, and at the time was Australia’s fastest racing car.”
“Today, and probably within my ability, I’m driving Lolita. It’s a Cooper Mini engine at the back, on its side – so quite an angle – and Cooper Mini gearbox as well – 1300cc with a jack-knife straight-cut gearbox with close ratios.”
“I’m still in second gear at the finish line; at a circuit like Phillip Island I get into fourth gear, but here I’m in second gear all the way down. It’s a beautiful little car, very exhilarating. It does get off the line very nicely.”
Fresh from the Supercheap Auto Bathurst International was Zac Soutar in his Honda Civic Type R TCR car.
“It’s chassis 001 – it’s the first FK7 chassis that JAS Motorsport originally built. The cool thing about TCR is the fact that the actual tub of the car starts as a normal Type R road car, and so does the engine, so it’s all standard, and obviously JAS Motorsport get their hands on it and built it into a race car.”
“Everybody says that I’m sort of revving its head off and doing it on purpose, but it’s got Launch Control, so I literally engage Launch Control, pull the handbrake and hit a button on the steering wheel – it holds 3000rpm, and I literally just drop the clutch, let go of the handbrake and it just takes off and does its thing…”
“It tries to minimise wheelspin, but on cold tyres it doesn’t manage too well!”
“You’re not allowed to do a staging burnout here – completely cold tyres. I actually put a wet Start Mode in it today trying to help it get off the line on cold tyres; definitely better than Dry settings, but it’s still not great!
“It’s awesome, down the run it really gets up the gears, you get to sixth gear at the end of the chute, just as you come across the line there – these brakes are so good you’ve got plenty of time to stop.”
As well as the on-track action, the Geelong Revival also saw static vehicle displays that typically showed all sorts of genres and eras in motoring in what was a great event for the city of Geelong.
See our 2022 Geelong Revival Gallery below.
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