Festival
of Sporting Cars Round 2, 2006 Oran Park GP
It just keeps
getting better and better!
The Festival of
Sporting Cars is firmly establishing itself as one of the best organised
race meetings in Australia. It’s all about fun and enjoyment,
and that is evident from when you arrive… all the officials
are so friendly & nothing is a worry. Although it is not an all
historic race meeting, the Fosc caters for both historic log booked
cars and production sports cars – with a dash of Super karts.
A vast array of races are held with the Clerk of Course Invitation,
Touring Car Celebration, Continental Capers and Production & Marque
Sports Cars.
On top of this there are also
the ‘Mix ‘n’ Match’ races, which cater for
Group N & S and more modern racers, as well as a large number
of regularity events. The meeting is run by MG Racing NSW under the
auspice of the MG Car Club of Sydney. Sunday featured an all MG regularity
and all MG Feature race. Barring no mechanical problems the eventual
winner of the race (off scratch) was Glen Taylor, who had the power
of his 4.2 litre MG B GTV8. As the 6 lap race developed the battle
begun between 3rd to 7th places. Eventually Brett Morse (MGB) and
Colin Dodds (MG Midget) overtook the hard charging Peter Whitten (B
GT MkII) who fought a terrific battle to the line with the B roadsters
of Geoff Pike, Greg King and Paul Boyer, who makes his return to MG
racing after a few years off racing.
The all MG Regularity boosted
a wide variety of MG’s, mainly MGB’s, but also attracted
a couple of F’s and an RV8. The Dorian timing system experienced
problems on Sunday so the results are not available in true form.
Unfortunately the weekend saw
a number of accidents, with one in particular causing great concern
on Sunday. It was the second of three Touring Car Celebration races
on the day in which the Ford Mustang of Bob Cox starting from rear
of grid. It was the mix of Group S sports cars and Group N touring
cars, which meant the grid was based on qualifying times. Steve Land
was on second position in his super quick Ford Capri GT with Cox in
30th. The Australian flag was dropped by the official starter with
all cars getting away bar Land who stalled at that exact moment. Cox,
ducking and weaving his way through the grid of mostly Group N cars
was about to take two Mini’s through the middle when he saw
Land’s car at the last moment. Must have been well over 100
km/h at the point of impact. Both drivers are fine, but the cars very
second hand.
The final round of the Festival
of Sporting Cars series is on the last weekend of October at Wakefield
Park, which the organisers are hoping for a larger contingent of Victorian
visitors to make the trip. The New South Welshman are looking forward
to the Interstate Challenge at Winton at the end of September.
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