2010 Sports Racer (Supersports) Series - Clipsal 500 11-14 March 2010

[Fast_Eddie]

Supersports racing is growing rapidly in Australia, with full grids at each round of the NSW Motor Racing Championship this year.

The Sports Racer National Events Committee has been successful in facilitating the inclusion of a Sports Racer (Supersports) category within the Clipsal 500 V8 Supercar Round at Adelaide on 11-14 March 2010.

Sports Racers are traditional 2C Supersports as well as specific 2A and Category 6 cars, including but not limited to West, Radical, Minetti, Prosport, ADR and LinkSpeed models.

With category rules reflecting the sports car component of the successful 2009 NSW MRC Racing & Sports Car Championship, competitors and spectators alike are guaranteed close and exciting racing at Clipsal, just as we have seen on NSW tracks throughout the year.

Interest and commitment to the series to date has been overwhelming, with 25 deposit payments received prior to the end of September.

There is still time to get involved, and the Committee invites owner-drivers, owners wishing to lease their cars, and drivers who would like to lease a car for this event to contact us immediately to register their interest.


Please contact:

Greg Steer
Email: greg.steer@oasissystems.com.au

or send a PM to me.

Regards

Fast Eddie

[cptkablamo]

This should be a great race

is there a link to a Series website?

[Fast_Eddie]

Originally Posted by cptkablamo

This should be a great race

is there a link to a Series website?

Website is underway - should be online shortly

[Fast_Eddie]

Originally Posted by cptkablamo

This should be a great race

is there a link to a Series website?

There is now...

www.sportsracer.com.au

The Clipsal entry form and supplementary regs are available on the site.

Entries close on 5th February 2010.

There are quite a few elegible vehicles for sale on My105.com, with a couple of Wests changing hands of late with eager new owners entering the Clipsal event.

Regards

Ed

[Silver 3]

[QUOTE=Fast_Eddie;2596576][FONT=Arial][SIZE=2]Supersports racing is growing rapidly in Australia,

The Sports Racer National Events Committee has been successful in facilitating the inclusion of a Sports Racer (Supersports) category within the Clipsal 500 V8 Supercar Round at Adelaide on 11-14 March 2010.

Sports Racers are traditional 2C Supersports as well as specific 2A and Category 6 cars, including but not limited to West, Radical, Minetti, Prosport, ADR and LinkSpeed models.

With category rules reflecting the sports car component of the successful 2009 NSW MRC Racing & Sports Car Championship, competitors and spectators alike are guaranteed close and exciting racing at Clipsal, just as we have seen on NSW tracks throughout the year.
END QUOTE


Sounds like an inclusive approach to eligibility with all the brands represented- good luck to a fresh category(to Australia anyway)
One question--with that eligibility--who misses out and why?

[Fast_Eddie]

Originally Posted by Silver 3

Sounds like an inclusive approach to eligibility with all the brands represented- good luck to a fresh category(to Australia anyway)
One question--with that eligibility--who misses out and why?

Thank you for the well wishes. Credit should go to Greg Steer who has been instrumental in putting this together.

The intent is to encourage all supersport style cars. Entries to date include a range of Radical, West, Minetti, Linkspeed, Chiron, ADR, ASP & Prosport models.

We came up with the name "Sports Racer" due to the fact that the cars were not quite Supersports, and they are a bit like "Speed Racer", hence, Sports Racer.

Capacity limits are set at 1500cc for motorcycle sourced engines, and 1600cc for car sourced engines.

The Sporting Regulations are in draft, currently awaiting CAMS approval.

A PC licence is acceptable, subject to at least 3 observed racing signatures and 8 hours flag marshalling being completed.

So based on the above, I don't think anyone "misses out" as such.

[Falcadore]

Originally Posted by Fast_Eddie

So based on the above, I don't think anyone "misses out" as such.

Existing Sports 1300s are eligible? ASPs are quite old, if they are then how about Hooper, Infiniti (which is a Kaditcha really), Bulant, Welsor and so many others.

And clubmans from which this class of racing evolved if you go back far enough you find the Lotus 7 as the progenitor, are Clubman's, your various iterations of Caterham, Westfield, Fraser, Welsor etc.

[Fast_Eddie]

Originally Posted by Falcadore

Existing Sports 1300s are eligible? ASPs are quite old, if they are then how about Hooper, Infiniti (which is a Kaditcha really), Bulant, Welsor and so many others.

And clubmans from which this class of racing evolved if you go back far enough you find the Lotus 7 as the progenitor, are Clubman's, your various iterations of Caterham, Westfield, Fraser, Welsor etc.

Clubmans aren't covered, and I'm not familiar with the all the Sports 1300 makes you mention.

There are proposed guidelines that are being finalised that shall set out eligibility in further detail. A particular requirement that has been mooted for Clipsal is a 115% range instead of the more common 130% from fastest to slowest.

Can anyone direct me how to upload a PDF here? I'd be happy to post the entrant information bulletins issued to date prior to the finalisation of the website.

Alternatively, send me a PM with your email details and I shall forward the information.

Regards

Ed

[Fast_Eddie]

Some of the action from a recent Radical track day at Eastern Creek...

http://link.brightcove.com/services/...id=53077016001

[cptkablamo]

Thanks! - look forward to following it closer this year...

[Fast_Eddie]

Here is a sample of Sports Racers in action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nurMcvLA64A

This footage is from Richard Fricker, the NSW State Champion at the final round at Oran Park last year (2009).

Regards

Ed

[cavvy]

Fast Eddie, is the Synergy V8 an eligible powerplant?
http://www.synergypower.co.nz/

Is the Kiwi Juno below a likely starter?

The powerplant in speedway form has Kiwis in contention for the Chili Bowl this weekend.
http://www.whowon.com/Results.asp?Tr...StoryID=283019

JUNO Racing
Juno Racing is a UK based manufacture of very high performance sports prototype racing cars. These cars compete in a variety of European sports car championships, and are also used in track day events.

A Juno-Synergy V8 development car is undergoing final assembly and will be track tested and raced in New Zealand 2009.

A machined aluminium bell-housing and twin plate 5.5” clutch are used to adapt the Synergy V8 to the Hewland FTRS sequential transaxle.

This vehicle utilises all of the advanced features available today such as driver adjustable traction control, multiple maps, full data logging and paddle shift gear-change system.

www.junoracing.co.nz

[Fast_Eddie]

Originally Posted by cavvy

Fast Eddie, is the Synergy V8 an eligible powerplant?
http://www.synergypower.co.nz/

Is the Kiwi Juno below a likely starter?

www.junoracing.co.nz

Cavvy,

The regulations are drafted to accept vehicles powered by:

Motorcycle engines up to 1500cc

Car engines up to 1600cc

These capacity limits reflect the NSW State Championship sporting regulations.

As such, the Juno 2lt, Radical SR5, Synergy V8 Juno and the Radical SR8 are not eligible.


Regards

Ed

[Fast_Eddie]

There has been lots of enquiry about what cars are suitable to run and where they can be sourced in time for Clipsal.

Here is a sample of some of the cars available on My105 as at 18/1/10 that would be suitable to race at Clipsal. It is not an exhaustive list, but it is a start!


Prosport #1

http://www.my105.com.au/classified.asp?id=14358

This one is a weapon. Shane blew the field away in his sole appearance at Wakefield in the NSW State Championship early in 2009.


Propsort #2

http://www.my105.com.au/classified.asp?id=7730

2008 Championship winning car. Well sorted and competitive with a trailer and parts.


Prosport #3

http://www.my105.com.au/classified.asp?id=10930

This is the sister car to the one above. It has been completely refreshed and is race ready.


West

http://www.my105.com.au/classified.asp?id=14302

The Wests have been hard to beat in NSW in 2009. This is a great example of a front running car.


Radical

http://www.my105.com.au/classified.asp?id=13346

This one is definately running at Clipsal unless sold prior - even then you will be lucky to drag Richard out of the driver's seat. Richard raced this car everywhere in 2009 and won pretty much everything in it. A very well sorted car.


Minetti

http://www.my105.com.au/classified.asp?id=13707

There are a couple of these already heading to Clipsal. They have been very competitive int he 2009 NSW Racing & Sportscar championship.

http://www.my105.com.au/classified.asp?id=13663

Another one ready to be completed.


In addition to the above, the Australian distributors of both Radical and West have both new and used cars available.


Radical Australia

http://www.radicalaustralia.co.uk/news/regional-news


West Race Cars Australia

http://westracecars.com.au/

[Tony C]

I think it looks like a fun category, hopefully it will ecourage some young guns to have a go.

I wonder though if the regs are being 'updated' why do they still go for flat bottoms? most other categories are going for stepped tunnels to allow closer racing and better balance.

Anyone got ideas? I would love to see a category that isnt relying on earo grip.

[Fast_Eddie]

Originally Posted by Tony C

I think it looks like a fun category, hopefully it will ecourage some young guns to have a go.

I wonder though if the regs are being 'updated' why do they still go for flat bottoms? most other categories are going for stepped tunnels to allow closer racing and better balance.

Anyone got ideas? I would love to see a category that isnt relying on earo grip.

Thanks for your support.

Young guns, old guns and hopefully all that fall in between will be able to have a go.

Good news is the 2010 Sports Racer Sporting Regs were approved by CAMS yesterday (1st Feb). Here is a link to them.

http://sportsracer.com.au/index.php/...ng-regulations

With regards to the regs, I think "adapted" rather than "updated" is the best description.

They contemplate a broad cross section of cars that are available here and now, that are also fairly closely matched in performance.

[welsor]

For anyone who hasn't checked out these new rules yet. Their are some major difference to the draft ones we saw back in November.
The one that has the most affect for us is changing the floor rules from the 2C requirement of a flat area 800 by 1000 to a flat area from side to side of the car.
The response we got from one of the organisers about this is that they do not want to allow the new prosport car to run as they believe it will be too quick.
This car has a legal 2C floor but incorporates tunnels down each side.
They would also need to add at least 40 kilos of lead and lower the revlimit by 500 rpm.
Everyone had better be very careful where there rear diffusers start as this rule will affect a lot of these as well.
Dave

[Fast_Eddie]

Originally Posted by welsor

The response we got from one of the organisers about this is that they do not want to allow the new prosport car to run as they believe it will be too quick.
Dave

Dave,

I'm not sure that was quite the reply Grant would have received this afternoon.

The point made was that there is no use having one particular vehicle that is significantly quicker than the whole field. For the racing to be appealing to spectators and entrants alike, there needs to be some parity.

For the consiracy theorists out there, please be assured that there is no agenda to rule out any particular make or model (Chiron included Crash Test), nor is there an agenda against the fine state of Queensland or its inhabitants.

The timing of the release of the sporting regulations is not the best, I concur, and the apology for this has been expressed to your team Dave, however it is outside the organiser's control. The final sporting regs were approved by CAMS literally four days ago. As a new category, considerable consultation and review was required which perhaps dragged the process out longer than desired.

The rules are the rules, and everyone is welcome to come if they comply.

If you wish to discuss this further, by all means give me another call.

Regards

Ed

[scuderus]

Originally Posted by welsor

They would also need to add at least 40 kilos of lead and lower the revlimit by 500 rpm.
Dave

Hi Dave

Im curious to know what logbook and engine the prosport is intending to have.

If it is going to be 2C (with a limit of 1100cc) the RPM limit is actually increased from 11000rpm (2C) to 12500rpm (Sportsracer).

scotty

[Crash Test]

Haha... sports car classes are awesome!

Has the Chiron been legislated against yet?

[welsor]

Only by weight and a parity adjustment sheet that the organisers can change at any time.

[scuderus]

Originally Posted by Crash Test

Haha... sports car classes are awesome!

Has the Chiron been legislated against yet?

Looking at the regulations (and guessing Steves weight) I dont believe that the Chiron will be required to carry any extra weight or reduced rev limit at Clipsal, compared to how it has been run in QLD.


scotty

[Crash Test]

That sounds reasonable!

Should it just be a single make class for Wests? Why would you bother with anything else if it isn't allowed to be too quick?

[Fast_Eddie]

Originally Posted by Crash Test

That sounds reasonable!

Should it just be a single make class for Wests? Why would you bother with anything else if it isn't allowed to be too quick?

Crash Test,

That wouldn't work - there is only about a dozen Wests in the country. Not enough for a single make series.

In addition however, there are about two dozen Radical SR3s and I'm guessing half a dozen Minettis, and three ADRs that I know of.

Thats a total of 45 vehicles before I count the Linkspeed, Speed, earlier Prosports etc.

These cars have very similar capabilities, and can lap within about a second of eachother.

On the other hand, there is one team with a one-off car who are struggling to come to terms with the sporting regulations that the 45 cars mentioned above basically comply with.

If you were setting up a new racing series for sports cars in Australia, with the aim to give owners and spectators alike a spectacle of close and exciting racing with the numbers I have outlined above, how would you approach it?

Regards

Ed

[Crash Test]

Question- so what's the parity benchmark going to be?

It seems a lot like the AGT allowing in the Mosler, but immediately making it tow a caravan around. I fear that if you have things as fast as a Chiron (or equivalent) it will be very hard to safely reign them in on the run. No matter what, someone will be left with a sour taste in their mouth, if the quick cars get nobled or not.

Trust me, I love this sort of racing, and I think it's brilliant that it's going to be exposed to the masses. And it's not Queensland sour grapes, it goes for anyone who has a combination together that is quick, as they are seemingly setting themselves up for a dive.