2022 Super Sprint Series – Rd 3

By Joe Arico, Photos by Gloria Wade and Trapnell Creations.

It was a pleasant change driving to Warwick for Round 3 of the QLD Super Sprints in dry weather. To be fair it’s been steadily improving throughout the year.

Round 1 was WET, round 2 less wet with some dry weather running, and finally round 3 was dry if a “tad cold”. We were greeted by some decent frosts on Saturday and Sunday morning, but it warmed up nicely on both days making for a surprisingly grippy track.

It was a hectic start for yours truly on Saturday morning. While casually talking to Clive I noticed fluid dripping off my diffuser. I had a small leak coming from one of my coolant hoses. No problem other than the fact that I had about 5 minutes to fix it before the start of my run! I quickly jacked the car up, whipped the wheel off and fumbled around trying to find the right tools. It wasn’t long before Dave Mackie and John Flynn were on the scene and thanks to them I made it out (just!). The added stress must have done some good because I did my fastest single lap time of the entire weekend on that first run!

The trophy for worst luck of the weekend goes to Garry Pitt. A broken drive shaft on Saturday nearly ended his round but thanks to Geoff who had a spare he was able to get going again. Lady luck hadn’t finished with Garry yet though. On Sunday while warming his slicks on the formation lap, he had a minor spin which resulted in an excursion off track. Unfortunately, on his way back onto the track his front splitter caught some badly exposed concrete edging off the back of a curb which completely ripped it off and destroyed his clam ending his weekend.

The last run of the day saw Clive have an adventure between turns one and two. Word on the street is he performed multiple 360’s before continuing on his merry way. I did not witness it personally, but I did catch a glimpse of him later in the sprint seemingly lost at the other end of the track driving across the grass. Not to worry he did eventually find his way home! .

And finally, Geoff blew us all away on his last run with a lap that dipped into the 1:01’s! The older he gets the faster he goes!

Aside from Garry’s terrible luck there were only relatively minor issues with everyone finishing the weekend with working cars and no damage. Lotus filled the top 3 spots in both sports car classes as well as having good representation in the overall standings occupying 5 of the top 10 positions.

As usual the social aspect of these weekends is as much fun as the racing itself. It was great to have Maree back on deck after being away for a round and huge thanks to her for all the effort she puts into feeding us all! Thanks Maree!

Summary of the results follows: