NSSCC Whiteline Tarmac Rallysprint 2022/2023
Sydney Dragway, Eastern Creek
Round 5 March 16, 2023
The fifth round of the 2022/2023 Whiteline Tarmac Rallysprint was held at the Sydney Dragway on Thursday, March 16, 2023. I wasn't there as a journalist or photographer that day - I was competing in the little red car.
Almost got that rear wheel off the ground.
Photo by Roy Meuronen.
You can see the Supplementary Regulations here
Where the course goes, all 4.5km of it.
Had a great day at the Whiteline Tarmac Rallysprint. I wasn't there to win anything, just to find out the limits of the car (handy for everyday driving and slaloming around kangaroos and wombats). And to have some fun, of course.
The tyres were just as bad as I expected, and this was always in the back of my mind and influenced how fast I was prepared to go. I wasn't there to hit anything and it would have been a bit hard to get back to Oberon if the car was too damaged to drive.
What was surprising was the brakes. Remarkably, they worked better when hot than cold and provided the right stopping power when asked. Not Brembo, but not that price either.
Interestingly, what I thought was my slowest run (second run, setting sun straight into my eyes) was the fastest by several seconds and what felt like the smoothest and fastest was actually the slowest. A mystery.
Thanks must go to North Shore Sporting Car Club for one of their usual well run events and John Fraser for sitting in the second seat and giving some good advice about what I was doing right and wrong. Despite the codriver in this event being essentially ballast, I noticed John dropping into pacenote mode a couple of times.
I'll be back, with better tyres and lights and some more experience with the car (I've only had it for nine weeks). This event suited the car much better than the hillclimbs a couple of weeks back, which was not unexpected.
