The 25 year old Nightingale who is course commentator at Wakefield Park and Winton Raceway as well as a driver coach with V8 Race Experience and at Wakefield Park with their fleet of AUSCARS, is excited about the drive as his first preference in racing is in the very popular enduros.

I was wrapped to get the call-up from Chris (Gough) for I really enjoy this type of racing, and on top of that TargaRacing have been getting some first class results and Chris is a good bloke and very good driver,” Nightingale said.

Nightingale has always shown above average ability from his years as a Bathurst Light Car Club junior competing in their events, and then as he did his first circuit race meetings in a HQ Holden, but he never quite had the funding to proceed any further, but was lucky enough to pick up the odd drive.

His first enduro was in the 2009 Wakefield 300 driving a Chris Clearihan Future Racer with Wagga’s Hayden Pullen as co-driver, and he opened eyes when he qualified fourth, and then after being second fastest in the warm up was running well in the race near the leading bunch, but in Pullen’s stint the engine failed.

He was back the following year with another of Clearihan Braddon Auto Future Racers, but it was not a happy week when many problems beset the team, and it was run in torrential rain but they still did a great job to finish the race.

The upcoming Modern Sports Car enduro at Wakefield Park won’t be his first drive in a Mazda MX5, but it will be his first in an NC. He drove a Tampered Motorsport MX5 NA in the 2011 Winton 300 and finished third in class, while last year drove with Adam Ronke in an NB and finished 11th outright.

The 2012 Winton 300 was an eye opener for Nightingale, when he saw first-hand the strength of TargaRacing as they finished 5^th, 6^th and 8^th outright in a great team effort.

The Bathurst driver was last year able to race his own car for the first time, after a  consortium purchased an Improved Production 6 cylinder EF Ford Falcon for him, and it saw him compete in 25 races for a 100% finishing record.

Gough, an extremely talented driver in his own right is looking forward to the opening round of the Modern Sports Cars next week when he teams up with Nightingale for the first time.

“We’re excited to have Terry drive with us. I’ve been hoping to get him into one of our cars for a while now, so when Modern Sports Cars was announced I called him straight away. I’m looking forward to see how he gets on in one of our TargaRacing NC MX5′s – it should be a bit different to his big Falcon,” he said.

The Modern Sports Cars opener will feature two 1 hour races, one Saturday the second on Sunday.

The Modern Sports Cars Racing category is an endurance series for affordable mass produced modern sports cars sold in Australia, that meet CAMS 2F and 2B rules.

The series is the brainchild of Wakefield Park Manager, Matthew Ronke, Production Sports Car and IPRA driver Brian Anderson, and TargaRacing’s Chris Gough and Zane Al Said.

Eligible production sports cars are allowed a range of performance modifications while retaining their original design, structure and drive layout. Cars included come from a diverse group ranging from BMW Z3 to MX5, Lotus Elise to Porsche Boxster, Toyota 86 to Nissan 350Z.

“As the GT championship limits the age of the competing vehicles, these very quick former GT cars needed somewhere to run and Prod Sports was seen as the logical choice,” Anderson said. “Due to the inclusion of these former GT Championship Series cars, FIA motorsport versions, other low volume specialist racecars, in the last couple of years the current Prod Sports category has got substantially faster.”

By limiting the modifications and preparation costs, this class emphasises driver ability over spending whilst providing cost effective racing. The class and point score system rewards consistency so that any competitor, in any class has the chance to become the category Champion

Gough said the traditional 2B and 2F cars require somewhere to race without the risk of failing to qualify under the 130% fastest time rule.

“Additionally at many tracks, the GT cars are lapping the back end of the field numerous times, reducing the number of laps we complete. I’ve spoken too many of my fellow competitors along pit lane and from their comments and feedback the idea for an alternate series came about, said Gough.”

“What we have tried to do is make it more of a genuine affordable Modern Sports Car class. This involves the introduction of such things as price limits and Australian market availability, added Al Said.”

Ronke, the Wakefield Park manager described the concept of the series, saying the event will consist of 2 one-hour races, one on Saturday and one on Sunday.

“You can have a single driver or co drive with someone else. The event will be run under AASA licensing requirements and we encourage everyone to come along and compete. In the past many of you may have only competed in sprint races. Both the one-hours will include a compulsory pit stop and this requires the whole team to be involved, adding another exciting dynamic to the racing,” Ronke concluded.

For further information organisers have a very informative website,
www.modernsportscars.com.au

Brainchild of Lenard Khoshaba, one of Sunday’s competitors in the #18 Nswercs entry, the Excel Championship is based on a Queensland Series that kicked off some 12 months earlier and by season’s end had more than 40 competitors.

One car is the Ross Street owned #28 Ecards2Go.Com Hyundai Excel, and will be driven on Sunday by Michael Hiscoe in its racing debut. Hiscoe is a former MRA Super TT front runner in a Mitsubishi Evo.

Team manager John Street, a regular MRA competitor driving an Evo in Super TT, explains more about their entry into the new championship.

“My son Ross has built up an Excel. He bought the car for $300, and it was straight but had some hail damage.

To keep the cars cheap the engines cannot be modified, they use a Pedders Suspension for $1250.00, extractors for another $250.00 and a full roll cage costs $1,250.00 fitted,

“They have Bob Jane wheels, not real sure, but about $450.00, Federal control tyres $425.00. Then you need race seat , fire-extinguisher and people say it costs $4000.00 to build a car, but we have spent nearly $6000.00, though its race ready,” Street said.

The Ecards2Go.Com Street team chose to test their car at Wakefield Park on Tuesday, where Street said they ran all day and used only 20 litres of fuel or less, and did not mark the tyres,

“It is a super cheap category. You can run the full year for a maximum of $2,000, and if you have to replace a motor you can buy them for $400.

Among the entrants there is a mixture of experienced drivers, club competitors and novices.

One of the championship sponsors is Agi Sport, who are also the company that supplies the roll cages, and have two cars entered for this round with a third under construction in their workshop.

Experienced Australian Formula 3 driver Nathan Gotch will drive the #66 Agi Sport entry, while their second car the #46 car will be driven by Agi Sport team member Jason Caires.

Normally seen in regularity events there are two drivers that actually ran their Hyundai Excel’s in regularity events at the opening MRA round earlier this year.

They are Jason Kopke who will drive #114 Mortgage Scope Excel, and John Gill in the #427 Mortgage Scope entry, and both should be much better off with that event behind them.

Former Daewoo Series front runner Ian Kegg will drive the #95 entry in the opening round, while another starter will be Adam Hughes, a driver with a sports sedan background, and will be seen on Sunday in the #220 Hre Motorsport car.

The one-day meeting will feature 28 races, with the Excel Championship cars joined by Super TT, Sports Sedans, Superkarts, Mazda MX5, Mini’s, Sports & Racing and Regularity.

For further information contact http://www.nswercs.com/competitors/

Sydney young guns Jake Shelley and Michael Shaw scored back to back wins in the Wakefield 300 at Goulburn’s Wakefield Park on Sunday, in a race that as usual had a bit of everything before the chequered flag greeted the 34 survivors after 137 laps of the 2.2km circuit.

Shelly and Shaw drove their Deputy.Com Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9,  and they finished 2 laps ahead of the early pacesetter’s Andrew Macpherson and Ben Porter in the Imak / Kwikmit Lotus Exige S, and another lap ahead of the third placed David Krusa and Daniel Kapetanovic in the Hiretech / Peak RPM BMW M3.

Behind the BMW were two more cars on the same lap, with 2010 winners David Rattatz/Shane Otten fourth in the Natsoft/MX5 Mania, and 2011 winner Steve Anslow in his Website Essentials 6 litre Chev powered Mazda RX7, with Queensland’s  Lindsay Stone as co-driver, in what was his first ever car race.

While the event was run under a heavy cloud throughout, it was rain free, as opposed to last year when it was run in torrential rain throughout, and there were 13 safety car periods, and this year only two.

This year’s race in its 8^th year created an enormous amount of interest right around the nation, attracting a record 47 starters, with drivers from four states and one from Papua New Guinea. Of the 95 drivers, there were an amazing 45 Wakefield 300 rookies.

The Wakefield 300, premier event on the Wakefield Park calendar has its own unique regulations in place to make the race more exciting, safer and cost effective for competitors.

One such rule is refuelling, where there is a compulsory five minute stop for all competitors.

Qualifying for the Wakefield 300 is important with its unique system of divisions within the race , based on lap times.

The #1 division was most important, for cars that lapped under 1 minute 4secs went into Division 1. However, all cars in Division 1 had to make two compulsory fuel stops.

Adam Burgess took pole in the shoot out

Qualifying saw the Macpherson/Porter Lotus fastest with an amazing 1m.02.5483secs, from Nick Cancian and Rob Hay in a Mazda MX5 with a 1m.04.2739sec, Anslow/Stone third in the RX7 Chev (1m.04.7165sec), and fourth father and son Adam and Craig Burgess in their Nissan GTR (1m.04.7169sec).

The 10 ten shoot-out followed and saw the Burgess on pole, from Macpherson/Porter, another father and son team and 2012 runners-up David and Dylan Thomas third in the CXC Global Evo 10 ahead of Anslow/Stone and Shelley/Shaw 5^th.

There was however drama as the cars lined up on the grid for the rolling start, for Anslow was towed off the track and back into the pits with a fuel leak. Anslow said later they filled the car right to the top, and to conserve fuel did no warm-up lap and pushed the car to the grid, and as a result it was just over-full.

From the start Burgess and Macpherson jumped away from the pack which included Thomas, Shaw, Mark Higgins (Evo) and Raddatz while Anslow rejoined the race last, but on the lead lap.

An early unscheduled stop was made by Raddatz in the MX5 Mania entry with a loss of power, but it was found to be a turbo line that had popped off, though they dropped a lap.
It got worse for Anslow, as he had to take a drive through penalty for speeding on pit lane, but it was a great drive for he worked his way up to the front and led for a period before making his stop and handing over to Stone who drove like a full time driver to get back near the front.

Macpherson got past Burgess and steadily increased his lead, having to get a big gap knowing he had two stops to make, and he in fact pitted on lap 48 and put Porter in, eventually regaining the lead.

The Wakefield 300 curse continued for Burgess as the GTR ground to a halt mid-lap and into retirement with a suspected drive train problem.

Another bad luck story came from the Thomas entry, as firstly a throttle pedal snapped with David at the wheel, and they lost 5 min in pits. Then a lapped car turned in on Dylan and they were forced to retire with front end damage to the Evo.

Two-time race winner Nathan Jess was another very unlucky, for along with Victoria’s Matthew Thompson they fought hard from grid position 12 in their Canberra Hydraulics Future Racer, and looked possible winners but shortly after their compulsory stop had to return to the pits with a fuel tank issue, losing a further 6 minutes, but then a masterful drive saw them finish 6th.

The Raddatz/Otten MX5 had another issue in the second half of the race with Otten at the wheel, as it was noticeably slowing, as Otten explained.

“We were only just off the lead lap until our early CPS at lap 49 where we jumped the entire field, after cleansing we were leading,” Otten said. “The car was great or awful when the Inhibitor was falsely activating. For some unknown reason it wouldn’t allow me to use any of the power range from 5 to 7000 rpm.

“After 40 odd laps of torture using all 6 gears to stay under 5000 rpm at all times I found that turning the ignition off and on in 6th down main would reset it and bring her back to life,” Otten said. “We then rocketed back from 15th after leading back to 3^rd in the last 15 or 20 laps.”

Otten’s drive back through the pack was masterful.

Otten & Raddatz battled their way back through the field

The quiet achiever of the whole weekend had to be Krusa and Kapetanovic in the BMW. After starting 11^th they stayed out of trouble and worked their way up to third following on from 9^th last year at their first attempt.

Macpherson set after Shelley once he got back on track but the Lotus had developed a bad misfire, so it was game over, but what really beat him was the two stops.

Shelley and Shaw were another to stay out of trouble. They were always near the front, ahead of the one- stoppers, and when Porter pitted for their second stop and handed the Lotus back to Macpherson on L94, they seized the opportunity and were never in danger of defeat and thoroughly deserve their victory.

Winners of Divisions were Macpherson/Porter Division 1, Shelley Shaw Division 2, Neil Halls/Daniel Byron in another Natsoft/MX5 Mania Mazda MX5 Division 3 in one of the drives of the race after starting 27th they also finished 7th outright, and Byron had a gear shifter brake and drove the final 20 laps stuck in 4^th gear.

The Division 4 winner was another Mazda MX5, for Greg Tasker and Sam Silvestro, Division 5 to Albury’s Ross and Ethan Wilson in a Ford Falcon XR8 and Division 6 went to Wagga brothers Shane and Glenn Baker in a Proton Satira.

After starting 10^th, Jess and his Melbourne co-driver Matthew Thompson were also in contention for a win in last year’s 300, and were on the lead lap battling for the win with the leaders, until just 12 laps from home when Thompson spun into the turn 2 gravel trap and required a tow out and dropped to sixth.

Since the 2012 Wakefield enduro, the Canberra Hydraulics Future Racer has had an engine change, with a 1340cc Hayabusa replacing the 1000cc powerplant, and if the form shown in its most recent start is anything to go off, Jess may just make it win number 3 at the Wakefield 300.

Jess and Thompson were the team to beat late last year in the Kumho Tyres Winton 300 when they took a strong pole position with the more powerful engine, and were running right at front for some time until they broke a shifter which saw them drop many laps while repairs were carried out.

Michael Hall is one of only three drivers that have contested in every Wakefield 300 run, and he will be there again in this weekend’s 300km endurance race.

In all of his appearances in Wakefield Park’s premier race, Hall has driven a Mazda MX5, and while his best outright finishing position is fourth, he has had several top five class placings. He has finished each start in the 300 with just one  exception, and on that occasion he had a throttle cable break four laps from the finish.

This year Hall will be back with a two car team. Hall’s co-driver is Phil Taylor, the same driver that shared another MX5 with him in his first 300 in 2007, and they finished fourth.

The second team car will be driven by Daniel Deckers and Luke Otten, and therein is a good story, for Otten is the younger brother of Shane Otten, a driver with one of the best records in the race.

It would appear as if there is a certain amount of brother rivalry between the brothers over the race, particularly as they are both in MX5’s, with Shane driving with David Raddatz, and as such expect a race within a race.

For both Hall and Deckers they had a very good warm-up for the Wakefield 300, as they recently competed together in the United States in the Thunder Hill 25 Hour race, driving with two American drivers in one of their MX5’s, and for the record they did extremely well to finish fourth in class.

A computer programmer, Pearce will have with him as co-driver his uncle and boss at an Electronics Design and Manufacture company All Systems Electronics, Graham Cardwell.

The two were very close friends of the late and great Warren Weldon, who played a major part in their motor sport before his passing last year.

Both drivers got their motor sport start in supersprints, with Pearce starting in 2002 driving a VP Holden Clubsport 5000, with only one or two events a year, until 2010 when he joined the HSV club and ran in their supersprint series, winning the unmodified class that year.

Cardwell has been at it for a much longer period, starting in the early nineties in the Ferrari Club in his 308 GTB. He has also won his class over quite a few years, as well as competing at a national level within the club with Weldon.

“At the end of 2010 we decided we wanted to get into some more serious motorsport, and so together we bought our Evo 6.

This decision was in part influenced by our mate Warren Weldon, who had been racing his Evo 9 successfully in the MRA series.

In 2011 we entered the Southern Sporting Car Club supersprint series in class 4D, where I came first and Graham came 3rd.

Later that year Graham entered his first actual race in order to compete with Warren, who thought it might be one of his last race meets. This was the final MRA round of 2011.

We both entered the MRA series in 2012 where, because we had to share a car, we entered different categories.

I came 1st in the NSW Super TT championship, and Graham came 3rd in the Sports Sedans championship.

After Weldon passed away last year, Cardwell bought his Evo 9, allowing him and Pearce to race against each other for the first time in the final MRA Super TT round of 2012.

When the decision was made to enter the Wakefield 300, they opted for the Evo 6, as they know the car well. They are hoping for a top ten result on Sunday.

We will also be officially sponsored for the first time by All-Systems Electronics, displaying the logo of our brand new industrial/retail Alcohol Breath Testing machine, the Alco Measure.

The car has had a birthday with a complete new livery, and will now run in the old Marlboro Holden Dealer Team colours, white, red and black.
On the side of the car replacing the cigarette company name, will be the name Wakefield, and the car number 300, there promoting the Wakefield 300.

The Torana which is street registered, has done an 11 second run in a quarter, and is powered by a Chev 6.2 litre aluminium engine, turning out 450 horsepower at the rear wheels.

Moses has been a late starter in motor racing, and as such has not done an extraordinary amount of racing, but is still fast and more importantly, particularly in endurance races always brings the car home without damage.

Fricker has been racing successfully for a long period of time in several categories including Aussie Racing Cars, and won the 2000 Aussie Racing Car Championship, then followed that up with a runners-up position the following year.

He later turned to racing Radicals, and was successful there as well, winning the 2009 championship.

The Torana has a great record in the 300km enduro’s, In its first start in 2010 with the Moses/Fricker combination, they finished 10^th and won the Muscle Car section.

In 2011, they qualified seventh and went on to win their class and the Muscle Car Division again.

Last year, Gareth Stokes deputised for Fricker as he was racing the Radical elsewhere, and along with Moses again stood out in the very wet race, as they finished 9^th outright and again won the Muscle Car division.

Perhaps their best ever performance was last year’s Winton 300, when Fricker qualified third, and was 0.31secs faster than John Bowe in an EF Ford Falcon V8, a highlight for Fricker.
In the race as they had qualified in Division One they lost extra time in the pits, and the car was very heavy on tyres, but they still won Division One.

“Division was a killer, but I never hold anything back, and I’ll be trying to do it again. I’ll also be hoping for rain, for it will be easier on tyres,” Fricker said.

This year’s Wakefield 300 will see him once again front up in his Quality Racing Mazda RX-7, powered by a 6 litre LS V8 Chev, and this year he will have a rookie driver with him from Queensland.

Townsville Mechanical Engineer Lindsay Stone, a long time friend of Anslow will be co-driver of the Mazda this year, and he is a real rookie for this will be the first ever race for the long time motor racing enthusiast.

This will be Anslow’s fifth start in the 300, having had his first start in 2008 with the RX-7 with rotary power and with long time Mazda expert and top line driver Ric Shaw took pole position and then went on to finish fourth.

Then came the engine transplant with the V8 being installed, and its first start was in the 2010 Wakefield three when he and Shaw once again started on pole and this time finished on the podium in third.

The following year saw the Anslow/Shaw combination break through for their first win after starting second, and then in 2012 in yet another wet race he teamed with Shane Otten, and after starting second they were one of five cars that had led the race, but they, but they finally finished fourth, after they had received a 45 second penalty, which dropped them behind Raddatz when his 90 second penalty for overtaking under a yellow flag was imposed.

Dylan and Dave Thomas won leg 1 of the Sandown 500

After making a successful transition from tarmac rallying to circuit racing, the Sydney based CXC Global team is now one of the leading production touring car teams in the nation, with drivers Dylan Thomas and his father Dave Thomas.

They made their Kumho Tyres Wakefield 300 debut in the 2012 race at the Goulburn circuit, and were very successful.

In dreadfully wet conditions, Dylan firstly captured pole position, 1.29 seconds faster than the second fastest, Shane Otten in the Steve Anslow V8 Mazda RX7.

After the race was cut short by ten laps and made a time event due to the heavy rain and record number of safety car interventions, the CXC Global Mitsubishi Evo 10 finished second 9 seconds behind Jake Shelley and Michael Shaw in their Evo 9.

This year has been successful for the team, for Dylan finished third outright in the Australian Production Touring Car Championship, just 59 points behind eventual winner Stuart Kostera.