Round 1 2020 MRF Australian Production Car Championship

Round 1 2020 MRF Australian Production Car Championship

Round 1 was held at Sydney Motorsport Park, March 6-8^th.

Format: 4 x 1 Hour races with compulsory pitstop to change 2 tyres.

Car 23 – Beric Lynton and Tim Leahey

Friday:

Leading into the weekend we were having issues with putting a tune in the car. Therefore we ran the car in stock format.

We sourced some parts on Friday afternoon and replaced some parts hoping to fix the issues, including a new battery. Boys worked Friday night and Saturday morning to complete the work before Qualifying Saturday.

Qualifying

The work we did, didn’t fix the problem and Tim couldn’t only do 2 laps with issues and qualify 18^th for race 1.

Races

Beric and Tim split the races, 1 each on Saturday and Sunday. Both got to race in the dry and a wet race.

Race 1 – Wet race Saturday lunch

Tim started 18^th in the rain, on a drying track set the fastest lap of the race on the last lap to finish 4^th.

19^th after Lap 1 before moving to 6^th by lap 6. Pitted on lap 7 from 6^th, after the stop fell back to 20th.

Moved back up to 6^th by lap 17. Moved to 4^th on lap 25.

Finished 4^th, 1^st in class.

Race 2 – Dry race Saturday afternoon

Beric started 4^th, where Tim finished.

Beric pitted lap 7 from 4^th, dropped back to 10^th.

Took the lead on lap 16, setting the fastest lap of the race on lap 4. Went on to win the race by 8 seconds.

Race 3 – Wet race Sunday Morning

Beric started from position 1, leading the first 3 laps before pitting from 4^th on lap 4. Dropped back to 10^th before finishing 4^th.

Car would change traction control modes itself, from either full on, half off, full off. Making it difficult to obtain maximum acceleration performance.

Race 4 – Dry race Sunday Afternoon

We left the car running for 2 hours between races as the car had turned the traction control completely off, so we didn’t want to risk it changing. This worked and Tim was able to race with no traction control in the dry.

Tim led the first 7 laps before pitting, dropping back to 17^th.

Drove back to 1^st on lap 15 to win the race by 28 seconds. Tim set the fastest lap of the race on lap 3.

Car 56 – Shane Smollen and Scott Turner

The second M3 built and prepared by Bruce Lynton BM Service. Car’s first race meeting after a 1 test day at QR in February. Leased to Shane and Scott for APC Rd 1 and Bathurst 6 Hour.

Qualifying

Shane qualified the car in position 2.

Race 1 – Wet race Saturday lunch

Shane started 2nd, led lap 1 before dropping back to 3^rd. Was 4^th when he pitted on lap 5, pitstop was slow, first one for the season by the team. Dropped back to 32^nd.

Shane drove back to finish 8^th, one lap down.

Race 2 – Dry race Saturday afternoon

Scott started 9^th, pitting lap 14 after being as high as 3^rd.

Scott finished 7^th, a lap down.

Race 3 – Wet race Sunday Morning

Scott unfortunately had an off and didn’t finish the race.

Race 4 – Dry race Sunday Afternoon

Shane was in position on 5 after one lap. He pitted from 2^nd on lap 9, dropping back to 15^th.

Shane finished a strong 3^rd place. A good finish to the weekend for Shane and the new car.

Overall Weekend

Beric and Tim won the weekend outright and for class A1.

Shane and Scott finished 6^th outright and 3^rd in class for the weekend.