A review of 2021

December 31 2021

Today is the last day of 2021, a year that started off so well on the track and ended so well off it despite the challenges that COVID presented.

After COVID cost SCA a couple of rounds in 2020, enthusiasm was high in 2021 that the majority of the 2021 season could happen.

The on track action started in March with a round at Sydney Motorsport Park, the field was without Stephen Chilby whose OzTruck came to a halt at Sandown late in 2020 and required a lot of time away to get it back into racing shape.

Corey Gurney arrived at SMP with his #43 Pontiac having a new paint scheme and McHitch sponsorship and the car was fast as he was giving Brett Mitchell a run for his money and the difference between the two was just one good lap in both Race 1 and 2.

Race 3 was a seesawing race as Brett Mitchell, Corey Gurney, Robert Marchese and Danny Burgess were all in a position to win as any one of them would put in a great lap and put themselves in contention for the win but it was Brett Mitchell who won the race from Danny Burgess and Robert Marchese with the Top 4 separated by about 2.5 seconds.

Round 2 saw the SCA field share the grid with the SuperTT field and the round saw the arrival of Scott Nind and his #16 Ford Mustang while the #34 Monte Carlo was renumbered #97 while the #97 Pontiac was out of action due to mechanical failure in Round 1.

The racing action was also streamed on Blend Line TV allowing people to view it on YouTube, for many of the viewers it was their first time seeing Australian Stock Car action and some were wondering what were those Ute looking vehicles that were on the track.

Stephen Chilby was back in the #226 for his first round of the year though mother nature would make gauging the strength of the OzTruck difficult to achieve.

Rain arrived over the track just before the start of Race 1 forcing first a delay in proceedings and then the field had to start the race under wet race conditions with the SuperTT field now providing a major challenge for the SCA gang as the wet conditions and the track layout gave the leading OzTrucks limited opportunities to use their straight line speed advantage.

These factors gave the SuperTT field and the TA2 of Barry Kelleher an equal chance of success and Race 1 nearly ended up in their favor as the HSV and TA2 were superior in the slower parts of the circuit but lost all their gains in the latter and early parts of the circuit.

Brett Mitchell had to fight off Daniel Flanagan and Barry Kelleher all the way to the finish line in order to secure his fourth victory in a row, Brett finished with a time of 15:01.1839, Daniel finished with a 15:01.3485 and Barry had a time of 15:01.9211.

Stephen Chilby finished in fourth, Corey Gurney finished in sixth, Robert Marchese in eighth and Danny Burgess finished in ninth.

Gregory Morris was the lead Stock Car in fourteen followed by Zac O’Hara in fifteenth and Scott Nind’s debut ended after two laps but he would be back.

Race 2 was held in better conditions with Brett Mitchell cruising to a big win ahead of Barry Kelleher and Stephen Chilby while Danny Burgess came in fourth, Robert Marchese in fifth and Corey Gurney came home in sixth.

Scott Nind was the first Stock Car driver to finish followed by Zac O’Hara with the two occupying twelfth and thirteenth overall.

The third race was highly anticipated as it was a night race but a wreck on the first corner of the first lap caused a red flag and with top billed 300km race next up, the race was declared a non result.

COVID forced lockdowns shortly after the events of Round 2 and so we entered into a COVID Delay, a delay that would unfortunately end the season but the action didn’t stop there as plenty of moves were made ahead of the 2022 season.

Our report titled “The Story of the #43 Pontiac GTA” was released and it was read 188 times up to December 31 2021 and should reach 200 sometime next year.

Peter Byrnes was announced as the new owner of the #63 Pontiac that was formerly a Walden owned car back in the days when SCA was starting to build up to what it is today and it will be great to see it back in competition soon.

It was announced on October 31 that Aaron Hills purchased the #75 Chevrolet Monte Carlo from Graham Booth and will be entering SCA rounds in the future.

Adam Blattman purchased the long sleeping #3 Pontiac Grand Prix, this car raced in a V8 Stock Car round in 2002 at Queensland Raceway which resulted in a good weekend for then driver Tony Edwards, it was then taken to Winton but did not participate in that weekend.

Danny Burgess, Stephen Chilby and Brett Mitchell all competed in Thunder Sports Cup rounds in November and December with Stephen and Brett bringing home wins as Victoria and NSW opened up late in the year.

It was announced in December that Stephen Chilby’s OzTruck had some nose surgery with a 2022 Silverado nose now at the front of the championship winning OzTruck.

December has ended well for us and while we’ve fallen just a few hundred views short of setting our fifth yearly record in a row, our 2021 view total of no less than 3,445 views at this present time is a great total and next year we’ll just beat this years total and start our run again.

AUSCAR vehicles are starting to awake from slumber as Cole Davis and Lukas Gates expressed interest in joining SCA in the future, Cole has a Ford Falcon and Lukas has a Holden Commodore and so, a couple of other AUSCAR owners have also expressed interest in joining in the future.

The two AUSCARs were worked on during the course of 2021 though COVID restrictions slowed down the pace of efforts.

Other vehicles to be worked on during 2021 included the Stock Cars of the #41 Ford Thunderbird and the #1 Holden Commodore.

So that is the story of 2021, a year that started brightly with two rounds, appeared glum when COVID forced lockdowns and ended spectacularly with a run of new car owners and great enthusiasm plus those Thunder Sport Cup rounds too.

Let us hope that 2022 is the year of a full SCA season that allows us to enjoy these wonderful vehicles on a regular basis.