September 29 2022
At long last we can say the ASCC has had three scheduled rounds in a row after the chaos of COVID ruined previous seasons efforts to get a full season in the history books.
The action takes place at Sydney Motorsport Park this weekend where most attention will be on the TA2’s but our attention will be on the Stock Cars and Thunder Sports in a combined grid with Sunday’s races being streamed on the AMRS FB page.
The 3.93km Gardner layout will be the used this week with four races on the schedule and they are time certain races of fifteen, seventeen, fifteen and fifteen minutes in length.
There is currently a 50% or higher possibility of rain which can put a dampener on things as most of the field won’t be good to go on a wet track as evidenced a couple of times at SMP.
We have a great field going to SMP with a nice mix of cars for spectators to enjoy and so we go through the competitors one by one below.
Morris Racing is back with the #17 Monte Carlo, it was the #34 and decked out in the sponsorship from 1998 but Morris Racing wanted to do something different and so they gave the car a new paint scheme and the number #17 which keeps the car linked to its past team Tony Southwell Racing.
Aaron Hills is back in the #75 and we should see continued improvement from Aaron as results have been on the up over the last couple of races so watch out for the #75 making it’s way further up the field.
Mick Heppleston is back in the #41 Ford Thunderbird, Mick has only had the one full race in the Thunderbird so hopefully Mick gets to enjoy a full weekend of racing this time around.
Scott Nind is in the #16 Ford Mustang with the Mustang being only ex Xfinity Series car in the field, Scott of course won a race in the last round to bring home a rare victory for the Cup/Xfinity/GTA cars so look out for Scott potentially adding to the #16’s win total.
Zac O’Hara will be at SMP in the now popular #27 Monte Carlo as it is adorned with retro Repco sponsorship as it is going to Bathurst afterwards for Kim Jane to take a lap around the famous track with other Repco vehicles so the pressure is on Zac to return it home in one piece.
Danny Burgess in the #7 OzTruck is always a strong performer and can mix with it with the best that Stock Cars Australia has to offer, this has been evident in battles with Robert Marchese, Brett Mitchell and Stephen Chilby.
Brett Mitchell will be in the #8 OzTruck as usual, this OzTruck may be running on used tyres but should still be highly competitive, it is also one of the most eye catching vehicles in the SCA field.
Brendon Hourigan is back with the #51 OzTruck, Brendon won a race at the last round and will no doubt be looking to add to the #51’s win total at SMP.
In the #84 is Robert Marchese, Robert has good battles with Danny Burgess but Robert also challenges the other OzTrucks and can keep the #84 ahead of the majority of the Stock Cars too.
Stephen Chilby is back in the #226, the past champion and current points leader has his OzTruck up for sale but until it is sold or he just moves on, Stephen will be out and about trying to add to the win total and there’s four opportunities to do so this weekend.
Corey Gurney continues to fly the GTA flag with the #43 Pontiac, watch out for this car as it can be a race winner if everything goes Corey’s way, Corey definitely has the speed to keep the OzTrucks busy and the #43 team are always looking to squeeze out more speed from the Pontiac.
Andrew Grosse returns in the BMW to give the Muscle Division additional competition, Andrew appeared in the round at Wakefield Park with a best finish of twelfth.
Rod Gurney is in his #8 Falcon which does grab plenty of attention on the track, the #8 recently done some laps at SMP though the weather conditions were not ideal which may actually help if the forecast for wet conditions does eventuate.
Laurence Mckinnon will be in the XE Falcon and rounds out the Muscle Division trio, this car is eye catching and will no doubt get camera time once again just like it’s previous outing.
So there we have it, five OzTrucks, five Stock Cars, three Muscle Division cars and one GTA will be at SMP and eager to put on a great show.
Bring on the weekend and no rain.
Aussie Stock Car News 