Two months after the triumph of Calder Park, Stock Cars Australia was back in action at Sydney Motorsport Park

The field was smaller than CP with some regulars having cars with mechanical issues that need further repair time and some drivers were unavailable.

Practice and Qualifying

Garry Stevens in the RX7 topped the first practice session for the day, the RX7 retaining the zip that it had the last time it had joined the Stock Cars Australia field.

Scott Nind topped Practice 2 in the #34 Ford Mustang; this Mustang is not the ex-Xfinity Series #16 that we’ve seen in the past, but an ex-Michael McDowell Cup car and it turned heads immediately.

It was evident in the first half of Qualifying that Garry Stevens would be a contender, but Scott Nind quickly put in a lap that was ahead of the pack by 2.0492 seconds.

Danny Burgess moved up to third spot and Brett Mitchell had fourth with Josh Hourigan ahead of Brendon Hourigan with John Angiolella ahead of Robert Marchese, Laurie Mckinnon, Rod Gurney and Troy Perichon.

Most of the field stayed in the pits for the majority of the second half of the session following a red flag, Brett Mitchell logged the most laps of the field.

Race 1

Stock Car fans had to wait until just after 8pm for the action to get underway, the vehicles looking majestic in the night conditions, a condition SCA has only experienced once before.

Scott Nind pumped out a 1:40.7357 to be comfortably in the lead at the end of lap one and quickly improved it to a 1:39.039 while Danny Burgess held down second place ahead of Brett Mitchell.

Brendon Hourigan passed Josh Hourigan to be in fourth position with Robert Marchese and Laurie Mckinnon behind them.

Natsoft was going crazy and making it difficult to track the progress of the field as Scott Nind bounced from top to bottom every lap and the BMW was recorded as the fastest of the field.

John Angiolella’s race ended after three laps and Garry Stevens race ended after four laps.

Caution came out with three laps to go, and the eight-lap race was shortened to six.

Scott Nind was disqualified from the race and Danny Burgess was declared the winner of the race; it was Danny’s first win in the series.

Brett Mitchell finished in second with Brendon Hourigan finishing in third.

Race 2

Scott Nind was put to the back of the field after his Race 1 disqualification, this meant that it was an all OzTruck front row for the first time this season, Brendon Hourigan in the #51 was out of action as was John Angiolella.

The problem with the #51 was an oil surge issue and it was wise to park the OzTruck and not risk the engine.

Garry Stevens got going in the RX7 to do a lap of 1:39.9544 only for Scott Nind to do a 1:39.8394 shortly afterwards as the #34 Mustang charged up the field.

Scott’s third lap was a 1:39.0817 and enabled him to take the lead of the race and then hit warp speed to record a lap of 1:37.6451.

Those following on Natsoft were completely confused as Scott and Josh Hourigan’s stats were bouncing up and down the field making it difficult to find out who was running where.

Brett Mitchell put in a time of 1:41.8987 on Lap 5 and Garry Stevens fell back to fourth position.

Rod Gurney put in a lap of 1:54.9256 on Lap 6 to be his best for the race and was the last driver to do a best lap during the race.

Scott Nind won the race comfortably from Danny Burgess with Brett Mitchell coming home in third position followed by Garry Stevens.

Robert Marchese came home in fifth place less than two seconds behind Garry Stevens who had fallen back after a good start.

Josh Hourigan was in sixth with Laurie Mckinnon in seventh place in the XE Falcon followed by Rod Gurney and Troy Perichon in the XF Falcon.

Race 3

Race 3 got underway with Garry Stevens getting a good start, it turned out to be too good of one and the RX7 driver got penalised for it.

It was soon clear that the #34 Mustang was heading for a big lead but the battle for third, fourth and fifth was heating up.

Troy Perichon’s race and his weekend came to an end in a cloud of smoke with the #6 XF Falcon ending up parked in the grass, Danny Burgess spun seconds later but had no damage.

The race restarted with one lap taken off due to time constraints, Brett Mitchell, Josh Hourigan and Danny Burgess were locked in battle while Garry Stevens briefly enjoyed the lead before Scott Nind taken it back.

Scott Nind cruised to his second win of the round while Danny Burgess recovered from the spin to finish in second with Josh Hourigan in third.

Brett Mitchell finished fourth and Robert Marchese finished fifth with Garry Stevens in sixth, Laurie Mckinnon in seventh and Rod Gurney the last of the finishers in eighth position.

Race 4

Garry Stevens was a non-starter for the race and with Troy Perichon’s #6 out with what was then suspected to be engine trouble, the field was down to seven runners.

Scott Nind powered away from the field, Brett Mitchell who was sliding through the corners in Race 3 and enthralling the commentators in the process made his way into second position.

Down at the back of the field, Laurie Mckinnon and Rod Gurney were putting on a show by sticking close together lap after lap.

Josh Hourigan went off the track on Lap 2 which put him some twelve seconds behind Danny Burgess and Robert Marchese in the battle for third.

Scott Nind continued to enjoy his lead while Brett Mitchell was slowly losing touch with the leader but had a comfortable margin to third position.

Josh Hourigan was eating away at the deficit between him and the duo of Danny Burgess and Robert Marchese, Josh had a best lap of 1:41.4709 on Lap 5 which closed the gap further.

As Danny Burgess and Robert Marchese continued to battle for third position, Josh Hourigan was reeling the duo in and passed the #84 Silverado and set off after the #7 Silverado, it came down to the finish as the #11 reeled in the #7 at the line to take third by .1 of a second.

Rod Gurney and Laurie Mckinnon stayed close together all race long, the duo was separated by two seconds at the finish.

Conclusion

Troy Perichon losing an engine in Race 3 was sad to watch especially with the amount of effort Troy has put into the #6 and previously the #7 AUSCAR but the good news is that Troy will be back.

It was a busy weekend for the Hourigan’s as both Josh and Brendon also competed in Legends with the results recorded as the following.

Brendon – 4th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd and 2nd
Josh – DNF, 5th, 5th, DNF and DNS

While there is seemingly nothing that can challenge the #34 or the #16 Stock Cars of Scott Nind, the OzTruck competition has never been tighter as anybody could be the lead OzTruck.

The final round of the season at Winton will see a bigger field, Richard White could bring two Stock Cars to the party, Lukas Gates in the #22 Commodore is likely to be back and hopefully the #25, #27 and the #41 will be back as well plus others.