Round 2 : Mallala raceway S.A 29-30 th May

The second round of the Australian Sports Sedan Series was held at Mallala International raceway in may.

Approx 20 Sports Sedans from all around the country braved the cold wet and windy conditions.

I made the decision to run multiple Australian Karting champion James Sera in the Saab for this and the remainder rounds of the series , while I concentrated on engineering the car in terms of the suspension set up.

For this round we have switched from the 16/17 inch Dunlop tyres to 18 inch Michelin tyres which are used in GT Performance and sports cars world wide.

This meant relearning tyre characteristics and  shock and spring set ups. We had been using the Michelin wet tyres previously.

James qualified in second , approx 1 sec behind Darren Hossack in the Audi  A4 and ahead of Kerry Bailey in the Nissan 300ZX, not bad for his first competitive run in the 700Hp Saab.

The first race saw James match Darren's time and finish second , just behind the Audi. Unfortunately, Kerry spun off on lap 2 and severely damaged the RHR of the Nissen, putting it out for the remainder of the weekend.

Race 2 James started on pole  as Darren decided to put on new tyres and was relegated to rear of grid.

James led the race and maintained a steady gap, until he spun at the hairpin on the back straight. Darren took the lead and the race finished in that order.

We decided to make a minor wing change and rear spring change for race 3, which in hind sight wasn't the right way to go and resulted in slower lap times than in race 2. James however finished second again to Darren.

Round 3 Morgan Park Raceway, Queensland 14-15th August

The third round was held at Morgan Park Raceway, a track that our category had not been before so none of the drivers had track advantage.

Following Mallala, the team spent considerable time calibrating our front and rear sway bars and manufacturing a range on new stiffer ones.

James was very quick in practice, matching the Audi in all sessions on Friday. The new sway bar required front and rear spring changes and as a result we now have sway bars that can dramatically change the car at either end, so our hard work prior to this meeting paid of.

Saturday qualifying saw Darren Hossack put the Audi on pole followed by James in the Saab and Kerry in the Nissan

Unfortunately in race 1, the Audi suffered terminal engine failure and did not compete for the remained  on the week end.

James won all three races and is now on equal points in the series with Darren Hossack.

The next round is at Eastern Creek Raceway on 11-12th Sept

We are currently manufacturing a new aluminium honeycomb under tray and camber wedges for the rear end to improve rear .