By Andrew Stackpool
 |
|
Former
Air Force member Paul Milvain races past crowds at the East
Sale SuperSprint.
|
|
Photo
by SQNLDR Grant Ellers
|
THE
roar of high-octane engines ruled the skies when the RAAF Auto
Club of East Sale (RACES) held its annual SuperSprint on May 22.
Club spokesman Squadron Leader Grant Ellers said the Confederation
of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) defines a SuperSprint as a speed
event.
“Technically, it is not motor racing,” he said. “In
motor racing finishing positions determine the winners and place
getters, while in speed events lap times determine the outcome.”
In Supersprint, cars are released onto the circuit in pairs and
no more than six cars are permitted on the circuit at any one
time. Overtaking is not permitted around corners or under brakes
before a corner. Each car’s individual laps are timed and
the cars do three laps for each run.
Most competitors get four or five runs during the event. Laps
are run continuously with a short break at the halfway point for
the officials and timing team. There is no practice or qualifying,
as the event only runs for one day. The actual day’s runs
are usually completed in about six hours.
“We are an Air Force welfare club but are also a fully affiliated
CAMS Club and run our events in accordance with the CAMS Manual
of Motorsport,” he said.
“We are definitely not a bunch of petrol heads burning round
the base when no-one is looking.”
The CAMS manual covers all the legal aspects of the sport, the
training and certification of officials for the conduct of events,
the licensing, classification and driving standards of drivers,
and the classification, safety standards and safety checking of
cars.
“We are restricted to catering for those classes of cars
most likely to be found at the club level end of the motorsport
spectrum,” he said. “We do not permit trucks, V8 SuperCars
or F1 cars. Nevertheless, some of the cars are very fast indeed
and the lap record for our 1.7km circuit is just 50 seconds.”
There is another aspect to the question of speed and possible
damage to vehicles or the airfield.
The competition circuit uses the southern end of the airfield.
The circuit uses part of one runway and some taxiways, leaving
75 per cent of the airfield still available for flying operations.
The club must clean the airfield area thoroughly after the event
to ensure that no car parts are left out, resulting in possible
FOD hazards to aircraft.
“For safety reasons, speeds must be controlled to reduce
possible damage to the airfield and competitors’ cars,”
he said. “We use soft items such as tyres, cones and plastic
drums to lay out the circuit.”
SQNLDR Ellers said the club had proved to be a successful welfare
club as well.
“It has provided great fun for its members and has proved
popular in the local community,” he said.
“It has also helped boost the Welfare finances at East Sale
by providing substantial donations to the Christmas Treat and
other base activities, as well as providing support to local charities
and organisations such as St John First Aid and Rotary.”
The
origins of East Sale motorsports
THE
RAAF Auto Club of East Sale (RACES) started in 1992 when a number
of Air Force personnel provided voluntary assistance to local
service clubs who wanted to run driver training days on weekends
for school students.
The Service clubs arranged the schools and the professional drivers,
while Air Force provided parts of the airfield as a venue. At
the same time, Air Force was disbanding the Motor Transport Driver
mustering, with units meeting their transport requirements with
their own drivers.
These driving courses seemed to represent a good opportunity for
East Sale to train its drivers and the club was born out of the
interest generated during the advanced driver training activities.
RACES ran its first SuperSprint in 1993 and also ran Khanacross
and MotorKhana events. A significant reduction in uniformed members
at East Sale and a decline in club membership resulted in these
being ceased. Nevertheless, the SuperSprints have continued to
grow in popularity.
The club’s track licence with CAMS limits the entry list
to 80, which means applications are closed as soon as that number
is reached.
