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HUGE FIELDS DRAWN TO BATHURST REGULARITY OPPORTUNITY
IN PREVIOUS YEARS the New South Wales Road Racing Club (NSWRRC) has had an issue that many racing organisations would crave – an oversubscribed entry list and a massive reserve list of competitors. That will not be an issue for the club when they return to the Bathurst Motor Festival next week, a second group of competitors to take to the track thanks to the more than 110 entries received by Event organisers.| FULL ENTRY LISTS: Click HereWhen coupled with the Porsche Club of NSW regularity, who have confirmed another fifty-plus car field, regularity competitors make up more than half of the total entrants nominated for the Easter long-weekend Event. Never before have so many people been given the chance to tackle the famous 6.213km circuit where before they never would have had the chance.”We spoke to (Promoter) James O’Brien after last year and told him how many reserves we had left over that didn’t have the opportunity to have a run – we have been oversubscribed every year we have been at the Bathurst Motor Festival,” NSWRRC Regularity organiser Steve Lacey said.”James said that as long as we could fill a second grid, he would give us the track time and we had no dramas at all doing just that. The reaction from our people was great and I’d be loathed to think of what would happen if we had to go back to one group now!”Lacey, who himself competes in a Holden Torana A9X Hatchback, says the expansion has brought a wide array of new faces onto the grid this year.”We have a whole new group of guys. The previous three years we have been there, it’s been 60 to 70% of the same people coming back each year but in 2014 about 70% of the people entered are doing it for the first time.”So many people want the opportunity to get to Bathurst and on such an iconic track in their street car. It’s such a rare thing to do it at speed and that is why the reaction has been so positive.”With the Porsche Regularity the three groups make up more than 160 entries so you can see the incredible reaction.”The pair of NSWRRC ‘groups’ will feature an incredibly diverse array of machinery catering from everything between four-wheel drive turbos, V8 Aussie muscle right down to small hatchbacks that you would take to the shops.The club has put thought into who goes where between the pair of groups that will take to the track at the Motor Festival next week.”We wanted to have the same sort of speed differentiation in both groups, we didn’t want a fast one and a slow one where everyone would be scrambling amongst themselves,” Lacey explained.”It’s a better option than having 55-cars all jammed together fighting for clear track.”This way, the cars will be a bit more spread out and give everyone a chance to get some clear track and properly enjoy the experience. We also have some competitors cross-entered in the same car in both groups, so we had to take that into account.”We think it’s going to be a great weekend and there will be a lot of happy people at the end of it, that’s for sure.”The New South Wales Road Racing Club and Porsche Club NSW regularity trials see competitors racing against the clock, rather than each other, taking the need for car-on-car combat out of the equation.After practice on Friday, competitors nominate a time and the competitor consistently closest to that nominated benchmark across the weekend is classed the winner.Points are awarded for how close – or how far – competitors are from their nominated time, placing an emphasis on consistency and driving within their own – and their vehicle’s – limits.Each group gets two, 20-minute Regularity Trial across the Saturday and Sunday of the 2014 Bathurst Motor Festival.The Bathurst Motor Festival will be held across the April 18-20 long weekend at Mount Panorama, Bathurst. Volunteers to assist in the operation of the Event are still being sought; interested parties can visit www.bathurstmotorfestival.com.au and click the ‘officials and volunteers’ tab to find more info. Entry to the Bathurst Motor Festival is by Bank Note donation with all proceeds going towards official Event charity, Legacy.An Event-record 332 entries have been received for the April 18-20 weekend. ENDS