So far this year, New South Wales Supersports has attracted several fast drivers new to Supersports racing – “Supersports Rookies”.
Aaron Lee and Simon Copping appeared at Round 1 in late February in their incredible looking, and very fast, Wests, Aaron in a WR1000 and Simon in a WX10.
Paul Royal also appeared at Round 1 in his Radical SR3, as did Ash Samadi in his Radical SR3RS.
OK, we will acknowledge Brian Walden as a 2022 Superports Rookie, even though he joined us in late 2021 in his Radical SR3.
One other “Supersports Rookie” driver who entered Round 1 was Adam Brook.
Unfortunately for Adam, some mechanical problems arose with his West WR1000 during testing (we won’t go into any detail in order to avoid any embarrassment with any individuals, but we now know everything about checking bolts in Quaife diffs) in the lead up to Round 1 that resulted in Adam missing that round.
Now, after putting considerable amount of time into building up their knowledge with the very technical West, Adam and his team are ready to go Supersports racing at Sydney Motorsport Park on June 25.
Unlike the other Supersports Rookies, Adam has a background in Speedway racing, having earned some wins and titles in Dirt Late Models a few years ago.
Adam, however, has always had an intense love of racing sports cars and prototypes – if you ask him who came fifth at Le Mans in 1987 he will probably know.
So when an opportunity came along to go circuit racing in a West WR1000, he couldn’t be held back.
Adam worked in the motor racing industry for several years, and now he owns and operates Aurora Motorsport, which is based in Windsor, in Sydney’s North West suburbs, and which is slowly building up its customer base.
Adam’s West has a special place in Supersports racing, not only in Australia, but also in the USA.
It was built and commissioned by the West factory in early 2008, and across 2008, it was raced in the IMSA Lites L2 Championship by young Aussie, Tom Drewer, replete with its world famous “Daily Planet” livery.
Tom took the West to ten wins out of twelve races to win the 2008 IMSA Lites L2 Championship, to become the 2008 IMSA Lites L2 Champion.
Tom’s dad, Mike Drewer, then brought the car to Australia, which made it the first West (apparently) to be brought here, the first of perhaps twenty or more Wests now in Australia (Incidentally, West Race Cars is now based in Adelaide, and they are now producing the magnificent West LMP4 in their Adelaide workshop).
The second owner of Adam’s West was none other than the current President of the Supersports Race Car Club of Australia, our very own multiple Championship winning Darren Barlow.
Darren raced the West in eight race meetings from 2011 to 2013, using it to build up his now prodigious racing skills before moving into a Stohr as Adam Proctor’s team mate during their period of Supersports domination.
The West was then taken over by Paul Palmer, who raced it in six race meetings from 2014 to 2019.
The West has been extremely well maintained by the West factory in the USA, and by Darren and Paul, and hasn’t required too much work to get it ready for racing to this point, apart from repairing a few minor cracks in the kevlar and honeycomb bodywork incurred after a hard life of racing at high speed, a new coat of paint, and more checking of the bolts in the Quaife diff.
Adam holds no illusions about competing wheel to wheel at Sydney Motorsport Park with the fast guys and girls – simply driving the West as fast as it can go, and earning the respect of all the other competitors, is the first goal.
However, Adam’s modest short term target to drive the West as fast as it can be driven will be followed by two more targets; to take it around Sydney Motorsport Park as fast as Paul did, and then to eventually break 1.30.0000.
Although Adam’s West may require quite a bit of further development to achieve the 1.30.0000 target, with other developments unexpectedly now taking place, 1.30.0000 may happen sooner then expected.
Adam, and all the other Supersports Rookies, as well as a few Supersports drivers who have returned after a break of a few years, like Andrew Macpherson, Jonathon Canavan, and Mark Brame, have recognised that nothing comes close to the speed of an uncompromised Supersports racing car, and the high level of skill required to drive them fast, and the relatively low cost required to achieve the fastest lap times in the mid 1.20’s at Sydney Motorsport Park and low 56’s at Wakefield Park.
The New South Wales Supersports competitors will be throwing their garage doors open at Sydney Motorsport Park on June 25 and will welcome anyone who wants to learn more about the Supersports cars – how they are just about the fastest closed wheel cars racing in Australia – and the competition.
For anyone interested in joining the New South Wales Supersports for the day and the night races, please contact Darren Barlow on 0439 044 128, or go to the New South Wales Supersports Facebook page and PM. New South Wales Supersports will provide tickets for you.
