Welcome back to the Gold Coast Tweed Motorsporting Club Inc magazine, The Pitstop
After a long break, the Pitstop Magazine is making its return to keep you updated and share the awesome stories from within GCTMC
2023 is well and truly up and running with the past few weeks having the very first round of the Future Auto Wynnum SEQ Khanacross series kick off. We saw a sold-out field of 36 competitors make the most of 2 courses across the day
Late March saw the Queensland Rally Championship make its start with the Roo Systems Australia Manumbar Rally The first round of the QRC was heavily contested with the weather but saw a strong field of 40 competitors make the most of the conditions in an 8-stage rally.
April began with the running of our first social run of 2023, with a scenic drive through the Gold Coast Hinterland, all finishing with a lunch on the banks of the coomera river
We welcome you all back to The Pitstop, enjoy your read and if you have a story to add we would love to hear from you.
Enjoy your read
Zara Waller Editor-in-chiefMarch saw the first round of the Queensland Rally Championship take place. The Roo Systems Australia Manumbar rally, a multi-year work from Clerk of Course (CoC) Craig Porter and team, had a turn out of 40 competitors for an 8 stage rally. The lead up to the rally saw the night with a heavy downfall, but all woke to the sun shining for an awesome morning of rallying. With the first 6 stages run and won, the final stages of the day took a turn with the weather only allowing the first handful of cars to complete the rally with the final two stages calculated on derived times.
The tricky conditions saw GCTMC member duo, Glenn Brinkman and Stephen Richardson take the outright win in their evo 9. We also saw Dave Micjan take out the novice category alongside codriver Grinover. With fellow member Jade Davies navigating her way to 23rd alongside Mitchell Plant behind the wheel. We also saw Gary Reid and John Szandurski make their way through the morning but sadly ending the rally short with a DNF due to engine issues. We also saw committee member, Zara Waller, in attendance as official media for the event.
The rally finished with Brinkman/Richardson in first, Menzies/Mcgowan in second and Williams/Jones taking third. The clubman category was taken out by Duclos/hodge and novice saw Micjan/Grinover taking the top step.
The next round of the QRC coincides with the Australian Rally Championship on July 22nd in Gympie for the Accent Benchtops Rally Queensland
Earlier this month we saw the first event for 2023, the running of the GCTMC Inc Social run (navigational event). The navigation (via simple route chart instructions) saw attendees make the most of a gorgeous morning drive through the Gold Coast Hinterland. Taking off from the Frank Chaston sporting fields in Mudgeeraba, drivers navigated their way out through Canungra, over Tamborine and all finishing on the relaxing banks of the Coomera river for a social lunch
GCTMC thanks all who came along for the run and joined us for lunch, we look forward to hosting more of these events in the near future.
Sunday the 14th saw the first round of the South East Queensland, Future Auto Wynnum Khanacross series take place. The event saw a sold out field of 36 competitors with a huge variety of cars, juniors and ladies competing. We made for a solid start with the sun trying to shine through the clouds but the afternoon saw a different story. Also, the new series saw the introduction of the first GCTMC Stig.
Young Toby Musico was too quick for rest and took the outright win for the round in his WRX STI. Close behind saw Leigh Garrioch in his excel and followed by Collin O’Brien in Subaru WRX Jude Livermore managed to snag the junior category with Alex Niven close on his heels and Michelle Van Der Wilk took home the ladies category in the mighty pink civic.
For event results head over to our website: gctmc.org.au
NAME: Melinda ‘Mel’ Burgman
AGE: Old enough to know better
YEARS COMPETING: over 20
When asked about her introduction to motorsport, Mel puts it all to her parents. With their early involvement with the Renault Car Club and Renault Rally Sportiv rallies at Benarkin, she was hooked. Since her first hand brake turn at the age of 12, Mel has competed in a large variety of motorkhanas, sprints, hillclimbs, navigation runs and of course, rallies. Navigating her first rally in 2001 in a 1970s Corolla and soon following her first rally drive in the same car, Mel has been addicted to the dirt ever since.
Driven and finished a total 7 Targa Tasmania events
2000 Australian Motorkhana Championship - 3rd Class, fastest woman in a tin top
2014 14th outright in Mitsubishi VI TME (9th outright stage time, 4x category stage wins)
2018 Queensland Rally Championship - 3rd outright driver
2019 Queensland Rally Championship - 4th Outright driver
2019 Imbil Rally - 2nd outright
Newly elected President, Mark Davies, began his days around rallying very early watching the likes of Possum Bourne, Neal Bates and Peter Brock. Once getting his license and purchasing a yellow 1977 Mazda 808, Mark began competing around the Pimpama Nursery which led to the purchase of his current car, a 1989 BMW 325i. Currently competing in local SEQ events and looking forward to sweep duties in the ARC and hopefully some local rallies later in the year. Helping GCTMC through various roles within the past few years, Mark’s step into president looks forward to further growing membership and the future of events from GCTMC. Marks acceptance of the president position sees him looking forward to further growing of the membership and both competing and officiating in future GCTMC EVENTS.
John Sibley has been a GCTMC member since 1973, spending his early days competing in a variety of club events from horizontal hill climbs at Surfers Paradise Raceway and eventually progressing to rally. Then selling the car in the early 90’s, John continued his involvement in various official capacities(vice president, editor) and has continued to be involved in spectating, roadblocks and course car. Since returning to the club in 2021, John has now stepped into the vice-president role for the 2023 season.
Gary Reid, began rallying over 40 years ago behind the wheel of a Datsun 1600 and soon gave navigating a go too. After returning from 10 years working overseas Gary joined GCTMC in 2021 with the intention of getting back into rallying Currently, he is competing in many local rallies in the mighty Datsun 180B (RED) alongside fellow club member John Szandurski.
Zara Waller has been involved in the club for many years through her family’s involvement and has stood on our committee for the past 2 years. She is our youngest committee member who brings a fresh look towards GCTMC. Currently, Zara is coordinating all of the club's media and is often seen around many local and state events behind a camera.
Steve Davies joined GCTMC in 1983 and has since won multiple club championships. Starting his days as a control official for HDCC in 1972, Steve soon found his competitive side in autocross behind the wheel of his Mazda Rx2.
Following his involvement with GCTMC Steve has helped through many roles within the club and more recently he has continued his support in the treasurer position.
rom president to his the passenger seat of lead to him joining in many official roles
Matt has been a member of GCTMC Inc since 2014. Coming from a background in demolition derby racing, he discovered the club after another member had seen his cars and introduced him, only to find out his dad was a member during the 70s. Matt now helps look after the khanacross course and you will see him competing in his mighty corolla.
Well, it’s been a busy start to 2023 for our team at On the Brink Motorsport. Not one to sit around and watch the grass grow, I have a few (some may say a few too many!) irons in the fire for 2023/24. We are competing in all rounds of the AORC, QRC and several other events such as Heartlands Rally and Sunraysia Safari this year in the lead up to tick one off the ‘’Bucket List’’ this year, The 2024 Dakar in a PH Sort Prepared Zephyr. Following is a report of our year so far. Some good and some not so good but a great experience to date nonetheless.
If you ’ re not bored too much by the end of this, you can also follow us at
https://www.facebook.com/OnTheBrinkMotorsport
25th Feb -3rd March
Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge
Car: PH Sport-Zephyr
Co-Driver: Dale Moscatt
Result: DNF Crash in last stage
What can I say! What could have been. With Almost 1200km competitive stages of 100% sand dunes . The biggest you will ever see, this event had everything we needed in preparation for our upcoming Dakar experience in January 2024 Heaps of pre-event testing with the very experienced Sheikh Khalid Al Qasimi to show me the ropes. A steady prologue and a solid start to the event for the first 4 days put us in a great position heading in to the last day 3rd overall in the highly competitive T3 class, only to have a small rollover in the desert losing about 40minutes, followed not long after with a comprehensive end for end roll about 100km from the finish. Totally my fault following too close to another competitor on a small clay road between dunes This ended with a helicopter flight to hospital which fortunately despite first diagnosis turned out to require only some stitches to my right leg and some minor internal injuries to Navigator Dale Moscatt would see us head home on time for our next event in Australia. The Medical team and their expertise is something to behold that’s for sure The car has since been repaired and lives to see another day Onwards and upwards they say!
-12th
Round 1 Aust off Road Championship
Car: CanAm Maverick X3
Co-Driver: Dale Moscatt
Result: 3rd Outright SXS Turbo series
Well to say I was nervous for this event was an understatement. Less than a week after our Dubai accident, I didn’t want to become ‘’That Guy’’ who always crashes Started out very cautiously but soon got into the rhythm and a solid start to our AORC campaign would net us 3rd overall for the weekend. Pretty happy with that and to have the opportunity to get back on the horse so quickly! This awesome track really suited SXS’s with James Cook also in a CanAm, winning the Event outright for the first time in AORC history 400km competitive seemed like a Rallysprint after the week before in Dubai!
28th March - Roo systems Manumbar
Round 1 Qld Rally Championship
Car Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9
Co-driver: Steven Richardson
Result: 1st Outright
Time to get back in Ole faithful. And also put the Old experienced Co-Driver Richo back in for a spin. This is one of those cars that at the end of the event it still fells a good as when you started. The rally had everything from Dust to torrential rain which would eventually hand us the win. Despite only winning one stage behind the blindingly fast Ryan Williams
in his new ride the WRX we were lucky when Ryan parked up for a bit in the mud. He’ll be a tough one to beat but we will take what we can as we aim to have another crack at the next round Rally Queensland 22nd/ 23rd July at Gympie.
21st-23rd April - Pooncarie Desert dash - Round 1 Aust off Road Championship
Car: CanAm Maverick X3
Co-Driver: Dale Moscatt
Result: 1st outright SXS Turbo Series
After our DNF here last year, Dale and I knew what we had to do. It’s a long lap 110km and the key is to circulate no matter the speed or problems you have. After another terrible prologue (I need to get better at these!!) we started behind some slower cars and with the thick dust it was
impossible to pass anyone even with Rallysafe and the best pacenote caller in the country sitting beside me, I still can’t commit to what you can’t see! FYI, a lap around this track is over 100 pages of notes for Dale to not only write and prepare, but then constantly read them out for over 3 hours. Dropping a few minutes to the SXS leaders we started out Sunday which was 3 laps (330kms) behind two pro-buggies, which fortunately for us they both dnf’d early so we had a dust free run for the entire race On top of the that the leading entry of James Cook dnf’d after running out of fuel midway, this would elevate us in the field and we managed to finish the weekend with 1st Outright in the SXS series. A decent result considering how the weekend started and our 1st ever win in the series.
Car: Ford Escort Cosworth
Co-Driver: Scott Beckwith
Result: DNF Stage 5 Water in Engine!
This was probably one of my most eagerly awaited events finally getting to get the ‘’Cossie’’ out in a real rally with the new engine fitted The initial dyno runs had been mind-blowing however a
short test that saw the gearbox destroy 3rd gear, left the guys at RallyTorque busy fitting a new gearbox. Of course, they got the car ready in time and we started the event well, managing to lead the event outright after 5 stages only to come to a service back in Burra with a small miss appearing in the engine Following an inspection, number 2 was full of water, so we shut it down to save any further damage. Clearly the right decision was made. We have a rebuild going on at present, but this could have been much worse had we continued. I guess this is unfinished business now so we will return next year for another crack at what is arguably one of the best events in the country, both in organisation and road selection The next event for the ‘’Cossie’’ is Leyburn Historic Sprints in late August, and we head to Finke in June
For this edition, we had the chance to talk with junior driver, Sally Martin to share a bit about herself and her journey in motorsport.
Age: 14
Current Car: Mitsubishi Lancer Coupe
How long have you been involved with Motorsport and what started your journey in Motorsport?
I’ve been racing for just on 12 months, I’ve just recently renewed my Motorsport Australia License for the first time. My Grand dad (Pap) bought me a car off his friends, which will be my first car when I get my road license My Uncle was competing in Khanacross, so we thought it would be a good idea to try it out. We went to an event a watched and I was hooked. When I got there I was amazed at how many people raced, I watched everyone have a go, I loved hearing the car engines roar, but not only that I loved watching the competitors racing. My Pap thought we could use my car for a few events and when I got better and faster, we would have to put my white Lancer back in the shed and buy an older car that I could flog, but at the end of my first event, Pap realised that I might need an old banger sooner rather than later, so he bought me the Silver Lancer that I race now. I started racing when I was 13 and at the end of that first year I won the Junior Championship and the Ladies Championship, I was awarded two trophies, I was stoked.
What is your favourite thing about the sport and community of Motorsport?
My favourite thing about motorsport is how I can do things that a lot of others can’t. I also meet a lot of new people and one day hope to become a professional race car driver. Competing in Khanacross also helps you become a better driver and you learn how to control a car.
I loved how everyone was so welcoming and how well people knew each other In my time in the GCTMC a lot of people have helped me and Pap, not only with advice, but also donating equipment. Glenn Brinkman has been fantastic, he has taken me for a lap in his rally car and he even gave us a race harness for my Lancer.
If you were to describe Motorsport in 5 words, what would they be?
Adventurous, fun, control, life changing, learning/knowledge.
Club Meeting every 3rd Wednesday - The Back Page, Carrara
11th June
Future Auto Wynnum SEQ Khanacross series ( round 2)
15th June
Next Club Meeting
9th July
Future Auto Wynnum SEQ Khanacross series (round 3)
13th August
Future Auto Wynnum SEQ Khanacross series (round 4)
10th September
Future Auto Wynnum SEQ Khanacross series (round 5)
15th October
uture Auto Wynnum SEQ Khanacross series (round 6)
12th November
Future Auto Wynnum SEQ Khanacross series (wash out date)
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
PRESIDENT VICE PRESIDENT
SECRETARY TREASURER
CLUB CAPTAIN
Mark Davies
John Sibley
Gary Reid
Stephen Davies
Matt Henderson
MOTORSPORT AUS DELEGATE
ALTERNATE MA DELEGATE
MEMBERSHIP OFFICER
MEDIA COORDINATOR
POINT SCORER
Steven Richardson
Mark Davies
Tony Taylor
Zara Waller
Mick Bruce
CONTACT INFO
All correspondence
Gold Coast Tweed Motorsporting Car Club
P.O. Box 1503 Mudeeraba QLD 4213
Phone: 0433 517 165 (Gary Reid, Secretary)
Email: info@gctmc.org.au
Website: https://gctmc.org.au
Club Meetings: Every 3rd Wednesday - The Back Page, Carrara.