While the start of the 2024 MRA season is now just over 5 weeks away (Saturday, February 3 – Druitt Circuit – more details once the festive season is behind us), we’re only 20 weeks away from the biggest day on our calendar, and another instalment of the Pitcher Partners #Sydney300.
In the lead up to the May 18 showpiece, Zak Caban will, once again, delve into the facts and stats of this signature event, as we countdown to race day.

Race Stat #1 – Things that have happened twice!

• The outright race has been won from grid position #3 twice, and in consecutive years.
  In 2022, Dylan Thomas & Cody Brewczynski (CXC Racing) took a Mitsubishi vehicle to outright honours for the first time in Sydney, while Benny Tran did the same for Honda in 2023.
  It’s worth noting, Mitsubishi had only ever enjoyed outright success at One Raceway in Goulburn, prior to that now famous win at Sydney Motorsport Park.
• Benny Tran’s 2023 win, in the BYP Racing Honda Integra, marked the second time the Sydney 300 had been won by a driver opting to fly solo (an option only given to entrants since 2019).
  Todd Herring, a two-time winner in Sydney, first achieved that feat in 2021 – two years and two months before Tran’s success.
• Sticking with Benny Tran… his Honda has twice clocked the fastest lap of the 77-lap race (2021 & 2023), and it’s worth noting that he re-set the race lap record on his way to outright victory in July (1:39.1220).
• The other two editions of the Sydney 300 were won by driver pairings, and lay claim to being two of the closest finishes in 300 history, with both being decided by less than a second.
  In 2019, the Division A entry, of Todd Herring and Andy Harris, edged out the Division B Mazda RX8, of David Loftus and Phil Armour (+0.6897), while Dylan Thomas (Division B) held off Chris Sutton (Division C, Subaru WRX), in a one-lap dash to the flag, in what was a time-certain finish, two laps short of the scheduled race distance, in 2022.
• Charlie Viola, Ben Hanrahan, Michael Ricketts and Josh Haynes Motorsport all share a unique statistic.
  Both combinations have two division wins to their name. They were achieved in back-to-back editions of the Sydney 300 (noting that the race wasn’t held in 2020, due to the pandemic), and the only thing that changed was the division they won.
  Viola and Hanrahan won Division D in 2019, before conquering Division C in 2021, in their Honda Integra.

In 2022, in wet conditions, Ricketts and Haynes drove their Nissan Pulsar to victory in Division D, before sliding back into Division E for the dry race of 2023, and still cleaning up division honours.

• The winning car in Division D has finished 11th outright TWICE.
  Competitors in the second-slowest division in the field are yet to crack an outright top ten finish at SMP, but have been on the precipice twice, through Charlie Viola and Ben Hanrahan (Honda Integra, 2019), and Matt and Jaxon Fraser (Mazda MX5, 2023).
• The Safety Car has appeared twice in three editions of the Sydney 300 (2019, 2021 & 2023). Only the wet race of 2022 was neutralised on more occasions (seven).
• Lloyd Godfrey and Josh Buchan have started from pole position twice (2022 and 2023)
• On the flipside, that same duo has copped 5-lap penalties TWICE (2021 – which cost them an outright win, and 2023).
• Division victories have been won on the final lap TWICE, and both have resulted in a Mazda RX8 entry taking the spoils.

While the finish of the 2019 race will forever live on in Sydney 300 folklore, it’s worth noting that Ed Kreamer and Stephen Thompson’s box full of neutrals didn’t just cost them outright honours, but Division B as well, as David Loftus and Phil Armour stole second outright at the death, and division victory from the jaws of defeat.

Fast forward four years, and the naming rights sponsor, Charlie Viola, was on the cusp of securing a third Sydney 300 division victory, and his second in Division C, until a suspension failure on the final lap saw him struggle and limp his way to the chequered flag.
While he was fighting to get his car to the line, the Mazda RX8, driven by Wall Racing TCR Australia drivers, Brad and Will Harris (pictured below), passed on by, to finish fifth outright, and snare their first division win in a Sydney 300.

It’s worth noting, while Mazda is the most successful manufacturer in 300 history, its nine outright wins have been taken by either an MX5 (7 wins) or RX7 (2) vehicle. Outright victory still eludes an RX8, despite great success through the previous four editions of the Sydney 300… an outright podium, and two edge of your seat division wins!

We hope all our followers had a Merry Christmas, and are looking forward to the 2024 racing season as much as we are!