The NSW Production Touring Cars Championship heads to Sydney Motorsport Park this weekend for Round 2, with a 25-car field set to tackle a trio of sprint races.
Following the opening round at Winton in March, the top of the points table is tightly packed thanks to multiple drivers scoring maximum points in their class.
Since Winton, a number of drivers have competed in the Bathurst 6 Hour with NSW PTC regular Simon Hodges winning the race outright with Jayden Ojeda, while Anthony Soole also finished on the outright podium along with Adam Burgess and Anton De Pasquale.
As usual, there will be battles all the way up and down the field across each of the classes.
Class X – Ultimate Performance
Full of confidence after his Bathurst 6 Hour win, Simon Hodges will be tough to beat in Class X, but he will have some opposition in the form of Anthony Soole, and also Michael Auld who will line up in the GWR Australia BMW M3 he shared with Garth Walden and Tyler Everingham at the 6 Hour.
Class A1 – High Performance Forced Induction
After chalking up a pair of outright top-three finishes at Winton, Chris Sutton occupies a handy position in the championship coming into this weekend. His Mitsubishi Evo X won’t be quite as well suited to SMP as it was to the tight confines of Winton, but Sutton has good previous form at the venue including second place outright in last year’s Sydney 300.
Sutton’s primary challenger in the class will be Alex Bryden, who slots into the RAM Motorsport Mercedes A45 after driving alongside his father Robert in the Winton enduros.
Class A2 – High Performance Naturally Aspirated
At Winton, Class A2 was dominated by HSVs and there is no doubt Matthew Holt will again be hard to beat at SMP, while Matthew Kiss should also be fast in his Clubsport. However, there’s a joker in the pack this weekend – the Mustang of Andrew Miedecke, which is the same car that Andrew’s son George drove alongside Marcos Ambrose and Tim Brook at the Bathurst 6 Hour. Uniquely, it is fitted with a 10-speed automatic transmission.
Class B1 – Performance Forced Induction
After starting the season in the On-Track Motorsport BMW 335i, John Fitzgerald debuts a new BMW 135i this weekend. Also running in a 135i will be Stephen Thompson, who makes a change from the Mitsubishi Evo X he has raced previously.
Class B2 – Performance Naturally Aspirated
The two E92 BMW M3s of Gavin Clarke and Brent Howard had a great battle at Winton and they will resume their duel at SMP this weekend.
Class C – Sports Touring
Robert Bryden will race solo in his VW Scirocco this weekend, while the On-Track Motorsport BMW 130i campaigned by Peter Johnson at Winton will this weekend by raced by the experienced Brian Anderson.
Carl Climan will also compete in the class in his VW Golf GTI.
Class D – Touring
Class D looks to be the most hotly-contested class in the field, with Sean Cade on driving duty this weekend in the title-winning car from last year, the VW Golf GTI.
After a mechanical problem sidelined him early in the weekend at Winton, David Bailey returns for another crack in his Mini Cooper S while Stewart Follows and Tim Weston are each entered in Ford Fiestas. Andrew McMaster will race his BMW 125i, Nicholas Agar is entered in the Kia Pro-Ceed GT and interestingly, Dimitri Agathos has elected to run a Nissan Pulsar rather than his usual Subaru WRX.
The class is rounded out by the Toyota 86s of Alek Hoskins and Daniel Tierney.
Class E – Small Capacity Touring
Once again, the solo entry in Class E will be the RaceAway Track Time Mazda3, with Phil Alexander to drive solo.
