Tyrepower Joondalup Festival of Motoring // Fast and Furious style battle unfolds on track in Joondalup

The Tyrepower Joondalup City Sprint featured an on-track battle that would have made a Fast and Furious scriptwriter proud when the drivers of two favourites of Japanese car culture, a Toyota Supra and Nissan GTR, were posting times so close that the winner wasn’t clear until the last run.

The Joondalup City Sprint is part of the Tyrepower Joondalup Festival of Motoring, a two day free to attend motoring feast that combines motorsport, car displays, activations, entertainment and food outlets.

The Sprint was Sunday’s program highlight for the thousands of eventgoers who turned out to watch 140 competitors try and set the fastest time on the 2.2 km closed city street course. In a test of horsepower and driving skill, the participants had four runs of the course, with the cumulative time of their fastest three determining the final result.

The GWM Toyota Supra had a successful weekend on the results sheets, being driven by both first-placegetter Bryce Moore and third-placegetter Mark Cirillo.

Simon Richards splits the two Supra drivers and continues the tradition of a Nissan R32GTR taking second place at the Joondalup City Sprint, with the Godzilla of Matt James-Wallace clinching second in 2022.

Moore secured the victory with the narrowest of margins. He beat Richards by only fractions of a second across all three counting runs, ending up with a cumulative time of 4:55.55 compared to Richards’ final time of 4:55.79.

Moore credits the team at GMW for building a vehicle that withstood the mechanical stress test of its double competition duty.

“This is only the Supra’s second outing,” said Moore. “A huge thanks to the boys at GMW for putting the car together. We are so happy to bring this fantastic result home for the team.

“Simon has a very different car from ours. It is slippery out there, and the Supra is rear-wheel drive, so it is harder to get the power down.

“We knew we didn’t have the horsepower compared to Simon, so we had to make the most of the corners and keep the speed up.”

Simon Richards’ was happy to finally experience the Joondalup City Sprint in his 650hp Nissan R32 GTR after missing the inaugural event.  

“I haven’t used the car for a while,” said Richards, “So I thought it would be good to get back out there with it.

“People said the last event was really good fun, and I felt a little like I missed out. I was lucky to be back in Perth in time for this event and to race.

“The course is quite tight for my car, but I got speed up in some sections, and my driving improved over the course of the day.”

After being a couple of seconds off the Top 5 pace in Run 1, third-place Mark Cirillo quickly got to grips with the Supra, and as his time fell, his place up the order rose. He finished with a final time of 4:57.42.

Cirillo was also very grateful to GMW for the work they had put into the Toyota Supra.

“They’ve (GMW) been a big, big sponsor for us and have put a heap of time into building the whole thing,” said Cirillo. “So, a huge thanks to the team at GMW and all the other sponsors as well.”

“The crowds this weekend have been unbelievable. It was great to see kids getting out and wanting photos of the cars and to see them being given a rev. A lot of people came out to the event, and we enjoyed the support.”

While the cars on the track may have been a blur to spectators, motoring groups provided nearly 1,000 static display vehicles, including some rare exotics from curated private collections for people to get a closer look at.

Event Director Justin Hunt appreciated seeing the automotive community out in force supporting the event.

“We have some wonderful car groups in WA who enthusiastically commit to and promote events such as ours, and we really couldn’t do it without them,” said Hunt.

“Northern Steel Car Club brought 220 member cars on Saturday night, Cars and Coffee have told us they had an attendance of over 600 cars in their section on Sunday, and the Hyundai N group had over 60 vehicles. We’ve already had many clubs ask us for a bigger display area next year.

“The Joondalup city centre was buzzing, and we thank the local businesses and residents for their understanding.

“While our event brings free family entertainment and puts Joondalup on show, we acknowledge that this event can interrupt daily life for some locals due to the road closures and increased traffic to the area. The event team would like to thank them for their patience and understanding.

“We’d also like to thank the event volunteers, sponsors, competitors and the City of Joondalup.

“We hope to build upon the success of the past two events and bring a whole heap of colour and horsepower back to Joondalup next year.”

For a complete listing of overall and class results for the Tyrepower Joondalup City Sprint, please see www.mstalr.com.

For the latest Festival news and information, please visit www.jfom.com.au (website), facebook.com/joondalupfom (Facebook) and @joondalupfom (Instagram).

SHARE

More News

2025! Save The Date

Fire up your engines – the Tyrepower Festival of Motoring will return to the streets of Joondalup from 2 to 4 May 2025. The date

Read more >