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MRA Series Round 5, Sydney Motorsport Park, Gardner Circuit, Sunday 5 July 2026

A cold July morning at Eastern Creek greeted the Oztrack Super TT field for Round 5 of the MRA Series, with car #17 lining up for one qualifying session and three 20-minute races on the Gardner circuit.

It turned out to be the kind of day club racing is built on. No headlines, no dramas, just a car that ran faultlessly and lap times that came down every time it left the pit lane.

Qualifying

Qualifying set the baseline with a 1:49.405, good for P19 in a 27-car field. Plenty of pace up the road, but a clear picture of where the day could go.

The races

Race 1 brought a safety car and a busy midfield, with #17 coming home P16 outright and fifth in the O2T class, lowering its best lap to 1:49.209 along the way.

Race 2 was a scrappier affair, with three safety car laps and penalties handed out elsewhere in the field. The result read P15 and fifth in class again, and the lap time kept trending the right way at 1:48.970.

Race 3 was the strongest run of the weekend. In a race shortened to seven laps by another safety car, #17 finished P11 outright on the lead lap, fifth in class once more, with a best of 1:48.928, the quickest lap of the car's weekend.

The numbers

Faster in every session, three finishes from three starts, and P19 on the grid converted to P11 on the road by the end of the day. On an afternoon where safety cars appeared in all three races and a number of quick cars failed to see the flag, reliability and consistency did a lot of the heavy lifting.

The crew

Thanks to David Krusza for spending the day on the radio, keeping the information flowing and the driving honest, and to the MRA officials and volunteers who stand out in the cold so the rest of us can race.

The supporters

None of it happens without the businesses behind the car: Pinnacle Automotive, Kelly+Partners Penrith, 7Chairs Photo/Video, Mirila Electrical Group, CC Tyres, RETSA Group and Black Track Towing.

Next stop, Round 6. The car is ready and there is more time in it yet.

The Viola Private Wealth Sydney 300 was always going to be a long night. Seventy six laps, more than fifty cars on track, six safety car periods and a forecast that kept everyone honest.

By the time the chequered flag fell, the #17 BMW E36 had climbed from the very back of the field to 11th outright and first in Class D. Our biggest result yet.

The numbers tell the story better than we can, so let's walk through them.

Started P41

It did not begin the way we wanted. We lined up 33rd, but a start mix up shuffled the #17 back to P41 and the rear of the field before the race had really settled.

That is a tough place to start a 300 from, but it also set up the climb that defined our night.

Rummler's first stint: P41 to P9

From P41, Marcus put his head down and went to work. The early laps were about clean, consistent pace and picking off cars as they came. By lap 14 the #17 had cracked the top 30.

The big move came through the middle of the stint, climbing from the high 20s into the teens across a run of strong, repeatable laps.

The car kept coming. By lap 38 the BMW was running as high as P9 outright, a remarkable position for a Class D car in a field that size.

That peak is the high point of the red line on the chart and the foundation of the whole result. Thirty something positions gained from the back of the grid in a single stint.

Stop and driver change

The Sydney 300 threw safety cars at the field all night, and one of them landed perfectly for us. With the safety car out around lap 41 the field was bunched and slowed, so the team brought Marcus in to take our compulsory five minute stop and driver change right when it cost us the least track position.

A green flag stop would have dropped us much further down the order. A clean 5:03 in pit lane, David swapped in and rejoined on a P19 out lap. Exactly the kind of tidy, undramatic stop that keeps a race on track.

Krusza's second stint: holding the class lead home

David's job was to bring it home, and he did it without a flaw. The blue line on the chart is the picture of a clean, controlled second stint.

No mistakes, no offs, just steady laps that nursed the car and the position through the back half of the race and the late safety car periods.

By the flag the #17 had worked back up to 11th outright and held first in Class D out of fifteen cars. Two drivers, two clean stints, one result.

The takeaway

This is what endurance racing rewards. Not one hero lap, but a full night of good decisions, clean driving and a crew that nailed the stop.

Marcus dug the result out of a P41 hole, David protected it to the line, and the team gave both of them a car that could do the job for the full distance.

Thank you

None of this happens without our partners and the people in the garage. Thank you to Pinnacle Automotive, Kelly+Partners Penrith, 7Chairs and everyone who backs the Project E36 program.

Thanks to Terry and the team at MRA for organising the event, and to our Class D sponsor Fastrack Experiences, who put up the prize money that saw us take home $1000 for the class win.

Thank you also to the ARDC and Sydney Motorsport Park, and to every volunteer and official who gave up their weekend to make the racing happen. Last but not least, thank you to every family member and friend who came out to cheer the #17 home.

Onto the next one.

Per lap positions traced manually from the Natsoft lap chart.

The Project E36 Race Team and RETSA Group will be running custom race strategy software at the Sydney 300 on 13 June.

Built in-house and tested across multiple events this season, the tool gives our pit wall live decision support during compulsory pit stops, calculating the exact moment to release the car so we exit pit lane just past the mandatory minimum. No stopwatches, no mental maths under pressure.

Combined with live position, fuel, and lap tracking, it's a small edge that adds up over 300km.

Two weeks to go. See you at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Project E36 has added a new feature to the website with the launch of Project E36 Radio, a curated Spotify playlist that brings a bit more personality to the race team's online home.

The idea is simple: a soundtrack for the build, the late nights in the shed, the road trips, the pre-event prep, and the weekends at the track.

Rather than just posting updates, photos, and race reports, Project E36 Radio adds another small layer to the story behind the team. It is not a serious motorsport development update, and it is not pretending to be a real radio station. It is just a bit of fun, a way to share the music and mood that helps keep the project moving.

The playlist will continue to grow over time, with tracks added around race weekends, garage sessions, road trips, and key moments in the Project E36 journey.

You can find Project E36 Radio on Spotify now and follow along as the playlist builds.

Plenty more to come, both on and off the track.

Project E36 returned to the track this week for a valuable shakedown ahead of the upcoming Sydney 300, with Marcus Rummler getting back behind the wheel after a few months out of the car.

Conditions were mixed early in the day, with a damp track creating a cautious start to the session. Running on slick tyres meant the opening laps were taken steadily, with the focus on building confidence, checking the car, and easing back into rhythm rather than chasing outright pace straight away.

As the track began to dry and grip levels improved, the car came alive and lap times started to fall. The session quickly turned into a productive day of preparation, with Marcus able to put together a series of strong laps and finish with a new personal best.

"It was good to get back in the car and blow out the cobwebs," Marcus said. "It was probably more of a driver shakedown than a car shakedown, but we still managed to find a couple of things to tweak. Once the track came in, the car felt good and the times started to improve."

The day provided an important confidence boost ahead of the Sydney 300, while also giving the team a chance to identify a few final areas for adjustment before race weekend.

Project E36 now turns its attention to final preparations for the event on June 13, with the team looking forward to taking on one of the key endurance events on the calendar.

A big thank you to the people and businesses supporting the program behind the scenes: RETSA Group | Kelly+Partners Accountants | Mirila Electrical Group | BLACK TRACK Towing | CC Tyres | 7chairs

Plenty more to come as we continue the build-up to the Sydney 300.

Our team is currently deep into off-season preparations, focusing on comprehensive car maintenance and performance tuning. We're conducting thorough inspections of all critical systems, replacing worn components, and fine-tuning the engine and suspension setup. This essential maintenance work during the racing break ensures our BMW E36 will be in peak condition when we return to the track. The team is also using this time to analyze data from the previous season and implement improvements based on our learnings.

What a fantastic weekend at Sydney Motorsport Park! Our driver delivered an outstanding performance, securing a well-deserved P3 finish in a highly competitive field. The team's pit strategy and car setup proved to be spot-on, allowing us to maintain consistent lap times throughout the race. This podium finish puts us in a strong position for the championship standings.

We've wrapped up our pre-season testing program with excellent results. Over three days of intensive testing, we covered over 500 kilometers and gathered valuable data on our car's performance. The new suspension setup is working beautifully, and our lap times are consistently competitive. The team is feeling confident heading into the new season.