There will be more than just a trophy and bragging rights on the line at this weekend’s World Time Attack Challenge at Sydney Motorsport Park. It will be a clash between the best Australia has to offer against New Zealand’s new challenger, with a sibling rivalry thrown in for good measure.
Defending champion Barton Mawer and the PR Tech Racing team with its Porsche-based RP968 will be challenged by TCR champion Josh Buchan driving the Rodin Sintura from New Zealand. To add another level to the contest, PR Technology is owned by Rob Pobestek and Rodin Cars is owned by his brother, David Dicker.
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The Rodin Sintura is a car worthy of a story on its own. Originally designed by the small Sintura car company in the late 1990s to compete in the then-booming GT1 sportscar racing class, it was not quite within the spirit of what the production-based class was meant to be.
Looking more like a pure-bred prototype, the Sintura features a carbon fibre tub with a mid-mounted 4.0-litre naturally-aspirated V10 engine that revs to 10,500rpm; so it should sound good even if it doesn’t set the fastest time.
World Time Attack Challenge organisers have allowed Rodin to compete in the Pro Class against the RP968 even if it isn’t a production car, which is the usual requirement. Still, Dicker isn’t expecting an easy run this weekend against his brother’s well-drilled team and after the Sintura has spent the past 25 years off the racetrack.
READ MORE: Dream Garage – Josh Buchan
“It’s been a hard push to get the car ready in time, and in all honesty, it’s still in testing mode,” Dicker said. “It’s likely we’ll have some challenges pop up at WTAC. Our goal is to unveil the reworked Sintura to the world, enjoy the competition, and entertain the crowd. And who knows—potentially we’ll return in 2025 with something faster!”
Beating Mawer and the RP968 will be no easy feat, despite the car having some last-minute technical problems.
“We’re behind the eight-ball,” admitted Mawer. “But we changed the steering system to try and beat our own record.”
READ MORE: Dream Garage – Barton Mawer
Which is not an easy task for a car that has evolved quite dramatically from its original road-going form.
“It’s like a prototype, it’s bespoke,” Mawer said. “You can’t buy anything for the car, you’ve got to make it.”
The RP968, which did start life as a stock Porsche 968 a long time ago, is the car to beat around Sydney Motorsport Park. Mawer has won WTAC in the car in 2018, ‘19, ‘22 and ‘23 and last year smashed his own lap record of 1:19.277 seconds with a stunning lap of 1:17.860 seconds.
This year he wants to dip into the 1:16 second bracket to establish a new benchmark for his rivals and the track.
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