Fisher retakes Suzuki series lead at Manfeild

Fisher retakes Suzuki series lead at Manfeild

Auckland race driver Dane Fisher again tops the points-table for the Suzuki Swift Sport Cup following the series’ penultimate round at Manfeild Autocourse on 13 February.

In the Trinity Media-Winger Suzuki, Fisher didn’t actually win any of the three Suzuki races at the Manawatu circuit, but his strong fifth, third and 11th placings saw the 31-year-old general manager accumulate the biggest points haul of the weekend and ease back into the lead of the hotly-contested small car race series.

With just one round of the championship to run in Taupo in March, Fisher commented: “It’s a pretty tight lead, but this weekend was about consolidating position really. It was always a tight battle with such tight racing, so you’ve got to drive quite defensively. The boys out in front pulled away and we were in our own little battle during those races, but leading the series we’ll take it to Taupo with good confidence. That’s my favourite track, so I’m really looking forward to the final round.”

Lower Hutt’s Grant Ryan had the pace on Saturday, qualifying on pole with Waiuku’s Rex McCutcheon beside him on the front row and Fisher on row two with Upper Hutt’s Jamie Gaskin alongside.

Eighteen Suzukis piled into the first turn of Saturday afternoon’s 10-lap race with the leaders holding firm as those on the outside tried to squeeze in to take the straighter line into Manfeild’s opening right-hander sweeper.

Ryan comfortably held the others at bay through the opening few laps before being passed by Rangiora’s determined teenager Chris Cox, who’d worked his way up from fifth position. Hard-charging race debutant Patrick Cronin, from Marton, moved in to third position.

As Cox established a small gap over his pursuers, Ryan had to defend against Gaskin in the LG-ZM Suzuki as well as the Fisher and McCutcheon. Dicing and duelling, numerous competitors made small mistakes with then points-table leader Mike Turley, from Auckland, only able to improve from his qualifying position of eleventh to seventh.

Cox kept control of the race to secure his third win of the season, being followed across the line by Ryan, McCutcheon, Gaskin and Fisher.

“After the wins at Timaru I just wanted to keep it going, even after the engine blow-up in practise on Friday. But to win again I’m just ecstatic, it’s even better than I could imagine,” said Cox, whose small team is still without his mother following a serious road crash involving his parents in January. “Mum’s doing really well; she’s back home now and doing fantastic,” noted the 18-year-old.

Continuing summer weather gave Sunday’s spectators a greater appreciation of the Suzuki’s close competition, with the morning race again dishing up some surprises.

While Cox led comfortably away from the line for the 10-lap race, Ryan’s outside start position meant he was off the ideal racing line which provided an opportunity for Taupo’s Mark Gibson to join with McCutcheon in the front-running pack.

Gibson, another 18-year-old in this class, snatched the lead from Cox early on, and then was relieved of Cox’s relentless pressure on the seventh lap when Cox ran out of braking room and spun at the end of the front straight. Back in fourth, Ryan was powerless to stop as Cox crossed his path and the resulting impact saw the rest of the field slow drastically in an attempt to avoid further carnage. This left Gibson and McCutcheon with a clear run at the front, virtually having the race to themselves and crossing the finish line one-two. Coming out of the earlier mass concertina move in a strong third place, Fisher needed to only finish in front of Turley to take back the title lead. Competitors in positions four to nine were running bumper-to-bumper, with Ryan managing to claw back to finish fourth, in front of Turley in fifth and AJ Lauder sixth.

The weekend’s third Suzuki race delivered yet another victor with series newcomer Simon Evans, from Auckland, becoming the eighth different winner in the 15 races contested so far this season.

The full reverse grid 12-lapper had Timaru’s Daniel Liemburg on pole with Auckland’s Marc Spring in the VnC Cocktails Suzuki alongside in second. Liemburg held the lead for most of the opening lap, but Spring then got the jump on him while Hamilton’s Shaun Lawrence moved through to third.

Back down the field in positions 12 and 13, Fisher was being held out by Turley, while Spring’s lead was being challenged by Evans in the Castrol Edge car – the pair continually swapped positions for the race lead.

As the field began to spread in to see-sawing groups, the searing weather conditions really softened the available tyre grip. The Spring/Evans battle was punctuated with Chris Cox’s arrival into the front-running pack. Gibson also entered the fray for the lead on the penultimate lap, but at the chequered flag it was Evans from Spring and Cox. Turley managed to manoeuvre through the field to tenth which put him two places in front of Fisher, but Fisher clawed one of those places back to finish eleventh and take a five point lead in the overall standings.

Suzuki New Zealand motorsport manager Darren Stevens commented: “It was a pretty exciting weekend, you’d have to say. Chris Cox is one of the standout performers. After everything he’s been through recently, he came back with a vengeance to score another race win. Congratulations also to Mark Gibson for his hard-fought win. It was great to see Marc Spring up there in the third race, so that was good driving from him and then to get the Castrol Edge car of Simon Evans through to the final race win; that was fantastic!”

The Suzuki Swift Sport Cup season finale takes place in Taupo from 11 to 13 March with three more races wrapping up a fantastic season of racing from New Zealand’s most popular and competitive one make, small car class.
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Race 1 (10 laps), Round 5, 2010/11 Suzuki Swift Sport Cup
1, Chris Cox, Rangiora, Suzuki Swift Sport, 14:31.451
2, Grant Ryan, Lower Hutt, Suzuki Swift Sport, +2.664
3, Rex McCutcheon, Waiuku, Suzuki Swift Sport, +3.099
4, Jamie Gaskin, Upper Hutt, Suzuki Swift Sport, +5.227
5, Dane Fisher, Auckland, Suzuki Swift Sport, +7.242
6, Mark Gibson, Taupo, Suzuki Swift Sport, +8.534
7, Mike Turley, Auckland, Suzuki Swift Sport, +8.937
8, Patrick Cronin, Marton, Suzuki Swift Sport, +8.955
9, Rob Gibson, Taupo, Suzuki Swift Sport, +9.477
10, Marc Spring, Auckland, Suzuki Swift Sport, +10.333
11, AJ Lauder, Turua, Suzuki Swift Sport, +10.935
12, Ben Erickson, Christchurch, Suzuki Swift Sport, +11.508
13, Simon Evans, Auckland, Suzuki Swift Sport, +11.658
14, Shaun Lawrence, Hamilton, Suzuki Swift Sport, +13.213
15, Amy Vincent, Papakura, Suzuki Swift Sport, +18.492
16, Brad Lauder, Turua, Suzuki Swift Sport, +23.881
17, Sam Barry, Takapau, Suzuki Swift Sport, +28.581
DNF, Daniel Liemburg, Timaru, Suzuki Swift Sport (lap 3)

Race 2 (10 laps), Round 5, 2010/11 Suzuki Swift Sport Cup
1, Mark Gibson, Taupo, Suzuki Swift Sport, 14:26.973
2, Rex McCutcheon, Waiuku, Suzuki Swift Sport, +2.671
3, Dane Fisher, Auckland, Suzuki Swift Sport, +8.079
4, Grant Ryan, Lower Hutt, Suzuki Swift Sport, +13.403
5, Mike Turley, Auckland, Suzuki Swift Sport, +13.540
6, AJ Lauder, Turua, Suzuki Swift Sport, +13.674
7, Rob Gibson, Taupo, Suzuki Swift Sport, +13.853
8, Ben Erickson, Christchurch, Suzuki Swift Sport, +15.450
9, Simon Evans, Auckland, Suzuki Swift Sport, +15.661
10, Patrick Cronin, Marton, Suzuki Swift Sport, +15.709
11, Jamie Gaskin, Upper Hutt, Suzuki Swift Sport, +17.089
12, Sam Barry, Takapau, Suzuki Swift Sport, +17.520
13, Brad Lauder, Turua, Suzuki Swift Sport, +19.848
14, Shaun Lawrence, Hamilton, Suzuki Swift Sport, +24.767
15, Daniel Liemburg, Timaru, Suzuki Swift Sport, +24.923
16, Amy Vincent, Papakura, Suzuki Swift Sport, +1:03.594
DNF, Chris Cox, Rangiora, Suzuki Swift Sport (lap 7)
DNF, Marc Spring, Auckland, Suzuki Swift Sport (lap 3)

Race 3 (12 laps), Round 5, 2010/11 Suzuki Swift Sport Cup
1, Simon Evans, Auckland, Suzuki Swift Sport, 17:31.616
2, Marc Spring, Auckland, Suzuki Swift Sport +0.769
3, Chris Cox, Rangiora, Suzuki Swift Sport +0.776
4, Mark Gibson, Taupo, Suzuki Swift Sport, +1.082
5, AJ Lauder, Turua, Suzuki Swift Sport, +6.626
6, Grant Ryan, Lower Hutt, Suzuki Swift Sport, +8.513
7, Ben Erickson, Christchurch, Suzuki Swift Sport, +9.011
8, Shaun Lawrence, Hamilton, Suzuki Swift Sport, +9.280
9, Jamie Gaskin, Upper Hutt, Suzuki Swift Sport, +9.766
10, Mike Turley, Auckland, Suzuki Swift Sport, +11.385
11, Dane Fisher, Auckland, Suzuki Swift Sport, +12.012
12, Rex McCutcheon, Waiuku, Suzuki Swift Sport, +12.230
13, Daniel Liemburg, Timaru, Suzuki Swift Sport, +16.955
14, Amy Vincent, Papakura, Suzuki Swift Sport, +18.100
15, Brad Lauder, Turua, Suzuki Swift Sport, +18.680
16, Rob Gibson, Taupo, Suzuki Swift Sport, +21.360
17, Sam Barry, Takapau, Suzuki Swift Sport, +1:18.134
18, Patrick Cronin, Marton, Suzuki Swift Sport, +1:24.396

Suzuki Swift Sporting Cup points – after round five of six.
Pos,Car No.,Name,Hometown,Total
1,6,Mike Turley,Auckland,823
2,91,Dane Fisher,Auckland,828
3,11,Grant Ryan,Lower Hutt,797
4,87,A.J. Lauder,Turua,723
5,12,Chris Cox,Rangiora,689
6,41,Jamie Gaskin,Upper Hutt,680
7,35,Mark Gibson,Taupo,720
8,14,Shaun Lawrence,Hamilton,623
9,89,Marc Spring,Auckland,593
10,5,Rex McCutcheon,Waiuku,558
11,34,Rob Gibson,Taupo,482
12,22,Amy Vincent,Papakura,412
13,10,Ben Erickson,Christchurch,422
14,71,Sam Barry,Takapau,383
15,15,Brad Lauder,Turua,380
16,4,Tom Barker,Christchurch,313
17,23,Daniel Liemburg,Timaru,321
18,27,Allan Jarvis,Brisbane,151
19,7,Ryan Bailey,Auckland,135

2010/11Suzuki Swift Sport Cup Calendar
Round, Date, Venue, Inviting Club
1, 5-7 November 2010, Pukekohe, NZIGP Inc
2, 26-28 November 2010, Ruapuna, Canterbury Car Club Inc
3, 14-16 January 2011, Teretonga, Southland Sports Car Club Inc
4, 20-23 January 2011, Timaru, South Canterbury Car Club Inc
5, 11-13 February 2011, Manfeild, Manawatu Car Club Inc
6, 11-13 March 2011, Taupo, Taupo Car Club Inc

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