Series Wraps Up In Sunshine

Series Wraps Up In Sunshine

Feilding Auto Electrical Winter Race Series Round 4 Report

It was the wettest winter on record for the Manawatu, but the first Sunday of each month from June to September stayed dry for the best club race series in the country.

Formula Libre is for open-wheel race cars and sports cars but all eyes have been on the Formula First battle this year. Despite suffering from the flu, Brook Reeve showed his class by leading Brodie McKonkey and Chris Symon over the line in race 1. Symon took a well-earned win in race 2 from Reeve and McKonkey with the first four cars separated by only 0.5sec. In race 3 the order was Reeve, McKonkey and Symon. The top six cars were covered by just 0.918sec! The Formula Libre Cup goes to Craig Greenwood who took advantage of Reeve’s absence in Round 2 by collecting a good points haul and staying consistent all season. Reeve claims second over rookie Liam Lawson who will definitely be one to watch over summer.

And with summer just around the corner, more GT Cup cars finally came out to play. Glen Smith debuted his Crawford Ford, Ross Thurston revealed his recently repaired Evo Lancer, Steve Hildred had his classic Monaro back on track for the first time since a major engine rebuild, John Rush showed off the new front bodywork of his Escort V8 and Craig ‘Zippo’ MacIntosh once again wrestled with his rabid Evo Lancer.

Race 1 saw the 4wds of Thurston and MacIntosh launch off the line and lead through turn one but the superior speed of Smith’s Crawford gave him an easy win over Thurston and MacIntosh. Race 2 reverse top 10 was again a Smith-Thurston 1-2 with Hildred third. Race 3 handicap went to John Rush who miraculously found four seconds a lap and made the handicapper throw all his calculations in the bin. Adam Newell was second with a fast-finishing Smith third. The GT Cup went to Craig Bartosh in his Capri having a quiet day, Shaun Sheldrake second and Mitch Kerr third despite sitting out this round

IB Cup produced the biggest field of the meeting. Dave Scott scampered off in his Ford 302 V8-powered MX5 to win the first race from Ross Gordon in the Sentra and Peter Edmond in the Volvo. In Race 2 Steven Metcalf held on to his reverse top 10 advantage and led Scott from series leader Dave Thomsen, who prevailed in the handicap race over Troy Howard and Grant Anderson. Thomsen took the IB Cup from Edmond, who had a frustrating season with car issues, with Metcalf third.

Matt Tasker took his fourth win of the season in race 1 of SF Cup, ahead of Kolin Yannakis in the Volvo 850 and Matt Smith in the Trueno. Tasker had win number five in the reverse top 10 race 2 over Graeme Bretherton’s Commodore and Yannakis. Neil Rush won the Handicap from Bretherton and Jeff Cooley. Tasker won the SF Cup after a season-long tussle with Daniel Hetterscheid who had a horror meeting, first with a flat tyre then a collapsed wheel bearing. The Celica was on the trailer for race 3 effectively handing the championship to Tasker, whose season-winning margin was only 66 points. Neil Rush was third in the Integra.

Racing within SF Cup were Andrew Johnson and Geoff Boyden who were the only entrants in the European Cup. Johnson had three out of three wins and takes the title with a near clean-sweep from Boyden.

In RS Cup Ben Boyden won the scratch race in his wife’s Corolla from Ryan Cooksley’s Escort and Simon Wellum’s Laser. The timekeepers pinged five drivers for break-outs with Mike James and Oliver Edmond both exactly 0.022sec too fast! Cooksley won race 2 from Boyden with NZV8 driver Brock Cooley relegated to third for breaking out by 0.04 sec in the Corolla. Bron Kokich had a popular win in the handicap and also won the heart of fellow RS Cupper Anthony Bell, who popped the question in the pits! Anna Wild was second with Boyden third. The RS Cup is Cooksley’s from Mike James in the HQ and Ben Boyden, who will need to find another car as wife Tammie will be back racing in her car next season.

MX5 Cup race one was a cliff-hanger with the lead swapping between Bryce Hogg and close rival Jeremy Hoskins all race long. Hogg won from Hoskins but only by 0.109sec with Gareth Hogg third only 0.677sec adrift. Richard Skilton took race two from Bryce Hogg and Derek Smythe, who can now throw away his rookie status. Career win number two went to air-punching Tim Wilde in the handicap with Blair Murray second and Gareth Hogg third. Jerry Hoskins was in the mix early but dramatically dropped off the pace and slowly toured around to finish for at least some points. Reports filtered back that the gas station-owning Hoskins had forgotten to re-fuel the car for the last race! The MX5 Cup goes to Bryce Hogg with brother Gareth runner up and the unlucky Hoskins third.

Fourteen cars lined up for race 1 of Classics Cup. Layton Hammond proved he’s coming to grips with his rapid Zetec Escort Mk1 by winning from Alan Limmer in the Porsche 930 Turbo and Grant Rivers in the Mustang. Hammond negotiated the field to take race 2, with Tom Lancaster second in the Capri and John Gray third in the Corolla FXGT. The order changed in the handicap with Lancaster leading Gray from Hammond who peeled of a 1.19.072 lap in the chase. Hammond owns the Classics Cup again from fellow Escort-mounted Ross McKormick and Philip McQuoid in a Ford lock-out.

Throughout the 2015 Feilding Auto Electrical Winter Series the Manawatu Car Club hosted 132 individual drivers on four fine race days in the wettest winter on record. The SF Cup had the most variety with nine different makes with a range of fwd, rwd, 4wd, mid engine, normally aspirated, turbocharged, four cylinder, five cylinder and six cylinder engines, proving we have a race class for eveyone.

The Committee thanks all the competitors who raced with us this season. We hope you enjoyed our events and look forward to your support over the summer and of course next year’s Winter Series.

Jeff Braid
Secretary

ENDS

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