Second Hampton Downs Win In A Row For Team Bond’s #007 Toyota

Team Bond claimed its second 8-Hour Lemon Squeeze novelty endurance race win in as many days at the Hampton Downs motor racing complex in the northern Waikato on Sunday.

It did so in style too, despite the margin being considerably closer on Sunday.

In that 8-Hour race the difference between the winning #007 Team Bond Toyota Celica and the runner-up Team Skud car (which finished on the same lap) was measured in seconds (1.646) rather than the multiple race laps (12) of the first of the two stand-alone 8 Hour endurance races of the Lemon Squeeze weekend on Saturday.

But as the man behind the increasingly popular novelty long distance races events, Aucklander Dr Jacob Simonsen said last night; ‘a win’s a win and the Bond #007 guys need to give themselves a hearty pat on the back for what they have achieved this weekend.

“To win just one of the two 8 Hour races this weekend would have been considered quite an achievement. But to win both of them… well, it’s almost unprecedented, isn’t it?

Sunday’s weather and track conditions could hardly have been more different to those which greeted the 40-strong field for the Saturday race.

Second overall in Sunday’s race and crossing the finish line just 1.646 of a second behind the winning Team Bond #007 car was Team Skud, with Team Go Gecko Go third overall, 10 laps back but three up on Saturday race runners-up Team Band-Aid who ended up fourth overall on 289 laps, five more than Trickle Racing in fifth and seven more than Team Pineapple who were sixth.

Event organiser Dr Jacob Simonsen reiterated last night that he had ‘absolutely no regrets’ going ahead and running the two-day meeting under the most restrictive (red) of the NZ Government’s latest COVID Response Framework. And despite the daily infection rate of the more infectious Omicron strain of the COVID-19 Coronavirus soaring to over 2000 yesterday (Sunday) he says he would do it again ‘in a heartbeat.’

“As far as I am concerned,” Dr Simonsen said last night,” it would have been worth it just to see some of our regulars – be they volunteers, competitors, whatever - back at a track doing something they love.

“The fact that we could do it in the middle of a pandemic makes it all the more important, and something for which I owe a huge debt of gratitude not only to all my own people but also to the management and staff at Hampton Downs who have worked alongside me to turn what I think many others thought was a pipe dream into reality.

“I’ve always believed,” he said,” that because of the closed nature of competition car vs car that motor racing has got to be one of – if not THE only – major sport able to legitimately run regular competitive events under the Government’s COVID Protection Framework (Traffic Light System) – particularly the red one we are in right now.”

This weekend was Dr Simonsen’s chance to put theory into practise. And now that he has proved a point, he reckons he will be ‘going gangbusters’ over the next couple of months putting together more, with information on the new NaZCAR/LeMons races able to be found on the 24 hours of NaZCAR page on Facebook at facebook.com/NaZCAR

Lemon Squeeze 8 Hour Race 2 Sunday Feb 20, 2022

1. Team Bond 007 302 laps 7:58:59:13.107
2. Team Skud 302 laps + 1.646
3. Team Go Gecko Go 292 laps + 10 laps
4. Team Band Aid 289 laps +13 laps
5. Trickle Racing 284 laps +18 laps
6. Team Pineapple 282 laps +20 laps
7. Dad’s Army Divebombers 278 laps +24 laps
8. Team 6 Ugga Duggas Racing 276 laps +26 laps
9. Team GetS**tDone 273 laps + 29 laps
10. Mr Magoo’s Driving Academy 270 laps +32 laps

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