This season is our 30th birthday!!!!

Race Report - Levels – 16 November 2008
Thanks to Daniel Patrick & Les Hitchcock (for the spadework)

Finally, the weather gods were shining and we have a lovely hot sunny day for a change. Good to see Jim Little and Barry Morgan back on the track and Gary Parker arrived in the newly purchased ex Peter Stevenson (North Island) Anglia. Wayne Patrick’s cam finally arrived on Thursday and it was a frantic dash to get the car ready. Greg Lyon’s also had major problems and was ready to “pull the pin”, but thankfully things got themselves in order in time.
Fifteen entries were reduced to 14 when we found out that Bill Evans was in hospital with a virus.

Qualifying:
Qualifying saw Greg L running in the motor, so his times were down and Wayne P came in early due to no fuel pressure, but still managed to qualify second. Jim Little proved that he (and the car) still had what it took and qualified on pole for the first race, followed by Manny, Jim K and Roy. Bob was the best of the four cylinders followed by Johno, then back to Brian, Barry, Stu, Ray, Gary, Greg & Ian. The heat of the day made the track a bit slippery, so the times weren’t the best,

Race 1:
With Jim Little on pole, everyone thought he had the race in the bag, but a bad start saw him slip back to almost the rear of the field, but he managed to claw his way back to the front and finished 2nd behind Wayne P who had been frantically working on his fuel pressure issues. Jim K set his sights on Manny and managed to pass him to finish 3rd and Manny 4th. The competition with the top four cylinders wasn’t as fierce as the last three meetings, but the competition was still there, but Bob’s experience (or canniness) saw him get to the front of Johno and Greg L and that’s the way they finished, with Roy in front of the group. Gary Parker was having fun in his newly purchased Anglia, Ian Perry is still getting used to the track and Ray and Stu were having fun. Brian started the race, but only made it round Castrol before the throttle cable broke and Barry blew a power steering hose, which brought his race to a premature end.

Race 2 – fine, bit of cloud cover and quite windy.
Reverse top half saw Greg L on pole and beside him was Johno. On the second row was Bob and Roy, followed by Manny, Jim K and Jim L and Wayne P. The latter two made it to the front of the field in no time at all, but the race was red flagged after only two laps when Manny’s right rear axle broke and he ended up in the tyre wall. After he was successfully rescued (only minor damage to the car and none to the driver – thank goodness), the race resumed and the finishing order was very similar to the first race (minus Manny). The only other retiree was Ian P retired with a suspected run bearing.

Race 3 – reverse grid:
Manny’s crew worked hard to get him going again and with a borrowed axle from Roy, he made it. Stu and Ray battled away on their own for a while, until the rest of the field gradually caught up with them. Jim K got the best of Roy (due to Bertha’s gearbox missing some teeth) to finish first, followed by Bob, Wayne P, Johno, Manny, Greg L, Stu, Ray and Jim L. The non-finisher’s included Gary P and Brian and Barry and Ian didn’t manage to start.

Thankfully there was no major issues and for a pleasant change the weather was lovely and warm.

All in all, it was another great racing weekend with no panel damage and hopefully the mechanical issues will be sorted in time for the next meeting at Teretonga on 7th December.