This season is our 30th birthday!!!!

Race Report - Ruapuna – 17 & 18 January 2009
Thanks to Daniel Patrick & Les Hitchcock for the spadework)

Friday night – 16th January 2009
Mary Hurst had organised a photo shoot at the Wigram airbase that is being demolished to make way for residential properties and a total of 22 cars (which includes the late arrival of Greg Stewart), along with their respective drivers and pit-crew posed for the photos – some we haven’t seen for a while and some new ones and unfortunately, some were missing. Some were minus the motor, some were out of storage and the remaining vehicles were there for the weekend’s racing. It was a great success and we thank Mary & Lyn for their efforts in organising it all.

Saturday – 17th January 2009
The weather was beautiful – fine and sunny and very warm, which was a pleasant change from the first meeting of the season here.

Qualifying:
Sixteen cars took to the track for qualifying and we welcomed back Cliff in his Chevy Nova – thanks to the work put in by Chris Blackwood. It was also good to see Bill Evans, Darryl Jordon and Greg Stewart back racing with us.
Qualifying saw Wayne P take pole position, followed by Jim Kelly, Manny and Greg Stewart. Manny had an oil line come off, which produced alarming amounts of smoke. Johno pulled off soon after and explained that his sudden departure from the track was “fuel starvation issues” i.e. he didn’t have any! – which cost him a shout at the bar on Saturday night.
Greg Lyons had done a lot of work to get the car back together after Teretonga and Gary Parker major engine issues at Timaru and has been doing major work to get everything sorted out.

Race 1:
Manny got a very good start, but once Wayne P & Jim K got going, they caught up and passed him in a very short time. The first four cars – Wayne, Jim, Manny & Greg S spread out in a V8 procession, but all eyes were watching the battle between Roy & Cliff, which made for exciting racing with Roy having the upper hand experience and having good brakes in the twisty bits and Cliff having the upper edge with the power down the straight.
Greg L worked hard to replace a split front crankshaft seal and it was worth the effort because he came second in the C class cars. There was a great battle in the C class cars with Stu having his best ever start and a great finish even though his left front wheel was lifting higher and higher everytime he came on to the front straight. Bob developed a respiratory problem – dropping yet another lung! Ian’s times are down because he was running a modified road engine amongst other difficulties. Brian had to shout when it was discovered that a Chev pulley doesn’t work the same on a Ford – and he had to borrow a pit crew (Roy, Ross & Pagie) to fix it!!!

Sunday – 18th January 2009 – another fine and sunny and very hot day.
Race 2:
Reverse top half saw Brian on pole and unfortunately, this affected his start when he missed a gear. Manny had another great start and quickly took the lead. This was once more taken off him when Wayne made it through the field to take first place. Jim Kelly did well to finish third and Roy & Greg S came in behind him. Johno did well to keep in front of Greg L who had started off in 12th place and Brian and the remaining field of four cylinders finished as follows – 8th Brian Scott, 9th Bill Evans, 10th Ray Hurst, 11th Stu Mitchell, 12th Gary Parker, 13th Darryl Jordon and 14th Ian Perry. Cliff finally gave up his battle with fading brakes and had a DNF.

Race 3 – reverse grid:
The rain clouds were building and there were a few spits of rain while the cars were on the assembly area, but it cleared up and dried off in no time and they had another dry race.
Cliff still had brake issues, so he took it easy. Ray pulled off with an unknown problem that left him with no power, so hopefully it’s not too bad.
Ian started off by himself, but the rest of the field caught up on him in no time. Manny had a demon run and got to the front within four laps, followed closely by Wayne then Roy. Jim K went off the track to “check the spuds”, but when he got back on the black stuff he discovered the car was down on power. Johno managed to finish just ahead of Greg L in C class and Greg S did a little circular dance coming on to the front straight.

Thankfully there were very few DNF’s and hopefully no major engine issues which was great.
Only three rounds to go and we meet again at Ruapuna on 7 & 8 March 2009. Looking forward to seeing you all there!