With a good weather forecast and turnout for our last round, 14 Muscle cars including guest Russell Dunn in his 1971 XY Falcon made the grid and one interloping late model Commodore. I suspect this race may be be the first race in NZ in the last 40 years where there were 3 Chargers on the grid. I would be pleased to hear your thoughts on this.
Tony G in the Charger scorched qualifying with a personal best of 1:09.3, followed by Allan Pearce in the red Commodore and Colin Schischka in the Corvette. Troy was the leading Class B car, soon to be Class A by the lap time he put in, a very quick 1:13.057.
Race 1 got under way in fine conditions but with Colin’s Corvette joining the field from pit lane after some rear suspension issues were rectified. Kevin in the white Charger withdrew after a couple of laps with throttle cable issues causing a safety car to be deployed and Kayton after the rain started with electrical issues. Both were rectified in time for the next race. Tony G led the way home followed by Allan and Troy. Mike Dias produced a good lap time to get into the 1:13’s and came home 4th overall.
Race 2, our first handicap race, was led home by Craig Horn in the red XU-1 Torana followed by a quickly closing Allan and Tony G. This was to be the final race of the day for class winner Tony Mackenzie-Edwards as his immaculate blue XD Falcon had succumbed to drive shaft issues. Mike in the VN Commodore also retired but was to reappear for the last race.
The final race of the day was started under dubious weather conditions with Veen opting for wets but in the end with hindsight the wrong choice. Our guest Russell in the XY Falcon came out the eventual winner, again followed by Allan in the Commodore and Tony G in the Charger. Mike in the VN Commodore got oh so close to the 1:12’s with a 1:13.089.
It was really great to see some non-competing members at the track as well, thanks guys, hopefully you will be there next season with your cars.
So the season ends with these overall results:
Class A 1st, Colin Schischka, 2nd Kayton Coughey, 3rd Tony Galbraith.
Class B 1st Tony Mackenzie-Edwards, 2nd Chris Anderson, 3rd Graham Cargill.
Invitation Class 1st Mike Dias, 2nd Ron Findlay 3rd Dave Sturrock.