April 2009
A beautiful autumn day greeted competitors for the last round of the series hosted by the Auckland Car Club. The Northern Muscle Cars ran in a combination class with racing saloons. This gave a field of 34 cars with all kinds of cars and sizes. Lap speeds between fastest and slowest were covered by over 18 seconds! The temperatures were cool but the sun was welcome.
Qualifying saw the Super GT Falcon of Matthew Carter take pole with a 1:02.54, followed by series leader Paul Sinclair. Phil Schubert in another Falcon was third. The TVR of Peter Weiser followed in fourth. Colin Meadows was the next NMC competitor in sixth overall followed by Tim La Trobe in ninth.
The general feeling was that the track was very slippery due to heavy rain the day before and drifters leaving a large amount of mud and debris behind from a previous weekends racing.
Race 1
As standard procedure the first race was a grid start and the first of a large number of incidents happened on the grid. The big tyre-smoking green Falcon of Dion Fraser put up such a smoke screen that Keith Jones in the Supercharged MX5 couldnt see his way and hit Harry Dodsons stationary Skyline. This meant the first two laps were under safety car and there was only a short four-lap sprint to the finish.
Mathew Carter showed more speed and was a comfortable winner. Remember that this car has a lot of mods when compared to the muscle cars and their stricter rules. Paul Sinclair wasnt really challenged and finished second, nine seconds back. The Corvette of Colin Meadows battled well for third, followed by the supercharged Altezza of Ian Booth.
Bruce McRae in the Monaro had some great battles with Peter Meadows 240Z and the Falcon of Dion Fraser. Andrew Turner provided some excitement with a big spin coming over the hill, but was able to continue minus a few splitter pieces.
Race 2
After a trouble-free start the action intensified through the esses, resulting in the Altezza taking to the gravel. This caused another safety car period of two laps so it was another sprint to the finish.
The placings in race one were well deserved with the results for this event being a repeat of that race. Matthew Carter couldnt beat his best lap time in race one of 1:00.09. Mike Ellis in another Falcon claimed fourth this time after some more close racing with the V8 Datsun 240Z. Roy Bingley ran well and was the only finisher in the under 4500cc class.
All in all this was an eventful meeting with a lot of crashes and delays. There were over 120 entries, which is impressive considering the status of the meeting. Looking forward to next year with the introduction of the new circuit at Hampton Downs.
Race 3
This race was abandoned due to time constraints - a sad note on which to finish the season.