Round 5 Write-up (20 February 2011)

It was an overcast but hot day at Hampton Downs for the fifth round of the Northern Muscle Car series.

Numbers were modest with the following cars out: Colin Meadows' Corvette awaiting a new gearbox; Tony Gordon's Corvette with head and rocker damage; Graham Cargill's Charger missing due to an external split in the block; the Paul Burnet Torana with one engine waiting for some miracle head gaskets and the other engine a camshaft; and Steve Swann still missing with his Torana due to a broken crank.

However it was great to see our new member, Adam Wheeler, with his nicely presented Commodore with a 3.3 Holden 6.

Race 1 was combined with the over-2 litre modified cars with Tim La Trobe fastest lap of the class A cars at 1:11.5.  The ever reliable Tony Van Tiel led Group B with a 1:16.7 time. Bruce McRae obviously decided we were missing the flamboyant style of Paul Stubber and did a most admirable job of smoking his way around turn 4 lap after lap.

Race 2 was a handicap race with just the Northern Muscle Car field. This race was unfortunately completed under safety car conditions with Bruce McRae being the winner of Group A and Hamish Andrews the leader in Group B.

Race 3 - another handicap race, this time combined with the over-2 litre modified cars, which was unimpeded by safety cars or major incidents. This race saw Tim La Trobe winning overall followed by the two Falcon Coupes, one of which is Tony Van Tiel, our leader of Group B by a margin as big as the Falcon.

It was a great day's racing though extremely hot. Let's get those cars back together for our next round which is combined with Central at Taupo over Easter.

Results for the meeting:
Group A:
1st:  Tim La Trobe
2nd:  Bruce Mcrae

Group B:
1st:  Tony van Tiel
2nd:  Hamish Andrews
3rd:  Adam Wheeler

                                                                                                            Paul Burnet