Round 6 Pukekohe Park Raceway Sunday 4th March 2018
Good weather, although the forecast had been doubtful all week and a great field of 16 cars including 3 guests: John Midgley in the blue XE Falcon, David Hopper in the US Army 69 Camaro, and Lee Budd in the 1994 Mag and Turbo Falcon.
It was very pleasing to see the 3 cars that had received damage at the last meeting only 3 weeks before all present on the dummy grid for qualifying. Great job you guys, however Troy’s Dick Johnson replica Falcon had vibration issues and was retired for the day.

Qualifying
Was uneventful for all other than Troy with his vibration issues, the highlight being the first officially timed sub minute lap of Pukekohe by a Muscle car.

Race 1
Tony G got a great start and led John down the real Pukekohe back straight only to be passed under brakes going into the hairpin. John then led for 3 laps setting a Muscle Car record lap time of 59.1 until something major happened in turn 1 which saw John’s blue Falcon leaving the track in a cloud of smoke and was not unfortunately on the track again for the rest of the day.
The first 3 cars Tony G in the Charger, Clarke Hopkins in the A9X Torana and David Hopper in the Camaro finished in that order with a slight gap between each of them. Further down the field however there were some great battles. The next group were led home by Colin Schischka in the big block Corvette, Kayton in the 4 door HQ Monaro and Calvin in the VB Commodore, all within a second and a half of each other. Next was Robbo in the 65 Mustang with a small gap back to Lee, Craig in the LJ Torana XU-1 and Tony M in the XD Falcon and Chris in the 78 Mustang. Tim in the black Mercedes had brake issues with discretion winning the day after 6 scary laps. Ross in the orange A9x also came in early, along with Mike in the Winfield replica Commodore with belt issues.

Race 2 was a first handicap race which again had a few withdrawals with Colin retiring the Corvette with gear selection issues which fortunately they fixed before the last race. Mike also went out again but with a recurrence of the same belt issues and did only one lap. The race itself however saw a lot of passing with Tony G and Clarke who set his best time of the day at 60.967 coming from the rear of the field to take first and second followed by Robbo, Ross and Craig who set his best time of the meeting at a 1.09.177.

Race 3 was another handicap race in which Tony G and Clarke also managed to get their way from the back of the field to the front and in doing so Tony G set his best time of the day with a 60.457. Colin was next home followed by Tony M who set his best time of the day at 1.08.
More details on lap times from this and other meetings can be found at speedhive.mylaps.com.

Thanks to Natalie Waite we now have some uptodate content on facebook.

The positions in the 3 classes are now:
Class A: Colin, Kayton and Tony G
Class B: Tony M, Chris, Graham Cargill
Invitation: Mike, Ron Findlay, Dave Sturrock.
Our next meeting is on Saturday 7th April at Hampton Downs.