Round 3 Taupo Sunday 23rd November 2019

The forecast was for fine weather and that’s what we got with the day getting hotter and hotter as it went on.
We had a smallish entry with 8 members including new club member Bruce Dreadon in his black 64 Mustang and a guest appearance by Russell Dunn in his XY Falcon. Qualifying went well and because it was cool and the tyres were not yet destroyed by Taupo’s abrasive surface most drivers recorded their best times during this season. Fastest was Tony G in the Charger with a 1.37.1, followed by the very crisp sounding Torana of Clarke Hopkins at 1.38.2 and then Allan in his Commodore at 1:40.4

Race 1
The cars did not quite line up as they qualified, Tony G had to start from pit lane due to a clothing malfunction. Clarke roared off into the distance initially followed by Allan then Russell but rising oil temperatures in the Commodore caused Allan to slow being passed near the end by Russell. Tony meanwhile was charging through the field to ultimately finish second to Clarke.
In Class B however things were much more tightly fought between Chris Anderson, in his black 78 Mustang, Craig in his 72 XU-1 Torana and Andrew Ross in his 85 Pinepac replica XE Falcon, however Andrew began to slow on lap 3 retiring on lap 4 with what was later diagnosed as a broken rocker stud.

Race 2
This was a handicap race which was comfortably won by Craig in the XU-1 as the faster cars were unable to get anywhere near the times they set in qualifying Tony G for example being 5 seconds a lap slower and Clarke 3 seconds a lap slower and so it was that the two Class B cars of Craig and Chris lead the way home with Colin in the big block Corvette third.

Race 3
By our final race of the day which was combined with the Racing Saloons Tony G managed to get to the front on the last lap after bolting on some new tyres, again the best fought battle was in Class B with Chris just managing to get past Craig into the lead to then be swallowed up by the Tony’s Charger, Chris however trying a very late braking move to repass the Charger only to spin at the very end of the back straight allowing Craig into second overall, Chris recovered quickly though and was able to hold onto third.

The current standings are:
Class A 1st Colin Schischka 946, 2nd Tony Galbraith 860, 3rd Veen Smith 767.
Class B 1st Chris Anderson 1158, 2nd Mike Oldham 848, 3rd Kevin Burke 740.