IRC Newsletter Round 4

IRC - Bringing You the Summer of Thunder Tour 09/10

Yes We Can Do Sunshine
After 3 rounds with wet Sundays it was great to finally have a sunny Sunday.

With drivers reporting temperatures close to 50 in the car it was tough all round. It is interesting that we took more cash through the gate on Saturday than Sunday. I think with all the other attractions ( offshore powerboats, Motocross and Super 15) and the heat it played against us.
A big thanks to Mel and the team for such a well run meeting.
There the usual Taupo games, lets take the rubbish bins away, well OK we will bring them back but we wont empty them. Blocked toilets have their own special smell on a hot Sunday afternoon.

A big thanks to Ethan Coleman who took our lucky Hauraki hot lap winner for a lap and he gets the brake lines. The Federal tyres went to Janine in the HQ and smokey brakes Sam Elliot in SS2000 gets the others.

Also great to see almost all classes with grids over the magic 20 mark.
Now to the classes.

In NZGT GT1/GT2 it was local boy makes good with his worship the mayor Rick Cooper taking out the handicap race in the Boss Mustang and Grant Hannah the other reverse grid handicap race in the Corvette. The scratch race went to Glenn Clarke in the Supercar from Justin Herbert in the Evo and Glenn Smith in the Porsche.

In Formula First Rowan Sheppard took out races 1 and 3 with Taylor Cockerton just pipping him by 0.3 of a second in race 2. Cory Holmes had one of his best finishes of the season with a 3rd in race 3.

In the Pre 65’s Dave Robinson of Papakura put down the fastest lap of the meeting with a fantastic 1.45.762. He finished 4th in race one behind the other mustangs of Justin Haworth and Tony Elmiger, 3rd was the Chrysler Valiant of Mike Johnston. In race 2 in was Chris Gunn in another Valiant that took the race from Tim Patterson in the EH Holden from Billy Mckinnon in the Chevy Nova. Race 3 it was again those Mustangs with Dave Robinson winning from Tony Elmiger with Mark Bowskill 3rd in the Cortina.

NZGT was tight with less than a second separating the lap times of the top ten cars. Rick Bone in the Datsun 1200 just popping under the breakout with a 1.39.2.

In race 1 it was Roger Conder who took the win in the Nissan Silvia from Bock Cooley and Dave Geraghty in Evo’s. Race 2 went to the giant killing Imp of Reece Killingback from brent Dickson in the BA Falcon with Grant Dalton in the Red Dawson Camaro 3rd. Race 3 went to Shane Whitely in the Ford from Brent Dickson in another Falcon with Dave Geraghty in the Evo 3rd.
HiTech Motorsport- SS2000 was one for the record books with Brett Killip setting a new class lap record at 1.36.814 in the opening race. He finished just 0.2 of a second behind Andy Duffin whos best lap was a 1.36.823. In third place was Brent Thompson in the Honda Civic. Race 2 a handicap was won by Ant Te Rito in the Honda Civic from Rickbone on the Datsun 1200 and Andy Duffin. Race 3 another handicap start was won by Andy Duffin in the Rx7 from Brett Killip in yes another Rx7 with Ant Te Rito in the Honda Civic third.
Nitto tyres NZ6 saw Garry Kirkbride dominate the HQ’S with Darren Swinburne, Bronson Porter leading the NZ6 cars from Matt Dovey, Mark and James McLaughlin, Adam Newell and Bruce Kennedy.

The 3 groups of minis joined by the Star cars made up a grid of over 20 cars. Elliot and Warren Heron were chased hard in Mini 7 by Greg Gordon and Mark Van Swet. In Mini Miglia Bill Robson held sway from Simon Mans and Colin Middlemiss. In the open minis it was Chris Coleman from Steve Midgely and Richard Wagstaff. The Star cars were dominated by Bramwell King and Norm McLeod with Martyn Todd and john Pope not far behind.

For the Formula firsts, Minis Porsches, Sports cars, Pro 7 and NZGT (GT1GT2) it’s roll on round 5 this weekend at Hampton Downs again with the TRs cars. For everyone else we will see you back at Manfield on the 23/24th Feb.

We look forward to the next rond at Hampton Downs this weekend, then the New Zealand Grand Prix at Manfeild, before regualr scheduling continues at Manfeild on 23/24 and then the series final at Taupo at Easter.
See you all around the traps.

ENDS

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