Thornton Wins Asset Finance Taupo 1000

Whakatane racer Clive Thornton has put in a carefully-planned strategic drive over two days and 1007 kilometres to win the 2009 Asset Finance Taupo 1000.

Though he and fellow Asset Finance team driver Gary Baker (Otakiri) held top gird positions through the first fifteen minutes of qualifying on Friday, they were later outqualified by faster Australian and New Zealand cars. Thornton’s time remained good enough to put him sixth on the grid, Whakatane club member Malcolm Langley was ninth and Baker 12th.

As the race started on Saturday morning, Thornton made the most of the third-row start position and chased the fast turbocharged cars of Neville Smith, current national champion Daniel Powell and pole man Tom Dixon (Australia).

Though Powell and Dixon battled through the first lap, with the Kiwi getting ahead of the Australian briefly, the duel ended prematurely when Powell’s car blew its engine.

That set up an early dominance for the Australians, with Dixon’s father Roly forging through to hold second.

What seemed set to be an Aussie whitewash soon swung back in the favour of the fastest New Zealand crews, with Roly Dixon pitting to sort out a misfiring engine and son Tom damaging his steering.

The pace at the front was fierce, the race lead changing five times in six laps before Thornton came through to hold and maintain the lead.

A mid-race track blockage briefly threatened Thornton’s race strategy, bunching up the field while the stricken Dodge Ram of Anthony Hewitt was winched clear of the track, but the afternoon laps were consistently headed by Thornton.

A late charge by rally driver Andrew Hawkeswood in Neville Smith’s Cougar whittled Thornton’s first day lead down from five minutes to less than two, but it was enough to give him the advantage going into the second day.

Hikurangi driver Clim Lammers, winner of the race in 2005 and 2007, was forced out in the afternoon when he ran out of race goggles and was forced to drive in the sleet and spray with no eye protection. Catching slower cars and lapped traffic forced him out, the pumice and scoria thrown up by their wheels blasting his face at 140 km/h and more.

The other Australian driver, David Jameson, had led the production truck class all day in his Suzuki Grand Vitara V6, but went out two laps from the end when the Suzuki’s engine failed.

Thornton’s first-day win came despite a brief spin and off-track excursion two laps from home; at the same place Hawkeswood slid wide and crashed into a tree, driving the Cougar along the side of a bank to regain the track. The car had lost its turbo inlet pipe and was not making full power, but Hawkeswood posted fastest time of the day on his final lap.

In clearing conditions on Sunday morning Thornton was overtaken by the faster single seater of the Smith/Hawkeswood Cougar on the first lap, but stayed in touch and followed a race strategy worked out before the day began.

“Our crew chief Richie Wormald deserves huge credit for getting us into the second day in such a strong position, and for setting a strategy that meant we didn’t fight Andrew but for the lead, but we went with him and started to push back as the second lap started.”

The lead changed several times as the race went on, Thornton pushing the Southern Cross into the lead after four laps while Hawkeswood pitted to replace two flat tyres.

The fastest truck in the race, Raana Horan’s massive new Nissan Titan, had finished in the top five on the first day but went out on the first lap on Sunday, its transmission overheated.

His position at the front of the truck field was quickly taken by Hawkes Bay driver Lofty Harrington in his Toyota Hilux, with rookie Carter Strang (Nissan Safari V8) and Gary Baker (Nissan Navara V8) battling for second in the class.

As the sun dried the track in the afternoon, the leading cars were posting speeds of 185 and 190 km/h in the radar zone on Low Level Road. Thornton recorded 185 km/h, Hawkeswood (and Smith after the pair carried out a driver change) was recorded at 195 km/h; fast young Australian topped the speed sheets when he rejoined the race with a 202 km/h. The leading trucks of Harrington and Baker were close to that speed at 177 and 175 km/h.

As the race entered its closing laps Thornton stayed in front of Smith, with Hamilton’s Paul Smith and Whakatane driver Malcolm Langley fighting for third overall.

Thornton took the chequered flag on Sunday first on the road and with an overall two-day winning margin of 2:19.09 from Neville Smith.

The fight for third went to the final few kilometres of the last lap. Paul Smith suffered a flat tyre and stopped to change it; Malcolm Langley flatted a rear and chose to drive the last 20 km of the lap on the flat.

The decision was to prove crucial. Though Smith crossed the line ahead of him, Langley maintained his two-day aggregate time to be third overall in the Exide Bakersfield Toyota. He was 51 minutes down on Langley but completed the full race distance despite finishing on the wheel rim, his tyre shredded to ribbons.

Smith had not managed to make up enough time to overtake him and brought the Eagle Nissan car home fourth, 2:39.262 behind. He was the only other racer to complete the full race distance.

Held every two years, the Taupo 1000 is the only international offroad race on the New Zealand motorsport calendar, and is the only international motorsport event held in New Zealand this month. It attracted an all-time record entry of 78 teams, with four former champions racing and four international cars entered – three from Australia and one from the UK.

ENDS

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