ICEBREAKER

This year’s Icebreaker, which really was as the name says, about breaking through the ice-cold winds and rain, took place over the weekend of September 30 and October 1. Although Saturday was mainly fine, Sunday was anything but that for the most part. Surprising to say, there were not too many safety cars or major incidents all things considered. This event, which was organized by HRC Events was the first of the ’17/’18 season for many of the classes racing. This included the Hooters Vintage Series, PPG Classic Trials, Historic Formula Ford, European Racing Classics (ERC) Series (sponsored by Arrow Wheels and Auckland Engineering Supplies [AES]), BMW Race Driver Series, and Trofeo Series.

Racing got underway on Saturday prior to qualifying with the Hooters Vintage Series, which is into just its second season. This is vintage racing for cars pre 1960, with the oldest example being the 1931 BSA FW32 of Ray Ferner. This, with just a 1000cc engine didn’t do too badly, taking two second places and one third place. Walter Findlay, driving an ElvaDKW 100FJ was the winner of the day, winning the first two races.

The Alfa Trofeo Series, rebranded this year as the Trofeo Series, is open to any Italian cars, with the field being full of Alfas and Fiats. There are several classes within this field of cars; however, overall, in the first series race on Saturday, Eddie Beresford and the trusty Alfasud Ti stayed in control of the race from start to finish. All Sunday’s races were handicap races, which meant that the faster cars started with a handicap, thus making the last few laps of the eight-lap races rather exciting. Darron Curphey, in just his first race with the blue 2005 Alfa GT, worked his way to the top from his 12th-place start, while the Black 2004 GT of Steve Cowie took out the final race for the Trofeo class.

Running on the Sunday only was the PPG Classic Trials. Drivers are required to select a lap time prior to the day’s racing and notify organizers, then must achieve lap times closest to this nominated time over the 15 minutes. In the changeable conditions, this would have been rather difficult; however, David Tolhurst, in a Ford Capri GT, navigated the conditions nicely to win round one of the Classic Trials series with an average of .93 seconds over the three sessions. Following him home were Peter O’sullivan in a Mazda MX-5 then Robyn Riding in a Porsche 924T.

Thirteen cars raced in the Historic Formula Ford round on Saturday, which was won by regular winner Keith Mainland. Not too many cars race in this class, which does have a rather big variation. Sunday’s racing saw the field reduced to just six starters, and, with Mainland being a non-starter, Dave Silverton in a PRS Formula Ford finished first in