Winter motorsport celebrates 70 years
More than 100 race cars and 25 Superkarts turned out to help celebrate the Manawatu Car Club’s 70th anniversary dinner at Manfield at the weekend.
The car club held an anniversary dinner on Saturday, followed by round two of the Winter Race Series on Sunday.
The greasy surface caught many out. The cool conditions, low cloud cover and lack of wind meant the track stayed damp and slippery all day.
New boy Nathan Sudiono, in his first time at Manfeild, claimed P1 in qualifying in Formula First Cup.
He struggled to convert this into podium points but showed his potential. Billy Frazer won the first race, Speedsport scholarship winner Conrad Clark won the second and Callum Crawley managed to out-stay Frazer to win race three.
Alex Hawley leads the class points after a solid day.
Brock Cooley, in a borrowed RX7, was rewarded with three runner-up spots and third place overall in the GT Cup.
Craig MacIntosh had a faultless day, winning three out of three in his older Evo Lancer for a massive lead in the series.
Dean Curtis topped qualifying in the Classics Cup/Saloon Trophy class in his Mk2 Escort, but with all three races being handicap starts it meant he had work to do to get to the front.
Sandra Eden, BMW M3, Dean Curtis and Ian Williamson, Mazda RX3, had wins, with Layton Hammond, Graham Moody and Grant Rivers sharing the minor places.
Grant Rivers leads the Classics in his Mustang fastback from Stephen Marks BMW E30 and Ian Williamson.
Dean Curtis is only 25 points clear of Layton Hammond in Retro Classics with Ben Boyden third. Geoff Boyden was the sole Group 4 Saloon entry, scoring maximum points.
Dave Thomsen dusted off last year’s class-winning Mirage Turbo to just pip Geoff Spencer’s now M3-powered BMW by the slimmest of margins in race one.
Richard Clulee held off Thomsen to win race two. Andrew Manderson found favour with the handicappers to win race three from Spencer.
Clulee is 37 points ahead of Spencer and is probably ruing the spin in race one at turn seven that had him stranded in the mud.
Kerry Tong disappeared in the mist from the following Taxi Cup pack with another three-out-ofthree winning run and maximum points for the whole series.
Alex Corpe was fastest in MX5 Cup qualifying but failed to make P1 stick as Bryce Hogg, Gareth Hogg and Jeremy Hoskins rounded him up in race one.
In race two Bryce Hogg finished in front from brother Gareth and the power-pink roadster of Hoskins third.
Troy Howard won the handicap from Alex Corpe.
Gareth Hogg advanced to first place in the championship, but by only 30 points over brother Bryce.
Anna Wild held nothing back and qualified the Civic second behind Cory Anderson’s Levin. Paul Rodgers’ Peugeot 206 was third and that was the finishing order in race one.
The reverse-grid race two was also won by Anderson with Hillary Ashworth, Civic and Ernie Greenwell on the podium.
Ernie Greenwell takes over the lead in RS Cup from Anna Wild and Gareith Stanley.
Round three of the series is on Sunday, August 6.