It’s time to keep on trucking at Manfeild

best racing club days in New Zealand which he puts down to a mix of fun and some solid competition.

Some of the the categories drivers race in are peculiar to the club and have their own sets of rules.

For instance the RS Cup stands for Real Slow Cup and is for drivers trying to do a lap in 1min 30sec. If they go too fast a time penalty is applied. The driver most consistently the fastest without ‘‘breaking out’’ over the time wins the races and ultimately the class championship.

‘‘A five second time penalty will basically take someone from the front of the pack to near the end.’’

Then there’s the SF Cup (for slightly faster) at 1min 24sec or the IB Cup which is the In Between Cup with a lap time of 1min 17sec.

‘‘Then we have the GT Cup which has no restrictions on that and we have some very fast cars in there including the Crawford Pontiac and Crawford Ford which were Daytona prototypes.

‘‘They lap around 1min 3sec 1min 5sec, averaging over 100 miles an hour (160 kmh).’’

Among the other classes are a new one called the Taxi Cup for normally aspirated six cylinder Commodores and Falcons, and there are three groups of classics of Pre-77 classics, Touring Saloons and Open Saloons.

The latter, Braid says, is for modified classics.

‘‘So it might have a Mk I Escort from the ‘60s with a Mondeo motor from the 2000s which makes it way more reliable, and much faster!’’

‘‘So we’ll have well over a hundred cars here over the weekend which is exceptional for a club race meeting.

‘‘It’s probably the best club series in the country and we draw drivers from Gisborne, Tauranga, New Plymouth and of of course plenty of guys come up from Wellington as this is their home track.’’

He says with qualifying and three races all being held on the same day it makes for a fairly busy time.

‘‘As one field is coming in, another is going out so there’s plenty of action, it’s non-stop.’’

Entry to the day for spectators is $10 which includes entry to the truck show-and-shine and the attractions for children which include a ferris wheel, go karts and an inflatable adventure course. For more information go to: manawatucarclub.org.nz

Above, Grant Rivers in the Mustang 289 Fastback leads the Classic Cup field. At right Kerry Halligan in the Crawford Pontiac and Adam Newell in the Crawford Ford brake heavily going into Splash during GT Cup racing. Photos: STEW WOOD PHOTOGRAPHY.