F 5000 RACE RS SAVE THEIR BEST TILL LAST AT TAU PO HISTORIC GRAND PRIX MEETING

Early season standout Ken Smith (Lola T332) and his fellow Formula 5000 (F5000) competitors kept their best until last at the second round of the 2018/’19 series at the Taupo Historic Grand Prix (GP) meeting, held over 19 and 20 January.

Though Smith managed to retain his 100-percent win rate from the opening round, this time he had to fight hard for it.

Having already done two meetings on their tyres, both Smith and Michael Collins found themselves struggling in the hot, blustery conditions in the afternoon races on both days.

That allowed Greg Thornton, in his first appearance in the SAS Autoparts MSC NZ F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series this season, and therefore on a fresh set of tyres, to convert an impressive qualifying pace into third place in the two eight-lap preliminary races and an eventbest second in the 2019 Taupo Historic GP race.

“Definitely happy with that,” said Thornton, a pilot who now spends most of the year contesting classic car race meetings around the world. “I managed to get alongside Michael [Collins] in the second race but couldn’t find a way past. This time, I was able to get in front of him off the start, meaning I could then concentrate on catching Kenny [Smith].”

For Smith, the win in the 10-lap feature race was the icing on the cake, the four-time Tasman Cup Revival Series title-holder having come close for the past two years only to be pipped at the post.

“It was the race I wanted to win,” Smith admitted as he was surrounded by well-wishers afterwards. “I made it hard for myself by not putting on a new set of tyres, so I just had to come up with a strategy to manage the grip as it went away.”

Smith, Collins, and Thornton also proved to be the drivers to beat in the other two Tasman Cup Revival Series races at the meeting.