Southland Sport
Two days of motor racing action at Teretonga Park in Invercargill commenced today (Saturday) with most races resulting in extremely close finishes. Of today’s ten races only three had a winning margin of greater than one second.
The main exception was in the OSCA Super Saloon class where an incredibly close qualifying suggested the race would be close. However, Steve Ross of Dunedin in a TraNZam Jaguar got the jump from the outside of the front row and sped away to win by a comfortable 16.345 seconds from Cameron Davies of Waimate in his Mazda RX8 and Pierre Neame of Winton in a Mustang. Tim Dossett of Pleasant Point retired his Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 5 after running at the front early on.
The South Island Formula Ford race was a beauty with a seven car, high speed train out front with James Penrose, Will Neale and Dylan Petch most prominent. Former NZ Champion Penrose of Kaiapoi withstood immense pressure from Neale of Prebbleton to win by .066 of a second with Petch from Rolleston third. Jacob Begg of Winton was sixth behind Aucklander Dylan Grant and Jake Bryant of Christchurch.
Gary Johnstone of Rolleston qualified his Jaguar XJS on pole for the first of two HVRA races today with Leon Hallett of Mosgiel alongside in his Falcon. After 6 laps of racing they were still side by side as they crossed the line, Hallett getting the win by .020 of a second from Johnstone. Gavin Jackson of Dunedin in a Triumph TR7 was third after being part of a three-way battle with Hallett and Johnstone early on. The second race featured a handicap start and it was Jackson who got through to take the win from Johnstone with Darryn Clark of Queenstown in a Toyota Starlet third.
Ewan Macpherson of Winton had a great day in his Ford Anglia in the Pre 78 Classic Saloons. The car has a new motor and Macpherson qualified fastest and then led all the way to win from Piers Mingham of Ashburton in a MK1 Ford Escort with Bruce Farley of Nelson third in his Vauxhall Viva.
Corban Sprague of Timaru qualified on pole and then raced away to win the first Pro8 NZ Saloon race with Hamish Evans of Darfield coming through to second with local driver Jeremy Dawson third. The Pro8’s returned for a second contest later in the day with a marble draw grid that saw Sprague at the back. Local driver Bradley Dawson was quickly into the lead and won from his brother Jeremy Dawson and Jared Pyke of Rolleston with Sprague climbing back to fourth place. Jeremy Dawson set an impressive provisional new lap record of 1 minute 06.291 seconds during the race.
2K Cup points leader Greg Mitchell of Darfield won the opening race of the classes Teretonga Challenge in his BMW by .332 of a second from Jonathan Prince of Christchurch (Toyota Corolla) and Faron Poulter of Christchurch (Honda Integra).
Twenty-five cars lined up for today’s SS Cup race and it was pole-sitter Andrew Gibson of Timaru in his Honda Civic who got the best start and drove away to win from James Black of Allanton in Dunedin in another Civic and Dave McLean of Balfour in a Honda Integra.
Brian Scott of Dunedin won the Noel McIntyre Drainage Club Saloon race in his Porsche 991 in a race interrupted by two Safety Car periods and which ended under Safety Car. Jimmy Liemburg of Timaru trailed him over the line in his Nissan 350Z with Harry Wilson of Invercargill third in his Falcon.
Tomorrow (Sunday) the action starts at 9.00am with twenty-two races scheduled for the day.
Tickets for Sunday’s action are just $30 at the gate while children 14 & under accompanied by a paying adult are free.