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Alex Little of Upper Hutt drew first blood as the NAPA Auto Parts NZ Super Trucks fought out their first race of the weekend at the Southern Thunder race meeting at Teretonga Park in Invercargill on Saturday.
Little is the current NZ Super Truck Champion and leads this year’s standings after two of four rounds. He has also compiled a superb record at Teretonga Park, having won the Mobil Delvac 1 Trophy in each of his last four visits to the circuit.
The field of eleven trucks, supported locally this weekend by Kings House Removals, made a great sight as they battled it out with Little taking the chequered flag in his Freightliner 3 Series just 2.3 seconds ahead of the versatile Brent ‘Bones’ Collins of Timaru in another Freightliner with Pukekohe’s David West third in his Freightliner Argosy. Australian Steven Zammit was fourth in a Kenworth 401.
Rhys Gould of Christchurch won the Mobil 1 Mainland Muscle Car race in his extremely quick Ford Falcon XD with John Hepburn of Timaru second in his Holden Monaro and local driver Brendan Mason third as he debuted his Chev Monza.
The series leader of both the New Zealand Formula Ford and South Island Formula1600 Championship, local driver Alex Crosbie, retired with a broken throttle cable in the race for both series with the win going to William Neale of Christchurch from fellow Cantabrians Blake Knowles and Daniel Brown.
Paul Clarke of Mosgiel took Southland Machine Hire Pre 65 Saloon honours in his Mustang from John Smolenski of Invercargill in a Ford XP Falcon and Garry Price of Cromwell in a Chevy Nova SS. Cody Welch of Omakau won the NZ Six Saloon contest with his Falcon from Dunedin Commodore drivers Mick Ross and Mike McCarthy.
Brad Rule of Queenstown took his Holden SuperTourer to victory in the Noel McIntyre Drainage Club Saloons Group A race from Jordan Michels of Invercargill (V8 Ford Focus) and Brian Scott of Dunedin (Porsche 997.2) with Liam McDonald of Invercargill fourth after driving through the field.
In the Group B race Wayne Elliott of Invercargill prevailed in his Mazda RX7 from Warren Kett in another RX7 with Peter Bennetts of Queenstown in a Seat Supercopa third. Jon Leng of Dunedin in a Ford Escort had chased Elliott hard throughout the race and passed him for the lead on the last lap only to have an off-course excursion, dropping him down the results.
Sunday’s programme starts at 9.30am with seventeen races programmed and a parade of trucks during the lunchtime break.