Photo: Dale Buckley's 1967 Toyota Corona.Showers, high winds and colder temperatures greeted competitors and teams at the new Papakura staging area.
Those who did not know were told the sad news of Stace Hopper’s death that afternoon in a plane crash in Northland.
Saturday morning and it was 9°C at 8am but the skies were clear and the winds gone.
Bambina Tour competitors were away - including 3 Nissan GT-R35’s.
Clark Proctor has been spending hours down at Hampton Downs getting to grips with his Nissan GT-R35. As the horsepower is wound up, the gearbox is the weak link but together with Dodson Motorsport/ Nismo they have developed a new gearbox with extra plates and utilising aluminium instead of the standard steel.
Clark also remarked that Tony Quinn had put his VIP Petfoods entry, Aston Martin off the track at the Adelaide. There are only two of the Aston Martin DBRS9’s in the country.
Jason Dolores in the 1991 Nissan Pulsar was only there because his friends gave him the Targa entry as a 40th present. He had a hard time of it with a death in the family. His home had been burgled and not only did they steal the wheels off his Targa car but they stole all the meat out of the freezer !
99klms of Special Stages (hereafter referred to as SS) and 177 of Touring ahead of them.
This is a great story ! Mark Parsons in Mal Clark’s Rover 3500 were out after 11klms into SS1 when the front crankshaft pulley failed. Mark takes up the story; “We were towed out of the stage and a guy said “there is a local farmer with one of these” – pointing at Mal’s car. “I’ll take you there.” When we got there he had not one but five. He told our crew to jack one up and get the pulley off it. Mal then intervened and says that the pulley had been modified and we need to go find a lathe. Mr Adams, the farmer who owns the collection says “no worries, I got one of them too !!!” Mark and Mal were back on the road for SS6.
SS1: There was keen interest in the Modern Class as to who was quickest first out.
1st Clark Proctor 09:16
2nd Jason Gill 09:19
3rd Malcom Smith 09:21
4th Mike Tubbs 09:33
5th Rick Giddy 09:37
SS2 and over for Clark Proctor when he takes a right-hander wide and leans on a post and rail fence when at 50 metres he meets with a power pole. The pole comes off second best and the live wires drop low to the ground. He can’t move the car otherwise the lines will drop onto the road. That same route is duplicated as SS5 so it has to be cancelled – the Power Board are on their way !
Same stage and the Dobbe brothers are nose first into a bank. They have frontal damage and a bent steering arm.
Jason Gill takes SS2 and SS3 by the just a few seconds from Malcolm Smith before Service in Waiuku.
What’s happening in the Classic Class at the end of SS3 ?
1st Mark Kirk-Burnnand 21:42
2nd Cameron Young 21:54
3rd Dion Arnold 21:58
3rd Dale Buckley 21:58
5th Peter Cullen 22:06
Into SS4 and Young was 8 secs over Buckley then 8 to Cullen – must be the new rims on the de Tomaso ?
Txt message received: "Dear Alan ...Please pass on to the family my great sorrow ...we are thinking of them ... John Banks Mayor of Auckland”
SS5: The stage was cancelled due to the downed power lines.
SS6: was the picturesque Ramarama stage Mark Parsons/Mal Clark was back in the Rover and straight away put up the fastest Classic time by 8 seconds. His time would have put him into 6th equal in the Modern Class – SKIDMARK was back ! Gill was 9 seconds faster than Smith. Rick Giddy had a big moment when he left the road and took out a power box.
Modern Class: End of the day and why is Malcolm Smith/Jane Entwistle quicker on the last two stages than Jason Gill/Jody Somervel ? Smith trailed Gill by -3,-5,-3,-6, and -9 seconds over the 5 stages – a total of 25 seconds. In SS7 Smith went 10 faster and in SS8 which was only 10klms long Smith was a staggering 15 seconds quicker.
The 25 second lead was gone and astonishingly both were on the same time of on 44:01.
“Not possible.” I believed I knew what I talking about as I had done the Bambina with Gill several years ago and been down that road in the same direction.
Event Director Peter Martin investigated and explained: “Malcolm lives on SS8 and his parents on SS7. When we tested the GPS mid week, one of the team said “there’s somebody on Koheroa Road – they’re cheating !” It was Smith’s car and had been in his garage all week – on Kohekroa Road. Malcolm says he used to race road bikes and you learn to read the surface ahead because you only have one wheel out front. He said that these are his two favourite roads in the Franklin District and he knows him like the back of his hand.
Modern Class.
3rd Mike Tubbs/Chris Coleman 45:47
4th Ross Johnson/Michael Patching 46:21
5th Gary Murphy/Terry Rouse 46:31
6th Harry Dodson/Glenn Cupit 46:49
7th Bob Boniface/Simon Butler 47:04
8th Barry Hare/John McCabe 47:04
9th Tim James/Warren McCathie 47:39
10th Chris Lane/Paul Sexton 47:57
Classic Class.
1st Mark Kirk-Burnnand/Chris K-B 47:52
2nd Dale Buckley/Chris Styrdom 48:38
3rd Garth McGregor/Adrian McGregor 48:39
4th Peter Cullen/Paul Tulloch 48:47
5th Dion Arnold/Elise Neville 48:48
6th Rex McDonald/Cris Wright 49:09
7th Keith Yeats/Shirley Faull 51:21
8th Cameron Young/Stephen Fisher 51:44
9th Wally Simpson/Kate Simpson 52:23
10th Linden Bawden/Julie Bawden 53:00
It had been a great day weatherwise so hope it stays the same in the northern Waikato tomorrow. Apart from the cancellation of SS5 there was not real dramas. Timing from SS8 was slow coming in due to a poor signal due to the geography. The Stewards were happy also - no penalties for speeding !
