Hi Guys,

Well the racing season is back and with that the Icebreaker meeting at Puke was held last weekend.
The weather was fine but the days cold and with a reasonably dry pit things weren’t to bad. The historic grid was 23 cars strong so a good season start.7 sports cars at this meeting, with a couple of cars returning from a long absence.

First back was Brian Grant with the Lotus Consol as usual the car looks great and was running strong with no real problems. Also back on the track for the first time in ages was Roger Munns with his immaculate Buckler 90.The only problem that Roger had as I understand it was with officidom. In a time when we are trying to get his type of car back on the track I understand he was stopped from competing after the first race due to no cage or seatbelts. Now this is a pre 60’s car so I, as did all of us thought that pre 60’s doesn’t require those. So it would be interesting to hear what that’s all about. Surely if we want to encourage Rodger and the likes to bring their cars to that track (AND WE DO) we need a proper ruling so everyone knows where we are at.

Good to see Bill Roughan at Puke all the way from Napier and as usual no problems for Bill, with the Mogal well prepared for racing in the off season.

Steve’s Lotus 7 is still going great and he says he’s done nothing to it of the winter except wipe it down.
Bill Stone’s Mallock was immaculate as usual and as the weekend progressed he became quicker and quicker.

Brian’s Mallock was also looking pretty sharp with its new bonnet and paint job. As usual Brian has done heaps of work lifting the engine, dropping the ride height and making new panels and a paint job. Brian was suffering from overheating and a miss which we think is a blown head gasket. Water on the rear wheels seem to cause a lack of traction and a spin in “Death Valley” (the area by the pit entrance and named by Racing Ray) resulted in a minor altercation with the Armco and a major dent in the pride.

I didn’t do much work over the winter but I did rebuild the rear shocks and raise the ride height a bit. My weekend was going great on Saturday and with Steve, Brian S and myself cross entered into the sports car races we were having a great time. Everyone’s lap times continued to drop all weekend. Sunday the McRae U2 had a small oil leak that turned into a major oil leak when we tried to fix it so a new front engine mount is now required to make that go away, so unfortunately there was no racing for me on Sunday.

The season is looking pretty good this year with the Bruce McLaren festival meetings at Hampton Downs promising some large grids with sports car only races. The next point’s race is the MG Classic at Manfield in November so get your entries in for that one. After that HRSCC Taupo, first weekend of December. A 1 day event this year due to a booking mix up but there will be a social thing Saturday afternoon which will include documentation and a full days racing on Sunday.
See you at Manfield

Alan Service
Sports Car Coordinator

Brian Service Mallock U2 Mk 8 follows Ben Field, Elden Mk 8 FF over the Hill

Steve Sharp lotus 7 series 2 follows Grant Campbell, FF over the Hill

Brian Grant 1959 Lotus Consul

Bill Roughan leads the field in his Mogal Sports