A mild overcast day greeted competitors which saw 39 drivers turn up in a wide array of cars. The day started with drivers briefing, then a slow drive up the road for a look. There was a good covering of gravel from start to finish which made the road skatey and very dusty but a light wind helped clear that. The first run saw no major problems. Brent Buist in the BDA Escort got stuck in third gear for the last part of the run but he still beat brother Glenn by two seconds, the reason for only having third gear, Glenn did not tighten gearlever housing up and they fell out. Winning the run was Hayden Paddon with a 2.52.02,followed by Brad Harris 2.52.62 and Regan Ross 3.01.96. On to run two, a couple of drivers to have troubles were Garry Cowan who also had gearlever problems and stopped near the end of the run. Fred Merkin had a car sales moment, the fuel gauge showed 1/4 of tank but there was none, so he stopped. By the end of this run all the times had dropped by about 8 to 10 seconds, the road was now hard and fast. In the class Tony Morrison was leading in the Honda and Graham Wilkson leading 1300 in the starlet. Run three was an action packed run with Phil Gurney rolling his Corolla and Greg Taylor leaving the road after the finish line and rolling down the bank. This run also found the winner of the event in Brad Harris with Hayden Paddon second and Regan Ross third. Class placings were 0-1300 Chris Herdman 3.12.50, Graham Wilson 3.13.65,1300-1600 Tony Morrison 2.56.79,Cameron Moore 3.00.97, Marcus Van Klink 3.02.84,1600 2wd Glen Buist 2.50.75, Brent Buist 2.54.05,Gary Hawkes 2.56.74,4wd Les Summerfield 2.48.45,Greg Taylor 2.50.15,Josh Marston 2.53.17.
I would like to thank Andrew Sim and his team for a well run event and also the Waipara Hotel for their sponsorship.