November 2018 PO Box 27063, Mt Roskill, Auckland, New Zealand 1440 Phone: (09) 620-9797 Andrew Hawkeswood, winner of the 2018 Far North Rally, pictured with Allan Woolf, and pictured below - Jeff Cress, Andrew’s co-driver of the 2018 FNR Auckland Car Club’s Monthly Magazine – Race, Rally, Clubsport and more… FROM THE PRESIDENT Hello everyone We are fast running into the Christmas break and for the Auckland Car Club side of things no more competition until we resume our summer series back at Hampton Downs. I have one more Clerk of the Course duty to fulfil for TACCOC at Hampton Downs in December and then that’s it for me also and looking forward to a break. We have had a busy time of late both at the clubrooms and at the track and I’ll start with the track first. Earlier this year in January we ran our first meeting at Taupo for many years but the date didn’t seem to sit well with many with the event being poorly attended overall and the club suffered a rather large financial loss. According to a survey of competitors we carried out more than 75% wanted to include Taupo as part of the annual competition and so we arranged to return in November hoping it would suit more people. This time we had over 80 competitors, which was very pleasing, and the club went part way to covering costs and making up the losses from our first foray south. The club must thank the competitors and teams that made the long trek down and in particular ACJS, Production Race Series, Northern Muscle Cars and North Island Formula Ford. There were a few Racing Saloons and some circuit sprint cars also. The clubrooms were once again packed for our annual Roll of Honour ceremony earlier this month and we had many distinguished guests, inductees and club members show up for the occasion. Natalie has included some photos further along in the newsletter for your perusal. Congratulations to the recipients of these honour awards they are much deserved and the recognition for what you have done for motorsport is, in many cases, long overdue. Everyone enjoyed the occasion and many positive responses have been received. There were also some trophies awarded at this ceremony and in no particular order they were Andrew Hawkeswood – John Woolf trophy for far north rally (main driver) presented by Alan Woolf Jeff Cress – Grant Whittaker trophy for far north rally (co driver) presented by Alan Woolf Callum Hedge – Michael McHugh Trophy Andre Heimgartner – Denny Hulme Trophy Liam Lawson – Bruce McLaren Trophy Congratulations guys. As I suggested in the previous newsletter we are looking for more committee members to join the executive. We would welcome input from people that have a current or previous association with Auckland Car Club or any other car club or race class, or if you just want to become more involved with the sport. There are many avenues that can lead from being closely associated with the club and to name a few Race controller, Timing, Competitor relations officer, pit lane, dummy grid and flag marshal’s or Clerk of the Course. Training is easily arranged and we will assist you. You will work with a fantastic team and I can guarantee you will make many new friends. That’s it from me folks Brett Davy President Roll of Honour Ceremony 2018 NORTH ISLAND FORMULA FORD Photo credits to StreetStyle Photography The first round of the North Island Formula Ford Series was held at Pukekohe as part of the Auckland Car Club Summer Series. Seven cars fronted for thus event. These include a couple of newcomers having their first run in the series, and in some cases, the first run in their respective cars. This included Callum Crawley (the current Formula First Champion) running Steve Gillard’s Van Diemen RF92, Blake Evans (the current Formula First Winter Series Champion) in the ex Michael Scott Mygale, Alex Hawley in Kerry Ross’ Stealth and Jack Proctor in his RF85. They were joined by seasoned runners Dave Silverton, Jordan Mountfort and Noel Woodford. Unfortunately we lost Callum and Jack in qualifying due to a crash and engine issues respectively. Race 1 saw Alex lead Blake for most of the race. For both of the young guns it was their first race in Formula Ford. Dave kept them honest in coming home third. For Race 2 Alex was again on pole but Blake was coming to terms with the Mygale and pressured Alex to the end. Unfortunately Dave had an engine issue and would retire, allowing Jordan to take 3rd place. Race 3 saw Blake really get the bit between his teeth passing Alex to take his first win. Jordan was once again 3rd. Noel had been enjoying his first run in the NIFF Series Finishing all races and leaving the event leading Class 3. Jordan leads Class 2 and Alex leads the Series and Class 1. th Our next round is at Taupo on Nov 18 . Overall Pos Car No. Name Hometown Total Rd1 Rd2 Rd3 Rd4 Rd5 1 16 Alex Hawley Pukekohe 57 57 0 0 0 0 2 6 Blake Evans Rotorua 54 54 0 0 0 0 3 99 Jordan Mountfort Tauranga 40 40 0 0 0 0 4 88 Noel Woodford Auckland 35 35 0 0 0 0 5 43 Dave Silverton Hamilton 14 14 0 0 0 0 6 29 Callum Crawley Fielding 1 1 0 0 0 0 7 4 Jack Proctor Auckland 0 0 0 0 0 0 ROTARY RACING ENTHUSIASTS – Round 2 Two Rounds of The New Zealand Rotary Racing Enthusiasts (NZRRE) 2018/19 calendar have now been completed. Disaster struck NZRRE debutant Elton Wichman at round one, as New Zealand Rotary Racing Enthusiasts embarked on their second season running with the Auckland Car Club. The weather was shocking, and Elton’s newly finished FD RX7 lost it in the river crossing the pit straight at Hampton and hit the wall hard. Even before he had it on the trailer, Elton was talking about getting to round two. Sure enough Round two rolled around and the NZRRE crew were amazed to see a pristine red FD turn up in the pits ready to go! The effort Elton put into getting his car finished (albeit late the night before the race!!) epitomizes what NZRRE is all about. Round 2 was a cool yet sunny Saturday at Pukekohe. Apart from the two bumps, Round two went really well, with good results from all, particularly club president Julius Coffey and his RX3, who won the last two races outright. Round two results: 1. Julius Coffey, Mazda RX3, 13bpp 2. Darryl Palmer, Mazda RX7, 13bt 3. Bryan Dyke, Mazda Cosmo, 13bt 4. Andrew Leech, Porsche 924, 12abp 5. Stephen Armstrong, Mazda RX7, 13bpp 6. Elton Wichman, Mazda RX7, 13bt Points were also awarded to all those who entered round one based on their round two points, so overall standings after two rounds are: 1. Darryl Palmer, Mazda RX7, 13bt 2. Andrew Leech, Porsche 924, 12abp 3. Stephen Armstrong, Mazda RX7, 13bpp 4. Elton Wichman, Mazda RX7, 13bt 5. Julius Coffey, Mazda RX3, 13bpp 6. Bryan Dyke, Mazda Cosmo, 13bt 7= Chris Hillier, Mazda RX7, 13b 7= Keith Wilkinson, Mazda RX8, 13 Round 3 moves to Taupo on Sunday the 18th of November. ROTARY RACING ENTHUSIASTS Cont – Round 2 Photo credits to StreetStyle Photography ALL CLASSIC JAPANESE SERIES – Round 2 ACC Summer Series Round 2 – All Classic Japanese Series Report The second round of the series at Pukekohe saw a great turnout of 24 entries for the ACJS Series. Unfortunately this was reduced to 23 the night before when Scott Curtis had to withdraw due to finding bearing metal in his oil filter. It was good to see Rob Mullins back after his testing accident at Hampton Downs, Elton Wichman after his meeting with the wall during round 1, Mark Collier finally getting the car completed for the new season and Bryce Richards fixing his over-fuelling problem. Despite gloomy predictions for the weather, the day turned out fine and wet tyres stayed in the pits. Unfortunately qualifying was shortened by a red flag and several drivers didn’t get a full flying lap in. The first race produced class wins for Shaun Midgen (Invitation), Bryce Richards (Group 1) and James Smith (Group 2), with Al Nicholls suffering a dnf from a mysterious misfire that he was unable to resolve on the day. The first handicap race saw Jared Holmes, who was gradually getting to grips with his newly turbocharged MX5, take out Group 1, Tim Hart Invitation and Brittany Sheweiry Group 2. The race as unfortunately marred by an accident to Taylor Hurst (MR2) who made hard contact with the wall coming up over the hill. The car suffered substantial damage but fortunately Taylor got away with just bruising. Elton Wichman’s bad luck continued with a throttle linkage problem that ended his day. The last handicap race, which was shortened to six laps, gave class wins to Jared Holmes and Brittany Sheweiry again, with Clint Harvey taking out Group 1. OVERALL POSITIONS Group 1: HD 2 Sep Puke 13 Oct Pos Driver Car RACE 1 RACE 2 RACE 3 RACE 1 RACE 2 RACE 3 TOTAL 1 Tim Hart Daihatsu Charade 18 16 18 15 20 16 103 2 Clint Harvey Honda Civic 16 15 16 16 16 20 99 3 Linda Grey Honda Civic 15 18 1 1 15 18 68 4 Scott Curtis Mazda MX5 20 20 20 0 0 0 60 5 Bryce Richards Mazda MX5 0 0 0 20 18 15 53 6 Elton Wichman Mazda RX7 1 0 0 13 0 0 14 Group 2: HD 2 Sep Puke 13 Oct Pos Driver Car RACE 1 RACE 2 RACE 3 RACE 1 RACE 2 RACE 3 TOTAL 1 Cobus van der Walt Toyota Corolla 20 18 18 15 16 15 102 2 Jason Brown Nissan Pulsar 16 15 20 18 15 13 97 3 Grant Richards Mazda MX5 18 16 16 16 14 12 92 4 Kent Griffin Toyota Corolla 15 14 14 14 13 16 86 5 Bruce Alexander Toyota Corolla 13 13 13 9 10 10 68 6 John Harvey Honda Civic 14 20 15 13 0 0 62 7 David Crook Mazda MX5 1 12 0 10 18 18 59 8 Brittany Sheweiry Honda Civic 1 0 0 11 20 20 52 9 James Smith Honda Integra 0 0 0 20 12 14 46 10 Rob Mullins Toyota Corolla 0 0 0 12 11 11 34 Invitation HD 2 Sep Puke 13 Oct Pos Driver Car RACE 1 RACE 2 RACE 3 RACE 1 RACE 2 RACE 3 TOTAL 1 Jared Holmes Mazda MX5 14 18 15 13 20 20 100 2 Robin Wooldridge Toyota Supra 16 15 0 18 15 16 80 3 Rex Alder Datsun 1600 18 14 16 14 16 0 78 4= Tim Dorset Datsun Coupe 15 13 18 15 13 0 74 4= Shaun Midgen Nissan Silvia 13 12 0 20 14 15 74 6 Chris Hillier Mazda RX7 20 16 20 0 0 0 56 7 Mark Collier Mazda MX5 0 0 0 16 18 18 52 8 Al Nichols Daihatsu Charade 12 20 14 1 0 0 47 Photo credits to StreetStyle Photography NORTHERN MUSCLE CARS – Round 2 Round 2 Pukekohe Park Raceway (Saturday 13th October) Weather was better than forecast with no rain but quite cold.