Photo: Wayne Conder and Kevin HydeThe 2010/11 IRC Series put on a show for the large crowd present at the fourth round of the championship at Manfeild Park over the weekend, held in conjunction with the Manawatu ‘Ultimate Motorsport Weekend’.
The Ultimate Motorsport Weekend combined the two day IRC event at Manfeild with the New Zealand Superstock Teams Champs, won in style by the Palmerston North Panthers in acrushing victory over the Stratford Scrappers on Saturday night.
This victory set the tone for Sunday’s IRC racing, with the eleven competing classes thrilling crowds with close racing and a wide range of machinery on the track, ranging from the high-horsepower GT1 cars to the humble Minis and Formula Firsts.
The headlining combined grid of GT1 and GT2 cars saw John Rae take pole position in the wet in his Tranzam Corvette, from the Mitsubishi Evo of local driver Ross Thurston, but it was another local, Cameron Jones, who won the opening race in his Mazda RX7.
The GT2 Metalman Escort of NZV8 stalwart Clark Proctor took a well-deserved second place in race two behind Mark Burgess, and the Camaro of Andy Greenslade made it three winners from three in the final.
The Bridgestone Porsches also had to tackle a wet qualifying session, with the modern GT3 of Ian Hayr faring far better than his older opposition to take pole position. Two wins from three for Hayr, with Tony Patmore taking the other, rounded out a successful weekend for the International Motorsport driver.
In the NZ6 racing, Adam Newell and impressive female driver Darrel Harris took pole inSuper 6 and HQ Holden respectively. While Newell backed this up with victory in race one, it was Shane Wenzlick who took the round with wins in races two and three.
The races were much the same with Harris, who took one race victory with Harrison Lingard taking the other two.
Peter Stevenson took pole position and the first race win in the Pre 65s, with Mitch Cobham and Chris Brown sharing the remaining two. There were three different race winners in the SS2000 category also, with class favourite David Geraghty having to share the victorys with Justin Herbert and Chris Small.
Continuing the trend of amazingly close competition throughout the IRC classes was the NZGT, with three separate winners once again, with Max Pennington, Paul Wilton and Shane Barnes all taking wins by margins of less than a second over their closest rivals.
In a sudden turn of events, Richard Silver’s turbocharged Open class Mini took three race wins from three starts in the Super Mini Challenge, with close racing right throughout the four classes and 17-car field; notably with young Elliot Heron getting the upper hand on Mini 7 rival and Mini racing legend, Chris Parkinson.
Pro 7 Plus stars Dean McMillan and James Parker played a cat and mouse game all weekend, trading pole position, and first and second placings, with Parker getting the upperhand in the end.
In the Formula Suzuki & Sports Car class, Mark Galvin’s sports car felt little pressure from his nearest rival in Todd Sherley, despite the pair battling hammer and tong at their last visit to Manfeild, and without the presence of fellow young hot shot Gene Rollinson, Caine Lobb has a fairly trouble-free run in extending his lead in the Formula Suzuki points standings.
Bucking the trend of photo finishes around the 3.03km Manfeild circuit, the Formula First racing was dominated by multiple series champion Michael Shepherd who took a clean sweep, leaving teenage rivals Ryan Hellier and Kyle George in his wake, and fortifying his championship lead which will be difficult to chase down with just two rounds remaining.
The Manfeild ‘Ultimate Motorsport Weekend’ IRC event was the fourth of a six round calendar for the 2010/11 IRC Series, with the series travelling to Hampton Downs in four week’s time for the penultimate round of the race season.
