Chris Small from Timaru took top honours for the weekend in the Kumho Sport Saloons Series, winning the opening round at Levels Raceway from Timaru’s Ivan McAuley. Qualifying on Saturday afternoon ended with Small the fastest by 1.7 seconds, but with only one second covering the next 6 cars on the grid it was always going to be a close fought battle.
Race one was a rolling start and Small led from the front at the start with Ivan McAuley chasing hard to finish second followed by Stan Moore with an impressive 3rd place. Second fastest qualifier Raymond Hart struck trouble and did not complete the race, while regular Sport Saloons entrants Gary Duncan and Matt Edgar also failed to finish.
Race 2 was a delayed grid start which had series newcomer Brodie Findlay starting from the front of the pack in his Honda Civic. Unfortunately there was an incident between two cars coming onto the front straight before the first lap was completed which required the race to be stopped while the cars were removed from the track and the track cleaned up. At the restart it was again Findlay who led the cars away from behind the pace car, with the pack all chasing hard to get through up the back straight. There was contact between Ivan McAuley and Stan Moore as they both headed for the same gap, which resulted in a broken wheel for Moore, ending his race. A further safety car deployment was needed when Steve Pilcher’s Honda ended in the tyre wall at the bottom of the track. Chris Small made his way through to the front by the end of the race, with Ivan McAuley again a close second and Glen Hodgson next in 3rd place.
Race 3 was the full reverse grid handicap race, with the Honda of Findlay again first away followed by the Honda’s of Steve Pilcher and Michael Driver. The race was a good clean race with just 15 seconds covering the top 10 cars at the end. Gary Duncan was the race winner with Ryan Austin and Grant Waters taking the next two spots.
Overall results for the weekend saw Chris Small come away with top points, Ivan McAuley second with Grant Waters taking 3rd place to round out an all Timaru top 3 in the championship.
The series moves to Teretonga in Invercargill for the next round of the series to be held on 7th November 2010.
