Round 3 of the Kumho Sport Saloons series was held at Teretonga last weekend and they have now reached the mid point in the season.
In race one there was a coming together between Timaru’s Ivan McAuley and Matt Dunn at the end of lap 3 which put both cars out of the race and called for the race to be red flagged. That left Raymond Hart to take the win from Gary Duncan 2nd and Brent Cross 3rd. Matt Dunn’s car was repaired for the second race but championship hopeful Ivan McAuley's car was unable to be repaired on the day putting a big dent in his Championship hopes with no points scored from the weekend.
Race 2 was a reverse grid race with Grant Waters and Matt Edgar starting on the front row. Matt Dunn took the lead early and led all the way to be the first of the Kumho Sport Saloons cars to cross the line, with a hard charging Hart and Duncan close behind.
Race 3 was a reverse grid handicap race with the field starting off with calculated delays from the start line. Grant Waters led from the front and was chased by Matt Edgar off behind. Matt Dunn came through to take the win with Matt Edgar taking second, making the two Corolla’s 1-2 in a normally EVO dominated field.
That left Raymond Hart to take the overall win for Round 3 on 94 points and Gary Duncan to take second for the round with 85 points.
At the mid point in the season with 3 rounds completed and 3 rounds remaining, Timaru’s Grant Waters in his Mitsubishi GSR has proved that reliability is the key to the class, taking the overall points lead in the series through consistently finishing races with a 9 point lead over Temuka’s Gary Duncan.
The series now has a 3 month break until there only Ruapuna round on March 5th 2011. With a few entrants unable to complete at all of the first 3 rounds due to panel damage, mechanical problems or other commitments, the
Kumho Sport Saloons Series is looking forward to having all it’s regular entrants back at that round, and with an invite extended for the North Island SS2000 class to come and compete with the Sport Saloons Class at the Truck Racing event at Levels at the end of March, that too is looking to be a big event for the class.
