Rain affects Mustang

Press, 25 May 1977, Page 25

Rain affects Mustang

The Christchurch-built P.D.L, Mustang H has at last had the chance to beat Australia’s best racing saloons, but it more than met its match.

Leo Leonard raced the big Mustang in a special three-heat series at Calder Park raceway, near Melbourne, at the week-end and gained tw-o fourths and a third.

The star of the series was the man who owns Calder Park, Bob Jane, who narrowly won the series with a win and two seconds in his rapid Monaro. Frank Gardner won the first two heats in his Chev. Corvair, but a fourth in the last rain-affected lap left him a close second over-all. It was not surprising that Jane and Gardner had the better of Leonard, as it was the Timaru driver’s first look at the track. Both Australian drivers know the

track intimately, as Gardner runs a training school there. Leonard’s main rival was Alan Hamilton in a turbo Porsche. Hamilton beat him twice in the first two heats, but Leonard

struck back in the final heat and the pair ended the series tied for third place.

The expatriate New Zealander, Jim Richards, could not keep up with the faster cars of Jane, Gardner, Hamilton and Leonard in the first two heats but when the rain started to pour down in the third he charged through the field after a poor start had left him fifth on the first lap. Richards and Gardner passed Hamilton on the fourth lap and it took Richards one more lap to pass Gardner. He then set out after Leonard. After passing Leonard. Richards quickly made up the distance to Bob Jane, closing right up on the Australian going into

the final corner. However, Jane managed to hold on and win the series. Jane finished with 28 points, Gardner had 27 and Leonard and Hamilton finished with 22 each.

The P.D.L. Industries chief, Mr Bob Stewart, said in Christchurch last evening that Leonard

found it hard to get used to the track, which was corrugated and rough as well as being affected by the rain. “We also found it hard to set up the suspension right for the corrugations, but apart from that the car performed well,” he said. The Mustang failed to finish in, its first Australian race at Oran Park, Sydney, on May 1. Mr Stewart said the Mustang would be shipped back to Christchurch soon and would probably have no more races in Australia this season. The P.D.L. team has no plans to race it in South-East Asia this winter, either. "We haven’t had the chance to do any development work on it yet, so we might do a bit of work on it over the winter,” he said. Mr Stewart added that, judging from comment in Australian motorsport circles, the top Australian drivers will be willing to appear in a trans-Tasman saloon car series as part of next season’s Formula Pacific series.