Saloon car title to Leonard and Sprague

Press, 16 November 1981, Page 3

Saloon car title to Leonard and Sprague

PA Auckland Gary Sprague and Leo Leonard won the long distance saloon car race at Pukekohe on Saturday — and took the three-race series.

The pair drove their Ford Fairmont to what looked to be an easy victory in the s'/z hours Benson and Hedges event after the early leader, Wayne Wilkinson, retired after just 50 minutes with serious mechanical problems with his Fairmont.

Apart from their two fuel stops, when the Toyota Celica of Graeme Bowkett and Kent Baigent briefly took the lead, Leonard and Sprague were never headed. For Leonard it was his seventh victory in the race since 1968, while Sprague collected the winner’s champagne for the fourth time. Despite some rain in the opening stages, the pair covered two more laps than the 177 laps of last year’s winner Rod Coppins. Coppins had to be content with fourth in his Holden Commodore, having to make four fuel

stops compared with the winner’s two and also making an unscheduled stop to change a tyre. In the dramatic plosing minutes, the Commodore of Garry Pedersen and David Oxton snatched second from Bowkett and Baigent. The smaller Celica slowed substantially with engine problems and Oxton pulled in two minutes over the last half hour to go into second only a couple of minutes before the finish. For all but the last halfhour, the Baigent/Bowkett car kept the pressure on the leaders. “We could not afford to let up,” said Sprague afterwards. “A puncture or one muffed fuel stop and we would have lost all our advantage.” The former All Black, Sid Going, finished ninth with Steve Midgley in a Fairmont while the Cortina, of Neal Lowe and John Morton took tenth ■ and completed a hat trick of victories in the two litre class at all three rounds of the series.

In the baby class, the Mini 1275 GT of Dave Strong and Colin Gibson, Ross and Derek MacDonald’s Mitsubishi Mirage and the Honda Civic of Dauntesy Teagle and Robbie Booth battled for a large part of the distance before the Civic won from the Mirage and the Mini. Results:— G. Sprague, L. Leonard, (Ford Fairmont) 179 laps, 1; D. Oxton, G. Pedersen, (Holden Commodore) 178, 2; K. Baigent, G. Bowkett, (Toyota Celica) 178, 3.

Under 1350 cc: D. Teagle, R. Booth (Honda Civic) 160 laps, 1; D. and R. MacDonald (Mitsubishi Mirage) 160, 2; D. Strong, C. Gibson (Mini 1275 GT) 158, 3. 1351-1700 cc: S. Helm, N. Johns (Ford Laser Sport) 166, 1; T. Jarvis, N. Robertson (Ford Escort Sport) 166, 2; G. Lorimer, T. Lawrence (Ford Laser Sport), 164, 3.

1701-2000 cc: Lowe. Morton, 1: R. McMillan,'D. Saunders (Ford Cortina) 167. 2; T. Carew, D. Brown (Mitsubishi Celeste) 163, 3. Series placings: Over all: Sprague, Leonard, 67 points, 1; Oxton, Pedersen, 60, 2; Baigent, Bowkett, 44, 3; Collingwood, Neilson 33, 4; Coppins, Hulme, 30, 5; Johnson, Begovic, 21, 6.