Inter-island saloon car heats feature Caldwell

Press, 10 January 1987, Page 21

Inter-island saloon car heats feature Caldwell

The Christchurch h ‘ driver, Tony Caldwell, in his Pontiac Firebird beat “ a top-class field in the ~ North versus South super L saloon hallenge at Woodford Glen Speedway on -■ Wednesday evening. Fourteen top saloon car drivers from throughout „ New Zealand battled out the two heats, points ' accumulating to decide the over-all placegetters. Stratford’s Alan George took his Commodore to an early lead in the first heat, closely followed by the Mustang of Gary Manifold (Blenheim) and the . New Zealand champion, c Alan Jago (Stratford), in his fuel-injected Volkswagen. The quick Monza of Ray Makene (Auckland) was sidelined early in the heat as a result of a puncture after he tangled with the RX7 of the Christchurch driver, Peter Watts. Next to retire was the Chev Corvette of Peter Sloman (Palmerston North). The Wanganui driver, Ray Sloman, spun : his Camaro right in front ' of Sloman as Colin Grey “ from Christchurch hurtled * his big Commodore past ; Jago.

The race then settled down until the last lap when Purdie and the Torana of Christchurch’s Denis Bolt touched at high speed in the back straight Bolt slid infield while Purdie careered into the concrete wall. George meantime held on to his first position throughout the 20 laps, followed home by Manifold, Grey and Jago with Graeme Colson from Stratford bringing his Commodore in fifth and Cardwell seventh behind the Bay of Plenty driver, Geoff Fletcher, in his Buick Skyhawk. Bolt was eighth. Cardwell led out Bolt in heat two followed closely by Purdie and the Z2B Camaro of Auckland’s Paul Pickerall. Sloman then drove brilliantly round the outside of both Pickerall and Purdie to storm into third place while Jago was out with a puncture after a tangle with Grey. Bell was the next to succumb to Sloman’s pressure as he crept underneath to take second position behind Cardwell. The front four of Cardwell, Sloman, Bolt and Purdie made a break

on the field with very close wheel-to-wheel racing until Cardwell drifted wide on the south bend giving Sloman the lead. Sloman cracked on the pace with a 19.90 s second lap to win the heat ahead of Cardwell, Bolt and Purdie with Makene slipping by Fletcher for fifth position. George could do no better than ninth. Final points: Cardwell 33, George 32, Bolt 31, Fletcher 30, Grey and Colson 29. In an earlier South Island saloon race John Rodgers from Christchurch took his new Buick Skyhawk to a wellearned win ahead of Cardwell and Bolt, while Makene was first home in the North Island event. Jago showed his class in the saloon feature when he held out the big VBs in an all-the-way win which was marred by three orange lights. The first to cause chaos was Auckland’s Lance Jennings who spun his Buick Skyhawk in front of the packed field. Bolt did likewise two laps later. The third incident was when Grey spun in front of Cardwell, the Firebird ending up backwards in

the concrete wall. Results.— SUPER SALOONS: South Island race: J. Rodgers 1, T. Cardwell 2, D. Bolt 3. North Island race: R. Makene 1, G. Manifold 2, G. Colson 3. North v. South challenge heat 1: A. George 1, Manifold 2, C. Grey 3. Heat 2: P. Sloman 1, Cardwell 2, Bolt 3. Feature: A. Jago 1, George 2, Colson 3. A GRADE SALOONS: Race 1: K. Hannah 1, T. Blanchard 2. Race 2: Blanchard 1, J. Hocken 2, C. Young 3. Race 3: Blanchard 1, K. Parkinson 2, Hannah 3. B GRADE SALOONS; Race 1: A. Torana 1,1, Burney 2, M. Kerr 3. Race 2: J. Bright 1, B. McSaveney 2, A. Hanson 3. Race 3: Hanson 1, Burney 2, K Kerr. STREETSTOCKS: Race 1: D. Coleman 1, B. Burgess 2, B. Oliver 3. Race 2: Burgess 1, Oliver 2, Coleman 3. Race 3: Burgess 1, K. Stevens 2, Coleman 3. STOCKS: Race 1: G. Griffiths 1, K. O’Connor 2, W. Parsons 3. Race 2: Griffiths 1, Parsons 2, T. Hern 3.