Sloman clinches Grand Prix

Press, 12 January 1987, Page 21

Sloman clinches Grand Prix

Peter Sloman, of Palmerston North, driving a Chevrolet Corvette, won the New Zealand Grand Prix at Woodford Glen Speedway on Saturday evening. . The grid draw for the 30lap event sponsored by ZM/ FM, was decided by accumulated points in two qualifying heats.

Wanganui’s Ray Purdie took his Camaro to an early lead in heat one. He was closely followed by the similar car of Paul Pickerall, of Auckland, a Torana driven by Denis Bolt and the Buick Skyhawk of John Rodgers, also from Christchurch.

Some aggressive driving by Gore’s Graham Young led to him shunting the Commodore of Graeme Colson (Stratford) off the track in the back straight Two laps later Young’s car bounced off another competitor’s car and into the concrete wall before he retired to the infield. As Purdie increased his lead, Sloman passed both Bolt and Pickerall to finish ahead of them in second spot - Auckland’s Ray Makene also led all the way in his Chevrolet Monza to take heat two ahead of the Volkswagen of Stratford’s Alan Jago, who slipped by Colson in the latter stages.

In the Grand Prix event Makene and Sloman were on the front row, ahead of Bolt and Purdie. Behind them were Jago, ■ the Buick Skyhawk driver, Lance Jennings, of Auckland, and Christchurch’S Tony fardwell, in his Pontiac Firebird.

Sloman burst into the lead from the flag drop ahead of Makene and Purdie, with Bolt and Jago in front of Cardwell. A gap soon opened between the front two, with another break to third as Jennings dropped back and Cardwell moved up to fifth. Jago then dropped out, leaving the front five half a lap ahead of Jennings. Cardwell sneaked by Bolt

to close up to Purdie who then got caught in some slower traffic, allowing Cardwell to finish third behind Sloman and Makene. A bonus in the stock car ranks was the appearance of four North Island competitors who won all the events for this class.

Peter O’Brien, of Hawke’s Bay, won the first race with Keith Simpson and his brother, Bruce, both of Stratford, clinching the other two.

Kenny Hannah and Joe Annan dominated the sportsman races while Bob Burgess and Stephen Cox were first and second respectively in both street stock events. Results.—

Super saloons: New Zealand Grand Prix, qualifying heat 1: R. Purdie 1, P. Sloman 2, D. Bolt 3. Heat 2: R. Makene 1, A. Jago 2, G. Colson 3. Thirty-lap final: Sloman 1, Makene 2, T. Cardwell 3. Feature: Cardwell 1, Colson 2, Purdie 3. Stocks: Race 1: P. O’Brien 1, W. Wilding 2, G. Griffiths 3. Race 2: K. Simpson 1, B. Simpson 2, Griffiths 3. Race 3: K. Simpson and B. Simpson equal 1, L. Robb 3. Sportsman: Race 1: J. Annan 1, K. Hannah 2, G. Foster 3. Race 2. Hannah 1, Annan 2, Faster 3. A-grade saloons: Race 1: K. Parkinson and P. Edmonds equal 1, T. Blanchard 3. Race 2: C. de Jong 1, G. Cooper 2, P. Edmonds 3. Race 3: Parkinson 1, K. Hannah 2, Edmonds 3. B-grade saloons: Race 1: A. Hanson 1, J. Bright 2, K. Kerr 3. Race 2: B. McSaveney 1, M. O’Donahue 2, A Donny 3. Race 3: I. Burney 1, M. Kerr 2, Donny 3. Street stocks:

Race 1: B. Burgess 1, S. Cox 2, B. Neil 3. Race 2: Burgess 1, Cox 2, S. Hills 3.