Timaru S32 2006 Race Report

17 intrepid racers enjoyed a good day's racing at the fast and challenging Timaru track on Sunday 3rd September.

Falcons always go well at Timaru because of the lack of any really long straight and a lot of fast corners. Andy Bishop dominated qualifying by 1.5 laps and cruised to an easy victory in the only final from Phil Hemsley, Bob Mortimer and Mike Gibbon. Unlucky Roland Hobden missed the final by 13/100. Below, the Falcon runners ( L to R) Phil, Andy, Bob, Mike and Roland

The Falcon drivers

James Cleave took a while to get it together in Super production qualifying but finally managed a 37.85, nearly a lap clear from Dave Harvey who was trying to sort a brand new car (didn't work very well with no lead!) and was also using Alan Callaghan's car (Alan being on holiday).

Unlucky Roland Hobden again found himself as 17th qualifier with no one else to race in a final. Nick Thrower found himself in the D final after car troubles in qualifying (having been in the A final in 2005) and then retired after 33 laps. Kevin Gray won comfortably from Bob Mortimer.

The C final was very close between Franz Barillaro and a slightly "under-the-weather" Vince Lee. Franz led with Vince closing the gap time and again only to have an off. Vince finally squeezed by to win by 4/100.

Stan Kirk had gear trouble in the B final warm up and reverted to his trusty Falcon. This proved good enough to chase Ian Barker all the way to the flag and stay in front of Ian Fisher and Andy Bishop (also Falcon).

Dave Harvey finally had his new Super Prod going a bit more to his liking in the A final but couldn't do much about James Cleave. Graham Sampson pushed Dave all the way and Stan Alton wasn't far behind on the unfavoured red lane.

7 teams contested the one hour Le Mans Gp 12 Team Race. Dave Harvey teamed up with Graham Sampson in the home White Cliffs Racing Team and used a car prepared by Dave which was also the car loaned by Dave to James Cleave to win the Gp12 Saloon title a little earlier in the year. With a sports car body and a Dave Harvey rebuild it stormed round the track for an hour at record breaking speed, even the tyre change was one of the quickest, hardly denting the team's progress and the final winning margin of 50 laps was huge by normal S32 Team Race standards. The one hour total of 804 laps was a pace equivalent to 40.2 laps in 3 minutes, only just under the Timaru Gp12 lap record.

Graham and Dave - the winning team

Just about everybody else had some sort of car problem. LSCC (James Cleave and Stan Alton) comfortably finished second, over 40 laps clear of Impunity (Ian Barker and Vince Lee). James managed one segment near the pace of the winning car but thereafter various problems intervened. Impunity were more consistent even if not on the pace of the first 2 teams. Fourth place locals Norfolk and Chance (Andy Bishop and Bill Jenner) had a fast new car prepared by Graham Sampson and briefly held third after the first segments but some car troubles and a slow tyre change held them back in one segment, otherwise they would have been much closer to Impunity.

The 5th, 6th and 7th place positions of LOGS (Stan Kirk guesting with Kev Gray), ECEs (Ian Fisher and Nick Thrower) and Bamba (Bob Mortimer guesting with Franz Barillaro), despite all being fast cars (as evidenced by their fastest segments), were all determined by their considerable time off the track with a variety of car problems.

The winning car The winning chassis by Dave Harvey

Above, The winning LM32 car

With no hold-ups and slick organisation, racers were able to get away just after 4 pm to enjoy the late summer sunshine on their drive home.

Stan Kirk

Timaru S32 Results 3rd September 2006
(3 minute qualifying heats and 5 minute finals)
	Falcon	Qual	Final
1	Andy Bishop	35.03	57
2	Phil Hemsley	33.56	56
3	Bob Mortimer	33.11	53
4	Mike Gibbon	32.68	52

5	Roland Hobden	32.5
Super Production
A Final
	James Cleave	37.85	63
2	Dave Harvey	36.96	61
3	Graham Sampson	36.91	60
4	Stan Alton	36.66	59
B Final
	B Final
5	Ian Barker	36.17	60
6	Stan Kirk	35.87	59
7	Ian Fisher	35.48	58
8	Andy Bishop	35.03	56
C Final
9	Vince Lee	33.89	56.71
10	Franz Barillaro	34.67	56.67
11	Bill Jenner	33.84	53
12	Phil Hemsley	33.56	52
D Final
13	Kev Gray	32.9	55
14	Bob Mortimer	33.11	53
15	Mike Gibbon	32.68	47
16	Nick Thrower	33.69	33 rtd

17	Roland Hobden	32.5

	Le Mans Gp12 Team race
	(15 minute lane segments)	Red	Yellow	Green	White	Total
1	White Cliffs Racing
	Graham Sampson			195.12	198.09
	Dave Harvey	204.44	206.85			804.5

2	LSCC
	James Cleave		198.83		190.6
	Stan Alton	176.51		188.09		754.03

3	Impunity
	Ian Barker	175.62	179.42		170.07
	Vince Lee			185.08		710.19

4	Norfolk & Chance
	Andy Bishop	173.39		185.18
	Bill Jenner		153.33		176.67	688.57

5	LOGS
	Stan Kirk	179.57		165.09
	Kev Gray		146.01		167.36	658.03

6	ECEs
	Ian Fisher		191.49	23.85
	Nick Thrower	181.03			181.73	578.1

7	BAMBA
	Franz Barillaro	170.4			43.64
	Bob Mortimer		180.21	83.01		477.26