infonews.co.nz
INDEX
SPORT

EXCITING FINALE FOR BMWS AT HAMPTON DOWNS' LEGENDS OF SPEED

Monday 31 March 2014, 1:44PM

By Mark Baker

398 views

Perfect weather for BMW racing at Hampton Downs
Perfect weather for BMW racing at Hampton Downs Credit: Mark Baker

Mechanical mayhem, multi-car crashes, packed starting grids and wheel to wheel race action: the Castrol BMW Race Driver Series brought this and more to the Legends of Speed race event at Hampton Downs.
The event was the final round in the 2013-2014 series for all classes – the massively popular E30s, the 2.0-litre open class and the main anything-goes open class, where V8 and turbocharged engines prevail.
In the anything-goes open class Micheal Mosen had a fraught weekend, finishing only one race of three and breaking the drive to his engine’s oil pump. The Hamiltonian was on an early drive home on Sunday afternoon, fretting that his championship lead was being eroded.
Kayne Barrie had brought out his turbocharged Alpine B5 and qualified on pole for the open class. He was second in Saturday’s first race before the massively powerful four-door race car blew a head gasket. He did set a fastest lap time of 1:09.808 before it failed.
Aaron Harris of Kapiti has missed two rounds of the championship this year due to other racing commitments. In addition to the BMW series he has raced internationally with the Motorsport Services team and also contested the Highlands 101, the inaugural race event at Tony Quinn’s new Highlands Motorsport Park at Cromwell in the South Island.
At Hampton Downs this weekend Harris took two wins and a second to preserve his championship challenge, notching up 11 wins from 12 races contested in the process.
With a classic BMW 2002 featuring a four cylinder turbocharged engine that makes more power than current Formula One cars, Michel Delmont has been a long-standing supporter of BMW track racing. He came to Hampton Downs to race in the open class and was rewarded with fourth place, sixth place and then a third place in the final race.
The Open 2.0-litre class caters for modified cars as a step between the open class and the E30s. At Hampton Downs, the class was once more dominated by Howard Wood in his immaculate BMW 2002tii ‘works’ replica race car. Wood qualified on pole ahead of Martyn Seddon and Ash Blewett, then won all three races and set fastest time for the class, a 1:15.828 in the Sunday morning handicap race.
The mainstay of the Castrol BMW series is the E30 class, which is so popular its race grids are divided in two. At the Legends of Speed two-day race event at Hampton Downs the action in both grids was intense, and a five car crash was an emphatic but sobering reminder of how close the racing can be.
A long-standing rivalry between Marty Irvine and Jon Thompson continued through qualifying, with the pair setting pole times for their heats.
Then Thompson’s luck ran out when his car developed a chronic misfire early in the second handicap heat, edging him down the finish order to 15th.
That race was interrupted by a five car crash on lap four that took out Will Gray, Ross Wilson, Rick Donaldson and the driver judged to have caused the tangle, Grant Schultz. Wilson’s car was the most badly damaged, with the right rear quarter pushed in to the C-pillar. Peter Ball, who was entangled in the melee but managed to avoid damage, finished third.
But Irvine had stayed clear and dominated all three of his races, taking the class win for the day. John Thompson set fastest time of the day for the class with a 1:22.505 in the last race.

About the Castrol BMW Race Driver Series

New Zealand’s biggest and most spectacular one-marque race series began in 2005 and is modelled on similar successful one-marque series in other countries. It is the largest such race series in New Zealand.
The foundation of the series is the E30 class, for BMW’s immensely popular E30 3 Series. Cars eligible for the class run either 1.8 litre four cylinder or 2.0 litre six cylinder engines, manufactured between 1984 and 1991. The E30 is BMW’s all-time best selling 3 Series.
Cars also race in the open 2.0-litre category, which allows more freedom in build specification, and in the outright open classes, where the high output V8, six cylinder and turbo cars are found.


Information: facebook.com/veritasnz

More images: https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/t31.0-8/1890567_505748916200951_2004361999_o.jpg