Butler takes maiden Woodhill 100 win

Mt Albert racer Alan Butler has fought off strong challenges from a half dozen others to win the 29th Woodhill 100 at Queen’s Birthday Weekend. It was his maiden win of the gruelling event, which is the toughest one day endurance race in New Zealand motorsport.

The 2009 race was the fastest in many years due to roading work carried out by the forest owners as they log mature pine trees that have long cloaked the deep sand tracks that were the unique punishment reserved for racers in the annual event. New logging roads made some of the toughest sections into high speed roller-coaster rides for the top teams. Heavy rain in the days leading up to the event meant also the sand tracks were more stable than in other years and allowed racers to reach higher speeds.

A true 100-mile enduro from its beginnings, this year’s Woodhill 100 covered a race distance of 224 km with laps of 28 km.

Driving his Super 1600 class Cougar Evo, Butler qualified second alongside defending Woodhill champion Clive Thornton, aiming to stay in the leading group and avoid incidents as the 32-strong field sorted itself out in the first lap.

Though Thornton’s car runs a powerful GM V6 engine, Butler’s lighter Cougar was more agile and he was confident of being able to stay with the bigger car during the opening laps.

As the race started, Thornton looked well placed to defend his 2008 title. In the morning’s qualifying sprints, he had taken a comfortable pole position, fastest by almost three seconds from Butler and ahead of Beachlands driver Neville Smith in his powerful Cougar Honda turbo.

As the field swept down the hill into the left-right corners that led off the hard-based roads at the start-finish and pit area and into the forest, Thornton held out the fast-starting Butler, who slotted in behind the big Australian car.
Charging from the second row was Neville Smith, who locked front wheels with Butler and found himself with no room at the right hand turn onto the sand tracks.
As Butler held the inside line, Smith smashed head-on into a pine tree, blocking the road and allowing the first few cars to sprint off into the forest.

Thornton then built a lead over a chasing bunch that included Butler, Melvin Rouse, Toyota Hilux driver Lyndsay Dowler, Malcolm Langley and Kumeu drivers Rick and Rene Sciarone. Butler said though his 1.6-litre car could stay with Thornton’s massive V6 Southern Cross car in the trees, he was losing time on the faster straights where the course broke out onto the big logging roads.
After one lap, Thornton’s lead was edging out beyond 30 seconds.

“It was crazy fast under the trees, and I was able to stick with Clive, but on the big straights of the logging roads my car topped out at 170 km/h or so and he was just pulling away.”

On the next lap, though, disaster struck Thornton – among others. He slid off the road at a tight corner, smashing sideways into a pine tree and losing time regaining the road. The same corner would claim Paul Smith, Rick Sciarone, Neville Smith and others during the race, and almost caught Alan Butler as well.
“The corner was very deceptive. I went in too hot and the car slid off, but I was able to get back on the road okay. It looked like a parking lot up there by the end of the day, cars parked in the bush, a couple on their lids.”
Rick Sciarone, second overall at the time, had followed Butler in, but rolled his Pinepac car and was out of the race.

Butler then extended his lead to more than four minutes over the remaining laps of the race. Rick Sciarone’s brother Rene, making a return to the race after a four year break, moved up as high as second but went out with mechanical failure.
The leading truck was Lyndsay Dowler, though he was losing time with a smashed front driveshaft that rendered the truck two wheel drive.

“For a truck, in the sand and on the big fast logging roads, there is no comparison. Four wheel drive is the only way to stay on the buggy pace,” said Dowler.
Once Butler started to overtake lapped traffic he was not challenged again.

Malcolm Langley came through to hold second with the demise of the second Sciarone, holding the position to the end in his Bakersfield Toyota Super 1600 car with Nick Leahy putting in a race-long charge to finish third overall in his Challenger VW.

Butler finished the race with a lead of more than four minutes. His maiden win at Woodhill, coupled with his victory at the Great Race at the start of the year, sets him up as a contender for an enduro triple-crown in 2009 with the Taupo 1000 in September the final – and toughest – enduro test.

Though the course of the 2009 Asset Finance Woodhill 100 was the fastest in many years, the attrition rate tipped 60 per cent, with just six trucks and six race cars classified finishers.
Race organisers are now preparing a year-long build-up to next year’s historic 30th anniversary Woodhill 100.

Top ten finishers, 2009 Asset Finance Woodhill 100

Alan Butler

Malcolm Langley

Nick Leahy

Clive Thornton

Lyndsay Dowler

Melvin Rouse

Devlin Hill

Roger McKay

Jay Murray

Darryn Bell