Clive Thornton wins the Woodhill 100

Whakatane driver Clive Thornton put in a storming drive to win the 2008 SFL Woodhill 100 on Sunday June 1, fighting his way through a swarm of the fastest drivers in the sport on the way to his career-biggest win.

The race shaped up to be a battle between the two most successful Woodhill campaigners in the 28-year history of the race, Tony McCall and Ian “Faster” Foster.

Though these two set the early pace, they were both to drop out of the running, McCall’s car breaking its Porsche transmission on the second lap and Foster having an “off” in the forest that put him out of contention for the win.

Also out on the second lap was Grant Ferguson, who was third on the road. His car also damaged its transmission.

“Tony and I were very close on speed, but I put it into first for a slow corner and something broke, it was jammed in first gear so that was that.”

Close behind as the early leaders struck trouble were Thornton, Rob Ryan and local racer Rick Sciarone, with ThunderTruck driver Lyndsay Dowler of Kumeu also in the hunt for a podium position.

Thornton seized the lead when he and Rob Ryan went wheel to wheel into a tight corner, the big Australian Southern Cross getting the best of Ryan’s self-built single-seater.

“Rob had been holding us up in the rough, which is what this car’s built for. Once we got past him I pulled away pretty quickly and established a good lead.”

Rick Sciarone in the Maddren Homes Eagle single-seater also got past Ryan in the early laps and ran as high as second but went out on the final lap.

Lyndsay Dowler had forced his crowd-pleasing V8 Toyota Hilux through to chase down Ryan, and was also frustrated not to be able to overtake.

“We were a lot quicker in the rough, which is unusual for a truck like ours – you’d expect an unlimited class buggy to get away from us in the rough under the trees. Then out on the fast roads we just couldn’t get close enough to make a good pass.”

On one lap, Dowler narrowly avoided overturning the truck on the fast downhill road leading to the start-finish area. Pushing the Lowery Hilux out wide in an attempt to overtake into the braking area, the truck slid sideways into the rough at more than 100 km/h. Dowler said he only avoided rolling by staying hard on the accelerator, letting the truck’s four wheel drive claw it back onto the road.

“That was a bit exciting.”

Thornton, meanwhile, was extending his lead to more than five minutes over the battle for second.

“By this time we were into lapped traffic, which was a bit of a test. Some of the drivers either didn’t hear us behind them or were choosing not to get out of the way, and there aren’t a lot of passing places on narrow tracks like these. We did have a bit of contact getting past a few of these guys.”

Thornton said the Australian-built Southern Cross two seater was the “perfect’ car for a fast but tough enduro like the Woodhill 100. Reliable and strong, it would shrug off the battering conditions where lighter single-seater cars would falter.

“Those guys up front would have been hard to beat if they hadn’t broken, but that’s what a race like this is about – endurance.”

As the race reached its mid-distance, the tussle for second place become a three-way affair between Rick Sciarone, Rob Ryan and Lyndsay Dowler.

In the Leader products Super 1600 class, Richard Crabb of Albany had fitted a new Toyota race engine to his mid-engined single-seater car, and had been aiming to challenge Sciarone, Malcolm Langley of Whakatane and Lindsay Pointon. A damaged fuel cell forced him out, leaving Pointon chasing Sciarone but unable to close in and Langley pursuing Pointon. A late-race rollover put an end to Langley’s charge.

Ian Foster had managed to return to the race, and put in a dramatic drive over the final four laps to claw his way back to fourth overall at the finish.

At race end, though, Clive and Max Thornton had dominated the race. They finished more then five minutes clear of eventual second-placed driver Rob Ryan, who still had Lyndsay Dowler hard on his heels in third.

Fourth was Ian Foster, with a safe gap to Lindsay Pointon in fifth.

Shawn Dickins was first in the VW 1600-powered Hair Magic Challenger class, while Hamilton’s Nigel Newlands won the Lowery Supercutters production truck class and Muriwai’s Darryn Bell took out Performance Metalworks class six for modified four wheel drives.

The SFL Woodhill 100 is 28 years old this year, the sport’s longest-established and toughest race.

-End-

Results, 2008 SFL Woodhill 100

Clive Thornton, Whakatane, 1 (first in Pine Harbour painters class 1)

Rob Ryan, Auckland, 2

Lyndsay Dowler, Kumeu, 3 (first in Performance Metalworks class 8)

Ian Foster, West Auckland, 4

Lindsay Pointon, Auckland, 5 (first in Trevor French Radiators class 3)






 

LUCKY 13 GOES TO THORNTON

Clive Thornton becomes lucky number 13 – only the 13th driver ever to win the Woodhill 100.

“You know, when we got this car from Australia I was thinking about this race and how great it would be to get my name on the trophy. I don’t think I really expected to do that so quickly, it’s been a real dream run and our most memorable win of all.”

Thornton’s Southern Cross two-seater runs a Holden 3.8-litre V6 and Albins race transmission and is built to take the worst that the sport can offer.

“We always figured if a Southern Cross was tough enough for Aussie then it would also work here. I’ve been looking at getting a new engine with more power, but winning on this engine proves the package is pretty competitive, even against the boxer-engined single-seaters.”

Only twelve other drivers have ever won the Woodhill 100 in its 27 year history – testament to the punishing course and to the tough pace set by the front-runners in the sandy forest tracks of Woodhill Forest. Up to five of those twelve are expected to front up for this year’s race, keen for one more chance at glory in the race they know is the cruellest cruel in the sport.

Race cars using flat four engines based on the venerable VW Beetle’s air cooled power plant won the race from 1981 to 1994; the boxer engine has won 21 out of the 28 races held to date, and only a handful of other engine types have ever powered drivers to victory in the sandy, twisty tracks of Woodhill Forest. Thornton’s win is the first ever for a car with Holden power.

Race organiser Donn Attwood is a long-time Woodhill competitor, and knows how hard the event can be. He says for many simply completing the race is an achievement worthy of note, while winning the Woodhill takes a special blend of luck, ability and preparation.

“People have been known to dominate the field right up to the final lap and then just disappear. It’s a real heartbreaker, but that’s part of the challenge. People come here to test themselves, to be able to say they completed a Woodhill.”

The Woodhill has outgrown its original format: once a classic “100 miler”, it has grown in distance as cars became faster and more capable to be a 200-kilometre enduro – though for some of the fastest cars, even this distance is best considered a sprint. Most run the whole distance without refuelling.

The race grew out of the popularity of another Woodhill classic, the Leadfoot, which reached saturation point in the early 1980s, meaning the entry list became unwieldy.

Auckland Offroad Racing Club took the initiative and set in place a 100 mile race that has been an endurance classic ever since. 

Woodhill 100 winners

1981 Daryll Carson 1995 Daynom Templeman

1982 Emil Versalko 1996 Mike Cameron

1983 Daryll Carson 1997 Daynom Templeman

1984 Nigel Barton 1998 Ian Foster

1985 Ian Foster 1999 Tony McCall

1986 Emil Versalko 2000 Grant Ferguson

1987 Lindsay Pointon 2001 Trevor Hackett

1988 Des Warrington 2002 Lindsay Pointon

1989 Ian Foster 2003 Clim Lammers

1990 Ian Foster 2004 Tony McCall

1991 Ian Foster 2005 Tony McCall

1992 Ian Foster 2006 Tony McCall

1993 Trevor Hackett 2007 Tony McCall

1994 Emil Versalko 2008 Clive Thornton

Issued on behalf of the 2008 Woodhill 100 by Veritas Communications Limited.