[Jesper OH]

Originally Posted by brendonwood1

Round 3: Pukekohe. 29 Starters.


The results for this race and the report details are from Racing Car News, February 1987.

This was yet another race of attrition. The Crosby Commdore continued its dominence of qualifying in the series, with Grice putting the Skyline in second and Francevic in third. Charlie O'Brien had sort the rocker problem that kept him down the order at Baypark and qualified fourth.

In the race itself, the Skyline took the lead from the start and held it for the first hour until forced into the pits for the first of many long pit stops. The first one resulted from a broken fanbelt. Further pit-stops were required to sort the problem, with the team eventually spending twenty minutes replacing the alternator. However, such was the attrition, the Skyline still finished tenth, allowing Grice to take the South Pacific Touring Car Championship.
The Crosby Commodore ran second until oil pressure problems caused its retirment on lap 24. The Francevic Sierra went out early with a broken camshaft.
Trevor McLean was another early retirement, after being punted off by O'Brien's BMW on the first lap. The collison caused O'Brien to pit for repairs to the front guard.
At the end of the first hour, Andersson took the lead in the Volvo until he too was forced to retire with a damaged differential.
Amazingly the Anderson brothers Mustang took the lead from the Volvo and held it for 29 laps until their usual reliability curse struck and they retired with a badly bent strut which had damaged the differential.
Winner of the 1600cc class in the first two races, Dave Barrow, retired the Corolla with a blown clutch at two-thirds distance and Trevor Crowe retired about the same time with a broken rocker.
Through all of this O'Brien had worked his way back into the lead after his first lap collision and held it to the finish. The Robbie Ker/Wayne Huxford Mustang ran reliably to finish second on the same lap, while Graham Lorimer and Tony Lawrence in the ex-Crosby BMW completed the podium.

Currently re-reading this thread, and I can only say a big thank you for the recent updates to William and Brendon. The Simpson Appliances Series is new to me and thank you for telling it was effectively the New Zealand Touring Car Championship. I'm also getting an idea of what the South Pacific Touring Car Championship was about. Here's another try at dates for the series':

Benson & Hedges Series:

Date	Track	Race name
1986-xx-xx	Manfeild
1986-10-26	Baypark Raceway	Benson & Hedges Saloon Car Series
1986-11-16	Pukekohe	Benson & Hedges Saloon Car Classic

Simpson Appliances Series:

Date	Track	Race Name
1986-11-30	Manfeild
1986-12-xx	Baypark Raceway
198x-xx-xx	Pukekohe

Baypark might have been held on December 7 1986.

Nissan Mobil 500 Series:

Date	Track	Race Name
1987-01-xx	Wellington	Nissan Mobil 500
1987-02-01	Pukekohe	Nissan Mobil 500

Wellington likely held on January 25, 1987

BTW, why is it Manfield but Manfeild?

Jesper