ALLISON TAKES RACE 1 - PUKEKOHE ROUND 3

Points leader Selby Allison continued his good form today at Pukekohe with another lights to flag victory. Allison lead all eight laps around the 3.1 km circuit to take the chequered flag by just over .1 of a second, extending his lead in the points championship in the process.

QUALIFYING

Qualifying earlier in the day had been an action packed affair. Just over five minutes into the session Sabre team mates Stefan Webling and Matthew Stubbs had an enormous accident as they approached the start/finish line. Webling appeared to pull out of the slipstream of a car in front, only to run into Stubbs who was alongside. The resulting collision saw Stubbs' car launch into the air, narrowly missing the officials signalling platform, before landing back down on the front of Webling's car. Both cars continued on to hit the inside barrier before Webling's car was slung back across the oncoming traffic, eventually coming to rest facing the wrong way on the left hand side of the track. Stubbs' car ended up on the infield.

Stefan Webling's badly damaged Sabre. Stubbs was out of his car almost immediately, but Webling took longer to exit his damaged Sabre - having taken the brunt of the impact with the barriers. Webling was able to get out of his car under his own power, but was taken to an awaiting ambulance for a few moments of observation. Although complaining of a headache, he was otherwise unharmed.

Two others had been caught up in the crash. The luckless Bryan McConkey was hit from behind as he slowed for the accident by Alastair Wootten. Wootten had done all he could to stop but couldn't quite avoid McConkey and hit the back of McConkey's car fairly hard, causing extensive damage. Wootten was able to continue without his nosecone. McConkey sat the rest of the session out.

Both Webling's and Stubbs' cars were not able to be repaired for race 1, whereas McConkey made it onto the grid, after a great team effort by fellow competitors. Formula First is known for it's camaraderie , and McConkey's plight was a perfect example.

The session was red flagged after the crash and resumed some 10 minutes afterward. Allison got straight down to business and clocked the best time ahead of Simon Hardy and Ian Foster.

RACE 1 Right from the outset, Allison looked to have the measure of the field. Very quickly the race developed into a race for second, albiet right behind Allison. Pukekohe very rarely allows a break away lead to occur and this was no exception. Although Allison appeared to have it under control, his lead was never more than a few tenths of a second.

Scott Fountain's miserable luck continued after he pulled out of race 1 with suspected engine troubles. The real action was happening directly behind as five others diced for position. Caine Lobb, Scott Fountain, Hardy, Foster and Michael Shepherd, all fought furiously for the opening laps as Allison controlled the pace. Fountain's miserable luck continued when he pulled off the track after only a few laps with a suspected blown engine.

Hardy held onto second with some clever driving, despite several attempts to pass from an aggressive Foster. Lobb and Shepherd were also in the mix for the entire time.

At the line it was Allison, from Hardy, Lobb, Foster and Shepherd. The top five were separated by less than .6 of a second.

More unusually, the gap back to 6th place McConkey was a whopping 19 seconds. The gap behind McConkey was another two seconds - which meant the spread of the field was quite substantial - unusual site for a Formula First race.

The race for McConkey had been a somewhat lonely affair, as he'd driven the bulk of the race isolated from both the lead and chasing packs.

Behind McConkey the action was more typical of Formula First. A nine-car pack fought the entire time with Bradley McDonald eventually getting the upper hand after a brave pass at the approach to the esses on the last lap.

Races 2 and 3 run tomorrow (Sunday). Racing is scheduled to start at 10:00am.

(A more detailed report will follow on Monday).