FIELD TAKES OPENING ROUND AT TAUPO

Cliff Field headed off strong opposition at Taupo over the weekend to take the early lead in the 2007/2008 New Zealand Formula First championship. The 34 year old Aucklander took out the Weldwell sponsored round by scoring a brace of wins in the opening heats and a third place in the last. Field holds a 21 point lead over his nearest rival Matthew Stubbs.

Qualifying A huge field of 24 entries assembled for opening round qualification, including no less than 11 new drivers. Among the rookies were, Speedsport Star of Tomorrow Scholarship winner Richie Stanaway, Wanganui youngster Matt Gibson, Mitchell Evans (son of former Porsche driver Owen Evans), Andre Heimgartner, Ayrton Brant, James Stead and Mike Lovell.

Back for another season were Formula First regulars Ian Foster, Michael Shepherd, Simon Hardy, Bryan McConkey, Dave Scammell and David Ruthven.

Another noteable entry was that of former series champion Paul Butler, returning to the fray after several years.

With 24 cars on circuit, qualifying was always going to be a close-run and tricky affair. Due to the length of the new Taupo circuit, qualifying was only run for 15 minutes, instead of the usual 20, which meant that each driver only had a handful of laps in which to set their times. Traffic was going to be key in the process.

At the end of the session it was the impressive rookie Matt Gibson who took his FireWatch sponsored Alvee to pole. His time of 1:47.433 was only .4 of a second off the lap record set by Selby Allison in the previous season. Second on the grid was Matthew Stubbs, who's Hydraulink coloured Sabre appeared to be one of the cars to watch. Next came 3 times series champion Shepherd, who was followed by Foster. Richie Stanaway made an excellent start to his Formula First career by placing his Speedsport Sabre on fifth, followed by Field, who was disappointed with his qualifying performance.

Simon Hardy (another disappointed with his result) came next, followed by Mitchell Evans and Bryan McConkey. Wanganui driver Bradley McDonald (returning after a broken foot at the last round of the Manfeild Winter Series) took the final place in the top ten.

Race 1 The first race of the season started off with a bang - litterally. As the field approached the first corner, a bit of bumping and rubbing resulted in Shepherd spinning around and collecting Foster on his way through. Unfortunately, rookie Michael Neville did not see the stricken Shepherd and collided with the former series champion's car, ending both of their races on the spot. Foster was able to carry on and returned to the track behind the safety car in 9th place. His car was damaged however and that would have a significant impact on his race speed.

Behind the safety car it was Gibson at the front of the field, followed by Stanaway then Hardy (who had gone from 7th to 3rd in the first corner melee). Field was next in line.

The race was retstarted two laps later and it was Stanaway who made a bid for the lead, momentarily stealing it from Gibson, only to hand it back a few corners later. Gibson was driving a smooth calculated race and appeared comfortable out in front. Field and Hardy both gained a position the very next lap when Stanaway ran wide at the sweeper leading onto the straight and dropped back. Hardy then experienced troubles with his car and conceded second to Field shortly thereafter.

From the third lap onwards, the race was dominated by Gibson and Field, who quickly opened a huge gap back to the chasing pack. Gibson had looked in command right from the outset and it was not until the last lap that Field was able to move close enough to start attacking his Allison Autos team mate. As the two drivers approached the Chase for the last time, Field appeared to be too far back to make a move, but picked up a last minute draft from Gibson and thrusted his car to the inside to take the lead as the cars entered the final turns. Gibson put up a fight right to the line, drawing half-way along side Field, but it wasn't quite enough and Field held on to take the victory.

Further back, Stubbs had passed a slowing Hardy to take third. Hardy did manage to bring his car home in fourth, ahead of the impressive Evans. Bryan McConkey was next, followed by Stanaway, McDonald, Foster and Ryan Hellier.

Race 2 Off the line, Field and Shepherd made a great start from the second row and immediately moved through to the front of the pack. Gibson had got away slowly and found himself well down the field - leaving himself with a lot of work to do.

Field was quickly past Shepherd on the first lap and the two started to pull a gap on the chasing Stanaway. Field appeared to be taking things conservatively however, and was quite slow through the turns, which allowed Stanaway to close the gap within a few laps. Stanaway fought his way past Shepherd with three laps to go and then set about pressuring Field for the lead. Field's experience was showing under pressure as he skillfully held the faster Stanaway at bay. With two laps to go Stanaway drew alongside Field on the exit of turn 7, but Field had track position and held onto the lead through the super-fast turn 9.

Stanaway was hungry for the win and made one more concerted effort on the last lap, but ran wide at turn 9, essentially handing the race to Field at that point. A fantastic, if not nerve-wracking, race to watch.

Shepherd had held on to the leading duo and finished a very respectable 3rd. A further 3.5 seconds back came Gibson, but he was adjudged to have jumped the start and was penalised back to 6th place.Stubbs was credited with 4th, ahead of Foster. Evans drove another great race to finish seventh, followed by Hardy and Butler. Michael Neville took tenth - after having had major repairs done to his car after race 1.

Race 3 Race three was barely a lap old when Simon Hardy had a huge crash exiting the final corner onto the pit straight. Hardy (Tauranga) was OK, but his car was extensively damaged and had come to a stop on the racing line. The race was immediately red-flagged and a full restart ordered.

Changes to the rules this season mean that there are now no grid-based restarts. Full race restarts are now run as per safety car restarts (whereby the field is let go after the safety car pulls off). The new ruling lead to some confusion and indeed several minutes were spent re-arranging the cars into their correct order.

Once the racing commenced again, it was Gibson who held the upper hand from Stubbs. Field and Shepherd battled for a few laps which let Gibson and Stubbs get away at the front. Field eventually shook Shepherd with a few laps to go, then set about hunting down the leading duo. But he would have to settle for third.

At the front, Stubbs had been driving a clean race waiting for the right time to attack. That moment came on the very last lap. As the two drivers approached the Chase, Gibson moved to the inside to force Stubbs to take the long way around (around the outside). Stubbs was on a mission and appeared hell-bent on taking the win. He pulled out of the slipstream as late as he could and moved out beside Gibson. After a cloud of tyre smoke and some very, very intense action, it was Stubbs who emerged from the final turn to take his first win of the season. Gibson was right behind him at the line - as was Field, who had closed right up on the final lap.

A track timing problem resulted in the final placings being held to later in the day. Once that was sorted out, it was Stanaway who finished in fourth, followed by McConkey, McDonald, Foster, Evans, Neville and Shepherd.

Standings After Round 1 Cliff Field 210 Matthew Stubbs 189 Matt Gibson 179