STANAWAY TAKES MAIDEN VICTORY AT PUKEKOHE - CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 5 REPORT

Speedsport Scholarship driver Richie Stanaway took his maiden championship victory, along with his first round win, in torrential conditions at Pukekohe on Sunday. The Tauranga youngster outpaced class veterans Ian Foster and Cliff Field in the final race of the day to take his first win in a dominant fashion. Added to his second and third places from earlier in the day, Stanaway’s win was enough to take the round victory by 7 points from Field, who was a further 4 points ahead of foster.

Qualifying As has become something of a standard fare, the pace setters in qualifying were Field, Stanaway, Matthew Stubbs and Foster. Field claimed the pole ahead of Foster, but it was a surprise Michael Neville who slotted his Sabre into third on the grid, ahead of team mates Stubbs and Stanaway.

Dom Kalasih (driving Bryan McConkey’s car) was next on the time sheets, followed by Matt Gibson, Ryan Hellier, Michael Shepherd and Bradley McDonald.

Pukekohe often produces close times and this was proven once again, with Field’s qualifying time of 1:13.78 being less than .6 of a second ahead of Hellier in 8th place.

Race 1 The weather had started to turn just prior to race 1, which made the start very tricky. As the lights went out, Foster and Field’s experience shone through as they crawled away ahead of a wheel-spinning pack, giving them a big advantage almost immediately. However it was not long before Stanaway made his way to back up to the leading duo.

A few laps later Stanaway passed Field under braking at the hairpin and set his sights on Foster.

Lap 5 saw contact between Stanaway and Foster at the Jennian Homes sweeper. The contact was significant enough to send both drivers spinning off the circuit, both lucky to be able to resume without damage.

All the action out front left Field in a comfortable lead, albeit one that came under momentary threat from Stubbs. Stubbs efforts were not enough, with Field taking the win. Stanaway had made a great recovery and managed to cross the line in third, ahead of Gibson, Foster, Shepherd, Kalasih, McDonald, Mitchell Evans and Hellier.

An investigation, which took most of the day, was held into the turn 1 incident between Foster and Stanaway. It was eventually decided that the contact was a racing incident and that no further action would be taken.

Mitchell Evans on the inside of Ryan Hellier at the hairpin during race 1. Photo: Tony Searle Race 2 The weather had taken a turn for the worse and rain was now lashing the Pukekohe circuit. Competitors were given 2 warm up laps to familiarise themselves with the conditions. On the second lap of the warm up, Graeme Rundle lost control of his Challenge and smashed hard into the barriers near the pit entrance. Rundle was removed from his car and taken to hospital complaining of neck and back pain. Thankfully, apart from some bruising and soreness, he was not injured.

The race was eventually started some 15 minutes later and it was once again Foster who led the field away. Field appeared to be playing a conservative role in this race – perhaps protecting his points lead – and fell back quickly into a comfortable third place.

The pace at the front was furious with Stanaway pressing Foster at both ends of the circuit. Stanaway’s charge for the lead would come to an end when he ran too deep into the hairpin with a few laps remaining, thus handing the win to Foster. He was able to recover and keep his second position but could not draw close enough to Foster to apply any pressure to the Aucklander.

Field trailed the top two by 12 seconds at the flag – admitting afterwards that he’d have preferred not to have raced at all in the conditions. Fourth place went to Simon Hardy, who was having a terrible time with car trouble, followed by Shepherd, Evans, Neville, Stubbs, Robin Bennett and Hellier.

Dave Scammell looks at his dislodged nosecone after contact at the hairpin. Photo: Tony Searle Race 3 The early pace in race three was once again set by Foster and Stanaway. This time Field stayed within reach of the leading pair as the laps counted down, but once again appeared reluctant to risk his finish by challenging for position.

As had occurred in race two, Foster held the early lead, only to have Stanaway apply pressure as the laps counted down. With two laps to go Stanaway positioned his car to the outside of Foster going through Jennian Homes - and made his move. For a moment Field probably thought he was going to be handed another race win, but this time there was no contact and Stanaway had made a brilliant pass to take the lead. Once past, he quickly opened up a 6 car length gap and never relinquished it to take a jubilant win.

Behind Foster and Field it was Shepherd who came through in fourth, followed by Stubbs, Hardy, Neville, Evans, McDonald and Hellier.

With three rounds to go, Field has the championship lead on 1023 points, ahead of Foster on 926. Stanaway is third, on 849 points.

The next round of the Championship takes place at Pukekohe on the 2nd March 2008.