New Zealand Festival of Motor Racing (2014)

[Kiwiboss]

At Manfield Tony, where you sat you saw the WHOLE track

Yes, agree Crunch as Manfield is the best viewing track in NZ but has its Achilles heal in the fact no racing can be viewed from the pits unlike Hampton, all tracks have there pro's and con's but aren't we lucky we have all these great tracks here considering our population and country size. NZ is truly a "Motorsport" meca that some countries wish they had and from personal experience's the most affordable country to go racing.

Dale M

[RacerT]

Hi All.
What a great event!

We have received many positive comments for the Festival and as Richard said - "it might be a good moment to reflect on a fabulously successful event that drew some 26,000 spectators over the six days, the biggest gathering ever of Ferraris in NZ, Formula One Ferraris and a large chunk of people for whom this was their first time at a race track".

Thank you to everyone that helped to make the Festival a success, it is certainly a team effort from all concerned.

Roll on the Howden Ganley Festival. There will be a number of fabulous cars for the event.

Tony R

[crunch]

All street races suffer from the limited view problem yet probably the best race I have ever seen televised, was the first Wellington Street race.

.

Ray, that's probably because it didn't have catch fencing as such (ALL!) and a block wall waist height made of square concrete blocks was the pitlane wall. I was a flag marshall at this event at the hairpin after the start/finish line. We were stood on a 4' square concrete block on the inside of the corner and the edges of the tracks were defined by railway sleepers!

[crunch]

It was sooooo cool a viewing spot!!
The FIA track inspector had a minor heart murmur when he saw the track, and without Rob Lester there to "grease the wheels" the race would not have happened.

[Steve Holmes]

Great event, congratulations to everyone involved. I enjoyed catching up with familiar faces again, and thanks to members and visitors of this forum who came up and introduced themselves. Its always great to meet people for the first time who are regulars here.

[Steve Holmes]

This thread has only been running 2 weeks, and has had over 7,500 views..............and counting!

[Steve Holmes]

Good on John McKechnie for taking out the Denny Hulme award at main prize giving yesterday afternoon for his efforts in getting the Sports Sedan class organised for the event. Also to Howard Wood for the Best Overall BMW award and the entertainment value he added to running with HMC. On a personal note I`d like to thank the HMC directors Dale, Steve Holmes and Tony Roberts for nominating me for the HMC class award. For me, it`s about making it happen as a group and there are others within HMC who should have got it, but I am stoked and thanks to everyone for a great fortnight of social fun, and a bit of motor racing!

Steve, as you know, HMC doesn't begin and end with the action on the track. HMC is about helping out fellow competitors, helping behind the scenes to move the class in the right direction, presenting a beautiful car, racing cleanly and giving your fellow drivers space, putting your hand up to take on organisation work, interacting with the punters, printing up and giving away free posters of your race car to the kids (and personally signing them!), and remembering that historic racing is about having fun and leaving the ego at home. You're the complete package, you deserve the award.

[John McKechnie]

Fullnoise68-Absolutely agree you were all of the above, and you also looked after my boy Scotty when he was on the hunt for some oil.

[Shoreboy57]

Never good to see an accident at an historic meet. Does anyone have an update on Brent Willis and his Lola after the crash on Sunday?

[timbo61]

I hope my comments on catch fencing don't sound too negative. Its just a sign of the times that they exist and only requires one stray wheel ending up in the crowd to prove its worth.
In Australia we are blessed that at just about all tracks we can rest our elbows on top of the fencing and watch the racing and take plenty of photos of the action.

[Jizim]

Never good to see an accident at an historic meet. Does anyone have an update on Brent Willis and his Lola after the crash on Sunday?

Yes Brett came out ok and uninjured thank the Good Lord....after hitting a sheet of oil from another car he tagged the wall and the car sustained a minor amount of damage that will be attended to presently. We all wish this super star and his family operated crew well for the next round. Kind regards, Tony Rutherford.

[Rod Grimwood]

Never good to see an accident at an historic meet. Does anyone have an update on Brent Willis and his Lola after the crash on Sunday?

Brett is ok, his shins took a hit but he is a tough bugger and said all is ok. On chatting with Brett on Monday morning he said he had no belt marks etc and that the Hanz device worked brilliantly in that his head was not jolted and the belts over shoulder were absorbed by it.

Brett was unfortunately just along for the ride after hitting the oil. Also it was a angled/glancing blow (still bloody hard hit). Brett had just set his quickest time and was going for it and after starting from back of grid (after missing qualifying and problem in 1st race) he was in 5th and closing in fast. The car will need a lot of work, but this has been discussed with the wizards and it will be time now.

On behalf of the Willis Team, thank you to all who came to check on Brett and for the support you offered to all of us at this time, this is appreciated .

[Rod Grimwood]

We are still going down to the Scope meeting at Ruapuna this weekend to have a good watch and keep an eye on a couple of the boy's and the teams. See you there ladies and gents.

[Alan Hyndman]

Here's a link to Mark Holman's report of the Festival on the Classic and Sports Car magazine's website:

http://www.classicandsportscar.com/news/historic-motor-sport/michael-takes-the-lyons-share-at-hampton-downs-festival?utm_source=Silverpop&utm_medium=EMAIL&utm_campaign=CLAS%20email%20newsletter%20(28.01.2014)&utm_content=read_more_article_3

[CUSTAXIE50]

I was in Hawera on tuesday picking a motor up this time,and i stopped in at the work shop in Wanganui where the Custaxie is,they are getting the car ready for the Skope Classic and are taking the car down there today,and the driver is flying down later in the week.I think they are getting there with this car with all the work that they have done to it,they have looked at the motor and have it running better last time i talked to the driver at Manfeild ,they have fitted a fan to the car to get more air through the radiator to get it to run cooler last time i saw it at Manfeild it was pushing some water out.all the best to all who have worked on this car getting it up to speed for this weekend .as we all know heat kills any motor if you push it hard and this one is an old piece of iron today, and sometimes it takes a lot of work to get it to live as a race motor heres hoping they have a good run this weekend.

[John B]

Here's a link to Mark Holman's report of the Festival on the Classic and Sports Car magazine's website:

http://www.classicandsportscar.com/news/historic-motor-sport/michael-takes-the-lyons-share-at-hampton-downs-festival?utm_source=Silverpop&utm_medium=EMAIL&utm_campaign=CLAS%20email%20newsletter%20(28.01.2014)&utm_content=read_more_article_3

Nice to see some overseas exposure. Let's hope it attracts some international entries for 2015.

[Shano]

Hope you guys don't mind a few more images - couldn't resist the mighty spin

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[Shano]

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[Steve Holmes]

Brilliant Shano! There is no such thing as too many photos!

[Shano]

These are out of order but I'm struggling with the uploader a little.
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How about this for a blow-up - must have been a major to make all that smoke[ATTACH]23431[/ATTACH]