New Zealand Festival of Motor Racing (2012)

[Powder]

A really good drive from Howard Wood from here on this forum in his BMW in the wet ,this morning and a real sterling performance like wise from Jim Richards in his race this morning ,Jims overtaking move over the hill into the infield hairpin on a wet greasy track you had to see to believe,neat clean and so effective

It was a shame about the weather, but it did make for some good racing.

[bry3500]

Great pics...love the reflections.

[TonyG]

Excellent stuff. Love the photos. I wish I was home on holiday at times like this.

[Rod Grimwood]

That drive of Jim Richards was magic to watch, so smooth but very quick. It was a great weekend (except for Sunday Morning drizzle). Dale, you guy's have done well, entertaining to watch (when I could) this class is good and the sound is great.

[kiwi285]

Here are the happy group on Saturday afternoon after the prize giving performed by Jim Richards, Paul Fahey and Dennis Marwood and all organised by Dale. A great turnout and some pretty encouraging words spoken by all those involved. Even Jim expressed a hope to be able to compete next year in his Falcon Sprint.

[OCTARD-USA]

i leaned on the Goodyear's a bit more and set my fastest ever lap time around Hampton at 1:15.5 and took 2nd, but not only that, the Boss looked great.
Dale Mathers

Great information, Dale. Thank you. I'm glad to hear the period looking tyres served you well.

-Chad

[Snoozin]

What a thoroughly enjoyable event! Loved every minute of what I saw, and I'll be back for a second helping next weekend. Just going through a bunch of pictures, here's a few to begin with, once I'm done I'll post a link to the album.


NZFMR Saturday 21_050 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr


NZFMR Saturday 21_075 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr


NZFMR Saturday 21_026 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr


NZFMR Saturday 21_045 by SnoozinRichy, on Flickr

Can't wait to start editing the F5000 ones!

[zakspeed65]

Great photos.

The whole weekend was Fantastic.
First time to the track for me and it will not be the last.
The Zakspeed will be run by Roger Townsend this coming weekend. I hope he enjoys it as much as I did.

Cheers,

Gary.

[Rod Grimwood]

Great to have you and the car there Gary, I wonder how many people really understood what they were seeing. Where else except Ruapuna could you see a Zakspeed and a Cologne together.

[kiwi285]

[Kiwiboss]

Great information, Dale. Thank you. I'm glad to hear the period looking tyres served you well.

-Chad

There sure did Chad, just need to stand the front wheels up a bit more, too much negative on bias tyres for straight line braking!!! some fine tuning i'll have the Boss handling and braking just fine, the Aussie's were picking me of with slight handling advantage and turn in braking, still, only 2.9 seconds covered to top 12 cars, now that's how Historic racing should be. We reverse the top 10 cars on our 2nd saturday afternoon race, it was a good show and a clean race, great for spectators.

Can you remember your Camaro front end alignment specs as i now have Kevin Gimblett's 67 Camaro to change onto 15"s, i think you started something here mate, LOL

Dale Mathers

[timbo61]

Think the Shannons meeting at Phillip Island in March will probably have a bigger field than at Hampton Downs this weekend AND think if the rumours are right the Muscle Car Masters races at Eastern Creek (later this year) will be bigger F5000 turn-out again!

Phillip Island are expecting 35 F5000 cars for their March historic meeting.
Local (Australian) numbers of F5000 cars are picking up, with 12 cars competing at last years Phillip Island classic.

It would be great to see a full field at the Muscle Car Masters later in the year at Eastern Creek. I know they have been trying for a while to get them on the program.
HSRCA have their Tasman Revival meeting at Eastern Creek late November as well, and they have a race for F5000 cars, so hopefully they will have good numbers as well.

[aussiemonza]

Looking good Bruce. Did you take it for a run?

[zakspeed65]

Hi Rod,
I was such a thrill to bring the car up and judging by the amount of folks looking at all the different machinery on display. I'm sure they know how lucky we are here in NZ.
Top effort from the owners of Hampton Downs too, Keep up the Good Work!!

[Howard Wood]

Great photos.

The whole weekend was Fantastic.
First time to the track for me and it will not be the last.
The Zakspeed will be run by Roger Townsend this coming weekend. I hope he enjoys it as much as I did.

Cheers,

Gary.

Gary,

Could not agree more, great line up and variety of cars and slick organisation. Apart from more rain nothing else I could ask for.

Your car looks (and sounds) great, good to see it up here. Do you have time to get the car back for Skope? It seems to me that is the only problem as many people (like me) would like to do both as they have become the two premier NZ historic meetings but the dates make that difficult.

[Bruce302]

Looking good Bruce. Did you take it for a run?

Hi Rowan, No track time this year, I didn't want to get it wet, oh and it's not a runner yet, so that has some bearing. Bruce McDonald turned up with a very neat 1:43 scale model of the car, with the same decals and wheels.

Look for the Coppins Firebird to be on the track next January, Weather permitting.

For those that aren't aware Rowan (aussieMonza) very kindly provided some genuine "Coppins Firebird" and NZ'74 (Commonwealth games) patches for my race suit.

Thanks again Rowan, awesome gesture.
Bruce.

[zakspeed65]

Hi Howard,

All going well the car will be back home for the Scope, but you are right it makes things very tight.
We are off to the meeting at Teratonga 3rd weekend Feb as well, it is the 20th Anniversary meeting down there. Should be a good one and it is my very favorite circuit in NZ!!

The rain was a bonus for me, as I don't and won't own any wets. So I got the chance to watch the Rain Master in action!!

[nigel watts]

[nigel watts]

[nigel watts]

Thank you Dale. The Historic Muscle Cars were fantastic to watch. The Goodyear's allowed quite a lot of movement which made it exciting. Howard Wood's BMW was mightily impressive too. You V8 boys had better watch out!!