Results Index

2005 North Island Championship Report
by Peter Borman

The Auckland weather co-operated this weekend and it was fine and sunny for both days of the championship. The only down side of this weather was the HMMRC clubrooms became quite hot on Saturday afternoon which was not something our southern competitors were dressed to cope with.

Entries consisted of 2 opens, 4 Group 15’s and 15 Standards. Several competitors took advantage of being able to enter more than on class with one entering all 3. We were very pleased that John Hawkins and Chris Dillon made the trip to attend and after some frantic practice and last minute adjustments to cars on Friday went on to provided some stiff competition for the Auckland entries even thought they had to contend with racing on a strange track and in John’s case a strange controller after his decided to work only on full power part way through Saturday. A fair number of the HMMRC juniors decided to attend the Champs this year and as an added incentive it was announced that the top junior would receive a complete rebuild of their car by Rob Dale with Maurice Brown supplying the part required. This was to prove a great incentive with some of the juniors going on to post some excellent results.

Racing commenced early Saturday with qualifying for the Standard Saloon. This was an early indication of how close the standard competition was going to be. If we leave out Kieran Dale who was in a class on his own the difference in qualifying times from second to tenth was only half a second. Racing was intense with any small mistake costing the drive dearly in the final results. In the end Kieran came out a clear winner with Chris Radford a respectable 2^nd with myself sneaking into 3^rd 50 segments ahead of John Hawkins. Joshua Wilson was the top junior placing 9^th

Next were Group 15’s. With such a small field this was all over in a flash. Kieran Dale top qualified again in this class with Dave McCrow-Young qualifying second at his first event running a Group 15 with a borrowed car. It looks like Dave might be hooked and some Group 15 purchases will be in his future. Racing was a different matter with John Hawkins experience showing through. Even though he was still learning the Henderson track he took 2^nd place from Dave McCrow who finished 3^rd.

Open’s was an even shorter affair with only 2 entries. Kieran Dale top qualified, this was an omen of things to come. I am not sure what the exact cause was but racing was rather scrappy with neither driver completing more laps than the winning distance in the Group 15 class.

Concourse for this first round was won by Chris Radford with one of his typically immaculate cars. Several juniors made a great effort with Johnathon Kennedy achieving 5^th overall with his car.

After a quick break for some sustenance to keep body and sole together it was on to Standard GT. And the top qualifier was… Kieran Dale again by a significant margin. Chris Dillon qualified 4^th and was improving with each lap under his belt. Racing was even closer than the previous round with only 2.34 laps separating 4^th to 9^th place.

Chris Radford had some tyre trouble and was unable to keep up his normal quick and consistent pace forcing him down to 9^th. This shows just how little it took to go from second to midfield. Kieran Dale took out the win with myself 2^nd and John Hawkins 3^rd again by the slimiest of margins a mere 67 segments. Top junior was again Joshua Wilson with a stellar run on red lane of 28.59 to give him 5^th place overall a superb drive putting him well on the way to his refurbished car.

Partway though the Standard racing we experienced what all clubs dread during a major competition, counter failure. OK it was not a total failure but several lanes would count when one car went through the start/finish. Now I know most people don’t mind if they get an extra lap but when everyone gets extra laps it is different. After some frantic work rearranging the cables and counter board under the track we were back in business and the counters worked without problems for the rest of the event. Why after working fine since the New Year they decided to play up this weekend I do not know.

Group 15 GP qualifying showed experience helps with Kieran Dale 1^st, Chris Dillon 2^nd and John Hawkins 3^rd. In the process Kieran broke the single lap. Group 15 GP record by 0.28 of a second posting a time of 5.16 seconds. Unfortunately this race was to prove a disaster for John with his controller mysteriously failing at the beginning of his run on yellow lane. This cost John dearly with him only completing 1.42 laps and removing any chance achieving any thing other than 4^th place in this round. Kieran continued on his winning ways taking 1^st and breaking the Group 15 GP 3 minute record by 0.54 laps achieving a total distance of 33.19 laps. Chris Dillon and Dave McCrow-Young fought it out for 2^nd, Chris managing to edge out Dave after a titanic battle by 53 segments.

Open GP started out as most people were expecting with Kieran Dale top qualifying. But the race was not to be another Dale benefit. After a quick start Kieran started to experience some gear trouble and soon he was in serious trouble and loosing drive. James Johnston forged on while Kieran had to cool his heals while Rob raced to change his gear as fast as possible. After loosing 15 laps to the gear change the race was back on but Kieran never managed to dominate the race from that point on. James managed to keep his cool and matched Kieran lap for lap beating him on 2 of the remaining heats to take the victory comfortably.

Concourse was for this round won by John Hawkins with Chris Radford second and Johnathon Kennedy taking out 3^rd this time another superb effort.

This concluded racing for Saturday and it was off to dinner at the Gengis Khan Mongolian BBQ Buffet, for a number of us this was a new experience and was to be enjoyed by all with Maurice and several others taking full advantage of the “all you can eat” style of dining. Even my notoriously fussy eater of a son Aaron declared it was better than his favourite restaurant that served such daring cuisine as fish and chips.

Sunday dawned. Which was not welcomed by some who did not get in until 4am after a night on the town. In spite of this racing was underway at 8:45 starting this time with Open Sports. Kieran continued his top qualifying ways posting a 4.230 second lap with James hard on his heals posting a 4.391 second time. Racing was improving in the open class with James wining one of the heats. In the end it was Kieran victorious. This gave Kieran the Open title by 3 points.

Next was the Group 15 Sports. Qualifying was again Kieran 1^st , Chris Dillon 2^nd and Dave McCrow 3^rd. John Hawkins was still coming to terms with his borrowed controller and qualified 4^th . Unfortunately Chris was not able to capitalise on his great qualifying and John and Dave fought it out for 2^nd. In the end John triumphed taking 2^nd by 0.68 of a lap, close but far enough. By taking 2^nd in this final round John was able to take 2^nd overall with the final results being, Kieran Dale 1^st, John Hawkins 2^nd and Chris Dillon and Dave McCrow-Young 3^rd equal. This was proving to be a weekend of records with Kieran breaking three records in this round. Group 15 1 lap by 0.059 with a 4.500 second lap, Group 15 3 minute by 1.1 laps with a 37.64 lap run and Group 15 4 x 3 minute by 5.3 laps with a total distance of 146.39. An exceptional effort made all the more impressive by doing it while driving in two other classes.

The final racing for the day would decide the Standard class. As it had been all weekend (except for Kieran who was still in a class of his own) it was still very close with 0.539 separating 2^nd to 10^th and 3^rd to 6^th only separated by 0.112 of a second.

Racing was intense as ever. Chris Radford had sorted out his tyre problems and finished in a comfortable 2^nd with tiny margins separating 3^rd to 5^th. In the end it was Kieran 1^st, Chris Radford 2^nd and myself 3^rd by my slimiest margin yet 23 segments. I am sure I would not have come 3^rd if it had not been for John using a borrowed controller and my home track advantage. So the final results for Standards where Kieran Dale 1^st, Peter Borman 2^nd, John Hawkins and Chris Radford 3^rd equal.

Concourse was also decided with Chris Radford taking another win this round and clinching the concourse win overall. John Hawkins was 2^nd with Johnathon Kennedy (a junior) taking out 3^rd. Well done Johnathon.

Joshua Wilson took out the Intermediate championship with Liam Gould 2^nd and Patrick Dick 3^rd. Joshua was also rewarded with the car rebuild prize as top placed HMMRC junior.

The Junior championship was won by Johnathon Kennedy with Aaron Borman 2^nd

The North Island Champion was Kieran Dale. I would like to congratulate Kieran on a superb effort and deserved win. To race in all three classes and dominate so convincingly takes a lot of skill and determination. I can only imagine the difficulty in changing between 3 so different cars and remaining competitive. Well Done.

I had a great weekend. I hope all that attended had a great time and enjoyed the event.

I would like to thank Rob Dale for doing a lot (almost all) of the ground work and all the results and certificates, Chris Radford for manning the results board and helping with running the event, Maurice Brown for organising food and trophies. Ray Jackson for stepping up to the plate and running the timing with no training when all our experienced people were racing at the same time. Our out of town competitors, HMMRC senior and junior members for supporting the event. With out you we could not have had this event and with out you it would not have been a success. I hope the North Island Champs can continue to grow and become an event people want to attend in the future.

Good Racing
Peter Borman