GTRNZ: Series Manfeild Park II Saturday report

POINTS LEADERS MAINTAIN THEIR CHALLENGE IN GTRNZ RACING AT MANFEILD

The series points leaders in each of the classes in the GTRNZ Series made significant gains to their championship aspirations at the Manfeild circuit in Feilding today.

As the first day of the penultimate round of the series took place both the GT1 and GT2 class leaders, Grant Brennan and Craig Corliss, took maximum points in their respective classes while NZGT Series leader Brent Lander managed to finish ahead of his major rivals when he took second place behind Jon Telford in their race.

Brennan of Tauranga in his Brennan SB2 Corvette and John Rae of New Plymouth in a C5 Corvette were the fastest qualifiers in the GT1 Class with Brennan taking pole by just .206 of a second. A repeat of their huge battle from the series last outing at Manfeild looked to be on the cards and the opening laps saw the duo battling furiously as they exchanged places at the front of the field several times. However Rae began to fall back, the result of a loss of side grip while he was also battling the effects of a virus. The brake pads on the Corvette were also well past their best so the New Plymouth driver eased back to bring the car home.

Brennan established a break and went on to win by a good margin. Behind them local driver Cameron Jones struggled home with engine problems in his rotary powered Chev Camaro, content to accumulate championship points in his troubled car. Papamoa driver Tim Rooney and Mark Burgess of Wellington rounded out the top five in the class.

Meanwhile in the GT2 series Craig Corliss of Auckland was fastest qualifier and the winner of todays first race in his Ford Falcon V8 Supercar. Second fastest qualifier Wayne Conder, also of Auckland, in a Chev Camaro finished 2 seconds behind with Brian Gray of Tauranga in his Mazda RX7 third ahead of Conal Dempsey and veteran Ross Calgher.

Meanwhile Dannevirke driver Jon Telford proved the man to beat in the NZGT field. He qualified fastest in his V8 powered Mitsubishi GTO ahead of local driver Tony Satherley in a Subaru Impreza WRX and the top two in the series points Brent Lander of New Plymouth in his Mitsubishi EVO and Andre Cowan of Auckland in his BMW 325i. As usual the NZGT field was closely matched.

Telford went on to win this afternoons race while Lander gained more valuable points when he made it through to second ahead of Satherley with Lander's major championship rival Cowan in 4th. Mark Clark of Waitara in a Mazda RX7 was fifth ahead of Brett Harris. Malcolm Glen of Wellington was making good forward progress on the opening lap but got caught up in a mix-up at the hairpin. He worked his way back through the order before overheating brought about his retirement.

Tomorrow each class will feature in two more races at the Manawatu circuit.

-source: gtrnz