Dramatic motor racing win

Press, 27 January 1986, Page 8

Dramatic motor racing win

PA Wellington

The Wellington waterfront saloon car race yesterday underlined its image as an event with practically everything as Peter Brock, of Australia, and Allan Moffat, of Canada, snatched victory in the Nissan Mobil 500.

However, success in the five-hour race only came for the Commodore team after a front supsension failure to the 8.M.W., driven by Tony Longhurst, of Australia, sidelined the car as it led with only five laps remaining. The tragedy for Longhurst and his Christchurch driving partner, Trevor Crowe, capped an exciting day for the crowd of 20,000 plus who lined the temporary circuit. The day started brilliantly fine, matching the weather for last year’s inaugural race. However, the rain set in from the south after 90 minutes, forcing drivers into the pits to change their slick tyres for wet weather types.

The rain continued off and on for three hours then the skies cleared for the last hour.

Robbie Francevic, of Auckland, chasing successive Wellington wins, led for the first 27 laps till Brock, who had been on the Volvo’s tail from the start, finally got to the front

It was not to be Francevic’s day, however. An oil line feeding the Volvo’s turbo unit fractured and its replacement also proved defective. Ford’s big hopes for a Sierra win crumbled when the car’s front left suspension snapped as Andy Rouse, of EnglanM, steered the car off the brjjge. The Sierra lost a wheel

before it hit the concrete barrier at the front of the main straight. Rouse guided the vehicle 200 m down the straight before pulling it over to one side in a cloud of smoke.

Brock pitted the car for Moffat to take the wheel handing the lead to a former Formula One world champion, Denny Hulme, in a Commodore.

The Rover Vitesse challenge, spearheaded by Tom Walkinshaw, of England, in one car and the 1985 Bathurst winner, Armin Hahne, fizzled early after Walkinshaw’s Rover crashed while a compatriot, Win Percy, was at the wheel. The second Rover suffered mechanical failure.

Bids by other top contenders ended when the Mustang of Bruce Anderson, of Auckland, suffered a broken differential and later a mystery electrical fault and the clutch blew in the B.M.W. driven by John Morton, of Auckland, and the current Australian touring car champion, Jim Richards.

Hulme handed the car over to Ray Smith, of Auckland, only to have their race hopes dashed when the Commodore’s gear lever snapped. Smith continued changing gears with about two inches of lever but the car’s gearbox failed midway through the race.

With an hour to go, 21 out of the 40 starters were still on the circuit Longhurst had a two lap margin on Brock, with Dick Johnson (Mustang), of Australia, third and another Australian, John Harvey (Commodore), fourth. Longhurst established** his lead by excellent dflving through the wet conditions.

Moffat had the wheel of the Commodore during that spell and was carefully taking the car round on intermediate tyres while many other competitors were better equipped with full wet tyres.

The Commodore team’s decision was based on the weather which seemed to promise clearing skies several times only to deliver more rain.

“Allan had the hard part,” Brock said later.

“He had all the wet to deal with and he kept the car together so I could push it hard at the end.” .

With 30 laps to go Brock was catching Longhurst at a rate of three or four seconds a lap. A 30-secpndpit stop for the B.M.W. further narrowed the gap but it looked like Longhurst would make the 204 laps required for victory till the car’s suspension folded.

“The whole lot at the front feu off,” he said. "I was able to make the car straight and hit some tyres without doing too much damage, hopefully.” Longhurst said it had been his first drive in the wet and he loved it

Brock held on over the last few laps to win with Johnson second, the Volvo, of Sweden, Per-Gunnar Andersson and Dave McMillan, of Auckland, fourth and the Toyota CoroUa of Dave Barrow (Waikanae) and Mark Jennings (Wellington) fifth. “Wellington will always be very difficult to predict a winner,” Brock said. “It’s fast very tiring and a difficult track to race.”

The second and final race in the Nissan Mobil 500 series will be held at Pukekohe on Saturday. X,