New class lap record at Levels

Press, 3 February 1986, Page 24

New class lap record at Levels

By JOHN HAWKINS Evan Hyde, of Christchurch, driving the Goldair Commodore Chevrolet, set a new class lap record of 42.8 s on the way to winning the 15iap O.S.C.A. final at Levels Raceway yesterday. Hyde got the jump at the start and was never seriously challenged after, but behind him there was some excellent racing for the minor placings. John Osborne, in his Versatile Garages Mazda Chev, initially held second position but by the third lap he had been demoted to third by the Waterbed World Capri Chev of lan Munt

By lap five, Rob Kennard had moved his Cortina V 8 to within attacking distance of Osborne, but Osborne had repulsed the challenge by lap eight. While Hyde held a clear lead, Munt appeared secure in second position until lap nine when a spark plug lead fell off, causing his engine to lapse on to seven cylinders. This allowed Osborne to retake second position on lap 11, while Munt, whose engine had started to overheat, was relegated to fourth place by the hard-trying Kennard on the final lap. “ Hyde was seven seconds ahead of Osborne at the chequered flag, while behind Kennard and Munt, Steve Vigurs had a steady drive into fifth place. Mike Johnston's Escort turbo was the first four-litre car home in seventh place over all while his brother, Eric Johnston, took the twolitre class by finishing tenth. Hyde won the earlier heat for six-litre cars from Munt and Osborne to extend his class points lead while Mike

Johnston got the better of an early struggle with Peter Swaney to win the four and two-litre class race.

The Motorcraft national Formula Ford championship heats provided some particularly close racing, with Glen Clark narrowly winning the first encounter from Andrew McElrea after the car of the early leader, Craig Colman, had run off the circuit. Mcllrea broke the longstanding record for Formula Fords with a time of 44.72 in this heat. In the second race, Colman made no mistake to head home Clark and Mcllrea.

The raucous Mazda RX7s of the Aucklanders, Kevin Wills and Geoff Burrows, continued their domination of the Tootal Cool Wools 2.5 GT series. Wills was shadowed by Burrows throughout the first race and the second race seemed set for a repeat of the first heat battle until Burrows spun at the righthand bend leading out of the front straight. This enabled* Wills to cruise to a second win with Burrows recovering to hold on to second position. Steve Jones won the first heat for Mini 7 cars from Warner Collins and Peter Black after Alan Milligan had made an uncharacteristic driving error and spun into a bank.

In the reverse grid race, Collins' experience showed as he quickly cut through the large field to lead Jones and Black at the finish.

The powerful Falcons of Russell Gutschlag and Grant Milligan claimed a win apiece in the pre-65 scratch races with Mike Small’s Valiant picking up two second places.