South Islander Arthur Broughan raced to a clean sweep at the opening round of the Nexen Tyre NZ Mazda Racing North Island Series at Manfeild Circuit Chris Amon over the weekend.
Broughan took pole position in qualifying on Saturday with a lap of 1 minute 17.604 seconds ,which is under the lap record for the circuit, and then went on to win the opener from Stuart Lawton and the only other South Islander in the field, Mac Templeton. Broughan had a problem getting his car off the line but came back to win.
Rex Edwards, the series 2022/2023 champion, had crossed the line third but received a 5 second penalty which dropped him to seventh.
Sunday morning’s race over 12 laps was a top ten reverse grid, with Edwards starting tenth after the previous day’s penalty, with Broughan and Lawton just ahead of him.
Broughan drove his way through the field to win again with Lawton second and Lance Gerlach of Auckland third. Edwards drove a solid race to get through to fourth place with Sam Dashfield and Steve Brown next.
Templeton and Auckland’s Phil Clemas made contact during the race, with Templeton receiving a penalty for the incident dropping him from eighth to sixteenth. Aucklander Callum Pratt suffered from gearbox issues, while Aucklanders Elton Wichman and Dashfield came together at the final corner on lap 7, seeing the former retire with a split oil cooler.
Broughan capped off the weekend with another win in Race 3, although it wasn’t without incident as he was pushed off the road after contact during the race in what was deemed a racing incident.
Lawton was second again, and Edwards was third. Dashfield and fellow Aucklander Steve Brown collided at the final corner with Brown forced to retire and Dashfield receiving a 20 second time penalty that dropped him to fifteenth. Others to suffer from issues were Mark Oudney who limped home with a problem and Steven Spear, whose car went into limp mode requiring him to pit for a reset. He finished a lap down.
Broughan took out the round from Lawton and Edwards, who was just three points ahead of Gerlach, who recorded finishes of ninth, third and fourth.
Karl Gaines was fifth with Leo Bult sixth after recovering from solenoid problems in qualifying. Gerlach is the leading Masters driver (for drivers over 50) while Templeton is the leading rookie.
Broughan who was second in the South Island Series opener last weekend will now move into the Toyota GR86 Championship after appearances at the opening round of each island’s series.
The next round of the North Island Series is from 22-24 November at Taupo International Motorsport Park, Taupo, an event that is the opening round of the NextGen NZ Championship.
Before that, the second round of the South Island Series takes place at Timaru over the weekend of 2/3 November.
